It's not like we're playing well against good teams but just coming up short. It's more we playing poorly against bad teams and just coming up short.
Eh, let's at least call BYU and Wisconsin good teams that we would have called quality wins in years past, and the very definition of coming up inches short.
Northwestern beat Stanford and their defense is legit. Doesn't mean we shouldn't have beaten them, but that game hasn't been a gimme since joining the Big 10.
A lot of folks chalked up Miami on the road as a loss before the season, although in hindsight a sack of doorknobs could outcoach Al Golden. God, it would have been fun to win that overtime.
Did we really lose to Illinois? Are you pooping me?
I keep pushing that one out of my brain.
That's why I went with the Sagarin ratings. Yeah, teams can have a good game here and there, especially if you're looking for a way to prop them up. Taking the whole season into account, they haven't looked so good.
Miami fired their coach mid-season. That should tell you something about how good they were doing.
Illinois fired their coach right before the season. The final straw wasn't on-field performance but many thought he'd be gone after last year.
Northwestern's defense didn't look so hot against Michigan and Iowa the two weeks before they played us and the 28 points they scored on us was the second-most they've scored this year (thankfully they have Eastern Illinois on their schedule).
BYU is decent but they're basically us except winning some close ones instead of losing them (and getting dismantled by Michigan - we'll see how we do against an actual good team over the next month).
Who is Wisconsin's best win? Us? That should also tell you something.