Were We Actually Any Better This Season?

[Mierin]

Here's a better question.

Let's say this team is exactly as good/bad as last year's.

How unlikely were the two records we posted? Was winning 5 games abnormal or was winning 9 games abnormal?

 

[Saunders]

Here's a better question.

Let's say this team is exactly as good/bad as last year's.

How unlikely were the two records we posted? Was winning 5 games abnormal or was winning 9 games abnormal?

Winning 5. We found creative ways to lose last year, mostly self inflicted.

 

[Red Five]

Wins vs Northwestern, Illinois, and Purdue are the only difference between last year and this year.

I don't intend to come off as adversarial here, but are you stating this as fact or with the intent to suggest these wins were inconsequential improvements? Putting those three games in the win column was fairly substantial this year, imo.

Phrasing it as the "only difference" is probably not correct on my part. Yes, winning those games this year is better than losing them last year. But if we don't crap down our legs last year in those 3 games we finish 9-4, which is exactly where we finished this year.

So did we improve from last year? Maybe. If we did, its not by a lot IMO.

We beat who we were supposed to and lost to who we were supposed to (according to Vegas).

 

[Red Five]

The defense was better

Maybe. From Sam's article on Monday:

5.53: Yards per play allowed this season by Mark Banker’s defense. That’s the second-worst mark of the Big Ten era for the Huskers, ahead of only the 2015 defense, which allowed 5.88 yards per play. This season, NU played four offenses — Oregon, Ohio State, Tennessee and Wyoming — ranked in the nation’s top 50 in yards per game. In those four games, NU gave up an average of 478.25 yards per game, 6.48 yards per play and, when you subtract OSU’s two defensive touchdowns, 33.75 points per game. NU’s defense improved this year, but not as much as the offenses NU faced got worse. The Huskers faced the Nos. 80, 88, 94, 107, 120, 121 and 123 offenses in the nation.

The turnovers, and lack of turnovers, was better

This was a big positive this year. Hopefully it is trend and not a 1 year mirage.

 

[junior4949]

Interesting question.

I say probably not. I think the ball just bounced our way a few more times this year. Now is that an indication that Riley and Co are a total failure? To me, not yet. Did anyone really think NU was going to make any kind of a run last year or this year? Yeah 7-0 and being ranked top ten for a while was nice, but we had to all have known that that was going to be short lived. Last year was basically damage control. This year was establishing a culture/mindset/whatever you wanna call it. And next year will be, in my humble opinion, Riley's true first year.

The media and such made everything just seem worse because of the bolded. If the media and the polls wouldn't have had such a huge stiffy for the B1G this year, we probably don't crack the top 10. It's a harsh reality, but the B1G just didn't live up to their hype. This season felt very similar to other seasons we've had the past four decades.

If the 2015 squad played the 2016 squad at year end, it would be hard to argue that the 2015 squad wouldn't have won. We really finished this season banged up this year. While we'll be young next year, I think we'll surprise a lot of people.