Does NU have a chance in the B1G West?

Red Five

Red Five

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Short answer: Probably not.  We haven't really had much success against these teams (or anyone, to be honest) for the last decade.

But we have a defense, and the B1G West is home to some of the worst offenses in the country.  We just need to turn into Iowa and try to win every game 16-10.  If we had beat Minnesota, then I would say we have as much of a chance as anyone else.  6-3 with some tiebreakers will probably do it.

Offensive Yards/Play

#37 Wisconsin 6.33 ypp

#80 Illinois 5.63 ypp

#87 Purdue 5.54 ypp

#88 Nebraska 5.44 ypp

#109 Iowa 4.90 ypp

#119 Minnesota 4.81 ypp

#129 Northwestern 4.47 ypp

According to ESPN FPI (not sure how good it is after just 3 weeks, I mean it has Alabama at ranked #3), here are the chances to win the West: 

Iowa 37.5% 

Wisconsin 32.1%

Minnesota 12.1%

Illinois 9.0%

Purdue 5.1%

Nebraska 2.6%

Northwestern 1.7%

Here are the crossover games.  You can pretty much count out Minnesota and Purdue since they have 2 of the big 3 from the east.  And we may catch a break traveling to East Lansing if MSU folds w/o Tucker like they did vs Washington.

Iowa: @ Penn St, Mich St, Rutgers

Wisconsin: Rutgers, Ohio St, @ Indiana

Minnesota: Michigan, Mich St, @ Ohio St

Illinois: Penn St (L), @ Maryland, Indiana

Purdue: Ohio St, @ Michigan, Indiana

Nebraska: Michigan, @ Mich St, Maryland

Northwestern: @ Rutgers (L), Penn St, Maryland

 
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I think we have a better chance than usual this year simply because of our defense and ST. Probably comes down to turnovers and just how horrible our offense ends up being. It would be looking much better if we had won the Minny game like we should have. There’s certainly nobody unbeatable from the West on our schedule.

 
JJ Husker said:
I think we have a better chance than usual this year simply because of our defense and ST. Probably comes down to turnovers and just how horrible our offense ends up being. It would be looking much better if we had won the Minny game like we should have. There’s certainly nobody unbeatable from the West on our schedule.
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Defense will keep us in these games, but looking at the schedule, I don't see Huskers winning more than 1-2 Big Ten games this year: We should beat Northwestern while Illinois is a coin-flip. As of right now, none of the other games look winnable to me.

 
Despite the 1-2 start and the loss of Ervin/Johnson, I still feel like Nebraska is probably a fringe bowl team which is where I had them pre-season. I think 6-6 is a reasonable best case scenario, but 4-8 or 5-7 is feeling more like the appropriate landing spot now.

Looking at their remaining schedule, this is how I feel at the moment:

  • La Tech: W
  • Michigan: L
  • Illinois: Coin Flip
  • Northwestern: W
  • Purdue: Coin Flip
  • Michigan St.: W
  • Maryland: Coin Flip (this is a tough one because they're undefeated but have played three inferior and/or bad teams)
  • Wisconsin: L
  • Iowa: L

So, that's three more W's I feel fairly confident about, three games that I think are coin flips, and three L's that I'm just expecting based off of precedent. I'm not necessarily married to some of those coin flips and L's at the moment and they will assuredly fluctuate on a week-to-week basis now.

 
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The west so truly the worst.

There is not one good QB in the west and none of the QB's can run.  NU can play man on all the lame WR's in the west and they don't have to worry about QB play beating them.

 
JJ Husker said:
This. All the offenses in the west are horrific. Unfortunately that includes ours. Wiscy and Iowa have been gawd awful.
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Yep

It will all come down to cross over games, because even lame a$$ NW can beat anyone in the west.

Might Wisconsin is -6 at PU this Friday.  -6!  The team that is supposed to be the class of the division. 

 
That Minnesota loss really hurts the chances. Got to take advantage of the games in the division. 

It is possible, but not likely that Nebraska wins the West. 

But I hope they do.  :power

 
If our QB play is good,  we have a great shot in all remaining games outside of Michigan.   That's a huge "if" though.   6-6 feels like the ceiling right now.    

 
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