Does NU have a chance in the B1G West?

FPI Chance to win the West after week 4:

Wisconsin 59.7%

Iowa 23.2%

Illinois 7.6%

Minnesota 4.8%

Northwestern 2.0%

Nebraska 2.0%

Purdue 0.7%


FPI Chance to win the West after week 5:

Wisconsin 64.9%

Iowa 25.3%

Minnesota 3.9%

Purdue 2.2%

Illinois 1.6%

Northwestern 1.5%

Nebraska 0.7%

So you're telling me there's a chance...

 
And my favorite graph on how to compare teams (or otherwise know as "The Big Ten has a lot of bad teams")


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B1G West has to be home to the worst quarterbacking in the country

2023 ESPN QBR (through Friday night's game)

1) JJ McCarthy 94.2

2) Tyler Van Dyke 94.0

3) Michael Penix 91.6

4) Dillon Gabriel 89.5

5) Caleb Williams 88.5

49) Athan Kaliakmanis 64.9 (Minnesota)

75) Hudson Card 54.7 (Purdue)

82) Tanner Mordecai 51.5 (Wisconsin)

88) Heinrich Haarberg 47.3

89) Luke Altmeyer 47.1 (Illinois)

98) Ben Bryant 41.6 (Northwestern)

123) Cade McNamara 28.1 (Iowa)

124) Casey Thompson 28.1

Jeff Sims 30.2 (Not ranked due to only playing 2 games)

 
B1G West has to be home to the worst quarterbacking in the country

2023 ESPN QBR (through Friday night's game)

1) JJ McCarthy 94.2

2) Tyler Van Dyke 94.0

3) Michael Penix 91.6

4) Dillon Gabriel 89.5

5) Caleb Williams 88.5

49) Athan Kaliakmanis 64.9 (Minnesota)

75) Hudson Card 54.7 (Purdue)

82) Tanner Mordecai 51.5 (Wisconsin)

88) Heinrich Haarberg 47.3

89) Luke Altmeyer 47.1 (Illinois)

98) Ben Bryant 41.6 (Northwestern)

123) Cade McNamara 28.1 (Iowa)

124) Casey Thompson 28.1

Jeff Sims 30.2 (Not ranked due to only playing 2 games)


Weird how many people have been claiming Thompson >> Sims >> HH

 
Having lost to Minnesota doesn't change anything in relation to us still controlling our destiny in the West. Just makes it way harder to win it.

The Gophers play Michigan tonight and then Ohio State towards the end of the year. So they'll start racking up the losses there.

But Wisconsin gets the easy route by drawing Rutgers & Indiana for their cross divisional game. The other one is Ohio State, but they're so lucky on Rutgers & Indiana.

 
Sims also played two better teams than Haarberg, save Michigan obviously. We can go round and round, the fact is the offense is terrible this year regardless of either at QB and that isn't going to change. We are who we are in 2023.


Yards per play allowed:

Minnesota #96

Colorado #123

Louisiana Tech #67

Michigan #23

Illinois #61

But keep believing what you want to believe.

 
Yards per play allowed:

Minnesota #96

Colorado #123

Louisiana Tech #67

Michigan #23

Illinois #61

But keep believing what you want to believe.
What part of teams versus defense did you not understand? There's more to a total game than one stat.

Also, thanks for ignoring the rest of my statement and just cherry picking what you want to argue like always.

 
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Give me Haarberg.  It's not pretty or glamourous, but he is protecting the ball and giving his team a chance.  

I'm "Throw the damn ball" guy, and some of these games are brutally boring and ugly.  However, if HH (or any QB) throws 24 times and just one pass in an interception - especially when it is 30+ yards down field with a DB making a good play on it - I can totally live with that.  In fact, all coaches and players can live with that.  Bottom line, HH is protecting the ball and keeping the offense going, one sluggish play at a time.  And I'm okay with that.

Meaning, look back over the years (and the first two games of this year against Minn & CU).  You ask "How did the Huskers lose to NW?  How did the Huskers lose to iLLinois?  How did the Huskers lose Purdue or Iowa?  What happened??"  More often than not, momentum swings because of the QB turning the ball over and over again.  And defenses getting tired of running onto the field again.  But also, there have been some dumb coaching decisions too in those games.  But mostly, losing those games comes down to bad play by the quarterback.  And it gets old and tiring.  

HH is no perfect QB by any means.  But he is tough, he runs hard, he protects the ball, and he's learning to throw it away and avoid the sack.  Plus, he hasn't been competing in games since he was a HS Senior, 2-3 years ago.  It takes time.  

And I don't even know where Kearny Nebraska is.  Heard of it, but means nothing to me.  Or the small town Nebraska kid story.  That's great an all, but as a QB that I want playing against NW, Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin & IOwa??  Give me HH.  He might not win you the game single handedly (does he really have to??) but also HH isn't going to give the game away to those teams.  And that's what I like, what impresses me, and where I stand.  Plus, it is really nice seeing Sims come up and congratulate HH every time with a big smile.  They are teammates that want to win.

 
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