It turns out that keeping the freshman QB in the game would have been the best thing for NIU. They won...by three against a team on their 4th QB...but they won.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Now you know why I can't stand this team. A WR came in and played QB and pretty much moved the ball down the field at will.

But, that's a big win that they HAD to have. Evidently there are 3 G5 schools that the playoff committee is looking at right now: Marshall, Boise, and NIU. I guess they've stopped looking at Colorado St at this point. NIU would need an upset or two, obviously, but I'm surprised they are even in the discussion at this point to be honest.

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The game looked closer than it was at the end. We had a 27-17 lead. Then we played prevent defense and Toledo scored a garbage TD in the last couple minutes. Then we did some really odd play-calling to try to run out the clock that ended up leading to us having to punt the ball back to Toledo.

All we have to do now is win the final two games against Ohio and Western Michigan on the road and we’ll go to the MAC Championship game for the fifth-straight season. With this team though, neither of those games are a given. Western Michigan has gotten better as the season has progressed and RB Jarvion Franklin is probably just as good as Toledo's Kareem Hunt.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

It was cold as balls last night, endured a half then went to Mollys to watch the end...they really need to get Cam going earlier in the game and just pound the ball on the ground, the passing offense is and has always been run first, bubble screens, run zone read, then take a shot deep...and it has worked for years....

Did see these tweets yesterday, still pissed about detroit last season...cost us back to back BCS appearances...

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GOB: "My God, what is this feeling?"
Michael: "Could it be love?"
GOB: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

Interesting that we are still highly thought of, but there is little chance of us getting in. While ECU has lost two games they still have a couple of good wins on their resume. Boise State still has the name recognition over all the G5 schools. Marshall, while undefeated, has not played anyone in non-conference or conference but would go ahead of us by simply being undefeated. Maybe that's what you will see the G5 teams follow, a schedule like Marshall's that is conducive to playing in one of the top bowl games but not good enough for consideration for the playoff. Let's face it, no G5 school is ever going to get into a 4-team playoff regardless if they played a really difficult non-conference schedule.

_________________
NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

It would be interesting to see a school get two SEC(not Vanderbilt) road wins and go undefeated.

Still, it would be tough.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If and most likely WHEN they extend this to 8 teams, you get a playoff consisting of basically 5 conference champs with guaranteed spots and 3 wildcards, which may open it up to an undefeated non power 5 team to make it's way it...that's the only hope the Boise, Cinnci, Marshall, NIU's of the world have here

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GOB: "My God, what is this feeling?"
Michael: "Could it be love?"
GOB: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

I think they would have to be an undefeated team with at least one nationally recognized star. That isn't as far fetched as it seems.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I agree, look at TCU now, a few years ago they were saying the same thing about them.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

NIU still needs to win out...but......

This week could not have gone much better for NIU:

Beat Toledo
East Carolina loses
Arkansas shuts out LSU
Northwestern beats ND at South Bend

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Nationally, the media continues to have a strong bias against what they've nicknamed the "directional schools," despite the fact that NIU has proven over and over that they've had a great fb program in recent years.

East Carolina probably had a better team this year than any of the big Carolina schools, including the once-highly ranked Gamecocks and sometimes ranked Tar Heels or Wolfpack. Yet there was about zero preseason recognition, and begruding acknowledgement later on. Clemson is proving to be not so great, yet they and SC were both in the preseason top 10. It's a definite bias against the smaller, "directional" schools on the part of voting media as well as coaches.

Of course, Boise St. and Marshall don't suffer from carrying the directional moniker -- and in addition, Boise St. had that big bowl win over Oklahoma, and Marshall gained national attention over Randy Moss. Still not much media attention anymore, in comparison to the big, "traditional powers."

Nevermind. F'n Boise. Down 20-0 at home and comeback to win.

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Boise State still has to play Air Force, that will be a tough game for them.

WMU game is where i can see us losing. Road game that will decide that MAC West. They are just putting up tons of points on people this year. Our offense hasn't been capable of that this year. I don't think we would win a shootout match. We aren't that type of team this year.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

I'll be at that game



If they can ever announce a start time it would be great.

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The area of WMU has been getting pounded with snow, and as much as 8" more of lake-effect is predicted for Mon-Tues of this week.

Good news though, temps are supposed to rise back up into the mid-40s later on. That stadium's shoveling out may be aided by some melting if the sun ever decides to come out again.

Game still two weeks away

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OK, I haven't seen the Huskies schedule. Still though, the amount of snow they've been getting is going to be around for a long time, as it keeps piling up.

Tickets for the HUGE showdown with WMU (in Kalamazoo) are currently BOGO on the WMU website.
While I fully expect an enormous CSFMB turnout for that one, there is a limit of 99 tickets per order so you'll probably have to do some strategic planning o get around that one.

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I'm ready to Row The Boat!

Dude is an absolute nut job

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My boys need to capsize that b*tch...

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GOB: "My God, what is this feeling?"
Michael: "Could it be love?"
GOB: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

16 Degrees tonight in Athens, GA with slight chance of snow....should help keep the ball on the ground, hopefully NIU can just pound the rock and get out of there with a win against a semi-bad Ohio team

_________________
GOB: "My God, what is this feeling?"
Michael: "Could it be love?"
GOB: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

Neutral site game?

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damn...ohio....athens, ohio

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GOB: "My God, what is this feeling?"
Michael: "Could it be love?"
GOB: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

REM Is playing at halftime.

Ohio is 4-1 at home with their only loss there to Bowling Green.

OU is in a state of mourning. The best brewery in Ohio which is virtually on their campus burned down last weekend. The have nothing left to play for now. RIP Jackie o's

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Line started at huskies -4 and went down through a critical number to -2.5...someone thinks there will be an upset tonight

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Weather should play to our advantage. We are a good running team. Pass game is our weakness despite only three INTs all season long.

Run Stingily, Run!

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

Should be a simple game plan, right?


Enter: Caray's brilliance. He will screw this up.

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Bad weather......On the road........vs team coming off of a bye........

No problem.



Time to row the boat or something
Anybody want to carpool to Kalamazoo on Black Friday? Probably leave sometime around 6 am.
I can only fit 3 or 4 people in my car so it will be first come/first served, the rest can go on a waiting list.

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