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(11-07-2018 09:55 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  In a way, I hope our stronger MAC opponents are in the front half of the season next year. Just get the pain out of the way early.

Meh...at least we had a little excitement early on. If it's front loaded next year, the program will be dead by mid-October.

(11-07-2018 11:56 AM)GRBRONCO Wrote:  

(11-07-2018 09:55 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  In a way, I hope our stronger MAC opponents are in the front half of the season next year. Just get the pain out of the way early.

Meh...at least we had a little excitement early on. If it's front loaded next year, the program will be dead by mid-October.

Or in firm command of the MAC West!

Too early Muncie forecast for next Tuesday...

A chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Brr.

(11-07-2018 04:36 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  Too early Muncie forecast for next Tuesday...

A chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Brr.

Ball State is 3-7, so that means there will be about 500 fans in the stands for that game including the band.

So are Neal and Gilbert out again??

Here's the MLive article on the upcoming BSU game:
https://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/...iver_index

I'm going to give Lester the benefit of the doubt in that just he's trying to repair confidence in his squad. Because continually hyping up that Ohio second half is laughable at best, because everyone and their brother understands that when you go up 45-0, you take your foot off the pedal, relax, go vanilla, sub in your second stringers, etc. And we didn't even outscore Ohio in that half. We only, ahem, "played them close."

I agree with you 100%. He needs to stop pointing the finger at the offense and fix the defensive blunders! It was really sad to watch the past two games. He steps up to the mic at the presser and says the young QB didn't play well? I'm confused!

(11-05-2018 03:18 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  

(11-05-2018 03:05 PM)Broncodan Wrote:  Why does he continue to say that “we knew we could keep it close”?! Is Ohio Alabama all the sudden??!

It's concerning to me that Tim still doesn't seem to grasp how badly his Defense is playing. He said repeatedly, 'We gave them a short field due to errors we committed on Offense and Special Teams.'. What I saw was a Defense that couldn't handle Ohio on short field or long field. There is no question our D is not doing the job. If he thinks it was only situational, he's grasping at straws.

Troubling.

(11-08-2018 01:32 PM)scott357 Wrote:  I agree with you 100%. He needs to stop pointing the finger at the offense and fix the defensive blunders! It was really sad to watch the past two games. He steps up to the mic at the presser and says the young QB didn't play well? I'm confused!

Defense played poorly but it was clearly the offense and special teams that led to the game being out of hand. Ohio only scored on a drive longer than 50 yards twice . Their scoring drives in the first half looked like this

9 plays 78 yards
3 plays 19 yards
0 plays (Punt block TD)
3 plays 64 yards
Field goal (gave them the ball at our 9 yard line but held because of a penalty)
2 plays 11 yards
5 plays 44 yards

And their two scores in the 2nd half were 49 and 50 yards.

The defense should have played better be we don't have the kind of defense that can stop teams when they consistently get the ball in the red zone.

Here was Ohio when they started with the ball on their end of the field

Ohio 22 yard line - TD
Ohio 49 yard line - Missed field goal
Ohio 36 yard line - TD
Ohio 25 yard line - Punt
Ohio 24 yard line - Punt
Ohio 27 yard line - Punt
Ohio 35 Yard line - Punt

(most of this was with the Ohio backups, I get that but these are the stats we have)

We need to give our defense good field position so we have a chance. If our offense is turning the ball over that goes out the window.

We were incredibly unprepared and looked horrible in almost all phases, but I blame the Offense and special teams much more than the defense for the Ohio game.

Thanks for your candor. But I MUST respectfully disagree with you. The Defense has been horrid the entire year! They have constantly given up 40+ points each week. Take a look back and compare. Does Delaware State even count?

(11-08-2018 02:08 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 01:32 PM)scott357 Wrote:  I agree with you 100%. He needs to stop pointing the finger at the offense and fix the defensive blunders! It was really sad to watch the past two games. He steps up to the mic at the presser and says the young QB didn't play well? I'm confused!

Defense played poorly but it was clearly the offense and special teams that led to the game being out of hand. Ohio only scored on a drive longer than 50 yards twice . Their scoring drives in the first half looked like this

9 plays 78 yards
3 plays 19 yards
0 plays (Punt block TD)
3 plays 64 yards
Field goal (gave them the ball at our 9 yard line but held because of a penalty)
2 plays 11 yards
5 plays 44 yards

And their two scores in the 2nd half were 49 and 50 yards.

The defense should have played better be we don't have the kind of defense that can stop teams when they consistently get the ball in the red zone.

Here was Ohio when they started with the ball on their end of the field

Ohio 22 yard line - TD
Ohio 49 yard line - Missed field goal
Ohio 36 yard line - TD
Ohio 25 yard line - Punt
Ohio 24 yard line - Punt
Ohio 27 yard line - Punt
Ohio 35 Yard line - Punt

(most of this was with the Ohio backups, I get that but these are the stats we have)

We need to give our defense good field position so we have a chance. If our offense is turning the ball over that goes out the window.

We were incredibly unprepared and looked horrible in almost all phases, but I blame the Offense and special teams much more than the defense for the Ohio game.

(11-08-2018 02:27 PM)scott357 Wrote:  Thanks for your candor. But I MUST respectfully disagree with you. The Defense has been horrid the entire year! They have constantly given up 40+ points each week. Take a look back and compare. Does Delaware State even count?

I've gone back and looked. We've given up more than 40 points 4 times. Twice to top 15 teams (one of which put up more than 40 against penn state last weekend) and the last two games. Of the two, the Toledo game I put on the defense but I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

I'm not saying our defense has been great (it hasn't, it's bad) but per the Mlive article recently we're starting 6 first year starters on D, 3 other players who converted to new positions in the fall and spring, and a guy coming off of his 3rd knee surgery. We are a team that needs to win by scoring a bunch of points and giving our defense yards to work it. If we're not doing that we're in trouble.

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

Do you believe with our offense and special teams performance at Ohio that any WMU defense in our history wins that game?

That 1st half against Ohio was the worst performance in all 3 phases I’ve ever witnessed in any level of football including my sons flag football league. It was like a blooper video, only thing missing was the Benny hill music.

Blame it on Mid week, injuries, weather, or whatever else...
Only thing I know for sure is Lester did not have the team prepared to compete.

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

You stop it.

A post in here asked if you thought our best ever defense would have won the game on Thursday. I looked in to it... the defense from our best ever team (2016) was only put in the position of having to stop a team starting on our side of the field 4 times that entire year.

4 times!

Guess how many times they stopped the other team?

0 times

It went like this.

EMU - Gave them the ball at our 37, they scored a TD
Ohio - Gave them the ball at our 5, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 7, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 48, they ran the clock out on 1st and goal.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we gave Ohio the ball on our side of the field 8 times! It's very much on the offense and special teams that cost us that game. Sure the defense could have won it for us, but they didn't lose it for us.

(11-09-2018 11:04 AM)Bronc33 Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

You stop it.

A post in here asked if you thought our best ever defense would have won the game on Thursday. I looked in to it... the defense from our best ever team (2016) was only put in the position of having to stop a team starting on our side of the field 4 times that entire year.

4 times!

Guess how many times they stopped the other team?

0 times

It went like this.

EMU - Gave them the ball at our 37, they scored a TD
Ohio - Gave them the ball at our 5, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 7, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 48, they ran the clock out on 1st and goal.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we gave Ohio the ball on our side of the field 8 times! It's very much on the offense and special teams that cost us that game. Sure the defense could have won it for us, but they didn't lose it for us.

Hands down one of the better posts on this thread. It’s true... once Wassink went down the entire energy of the team shifted. It was almost like the team took a gut punch and never recovered.

I mean... when your best back up is a true freshman... regardless of talent, and having just lost a season due to your QB going down the year prior this team seemingly just packed it in... This is where coaches and team leaders build it back up. Time to beat BSU and move forward.

(11-09-2018 11:17 AM)flushtheherd Wrote:  

(11-09-2018 11:04 AM)Bronc33 Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

You stop it.

A post in here asked if you thought our best ever defense would have won the game on Thursday. I looked in to it... the defense from our best ever team (2016) was only put in the position of having to stop a team starting on our side of the field 4 times that entire year.

4 times!

Guess how many times they stopped the other team?

0 times

It went like this.

EMU - Gave them the ball at our 37, they scored a TD
Ohio - Gave them the ball at our 5, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 7, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 48, they ran the clock out on 1st and goal.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we gave Ohio the ball on our side of the field 8 times! It's very much on the offense and special teams that cost us that game. Sure the defense could have won it for us, but they didn't lose it for us.

Hands down one of the better posts on this thread. It’s true... once Wassink went down the entire energy of the team shifted. It was almost like the team took a gut punch and never recovered.

I mean... when your best back up is a true freshman... regardless of talent, and having just lost a season due to your QB going down the year prior this team seemingly just packed it in... This is where coaches and team leaders build it back up. Time to beat BSU and move forward.

I really meant our 2006 defense, which was absolutely stoning some teams and single-handedly killed Garrett Wolfe's Heisman chatter.

Wassink the cause of our funk? That could be it, but if that's the case, there's a lot of build culture-wise if they fall apart mentally because a freshman is in at QB.

(11-09-2018 02:45 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(11-09-2018 11:17 AM)flushtheherd Wrote:  

(11-09-2018 11:04 AM)Bronc33 Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

You stop it.

A post in here asked if you thought our best ever defense would have won the game on Thursday. I looked in to it... the defense from our best ever team (2016) was only put in the position of having to stop a team starting on our side of the field 4 times that entire year.

4 times!

Guess how many times they stopped the other team?

0 times

It went like this.

EMU - Gave them the ball at our 37, they scored a TD
Ohio - Gave them the ball at our 5, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 7, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 48, they ran the clock out on 1st and goal.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we gave Ohio the ball on our side of the field 8 times! It's very much on the offense and special teams that cost us that game. Sure the defense could have won it for us, but they didn't lose it for us.

Hands down one of the better posts on this thread. It’s true... once Wassink went down the entire energy of the team shifted. It was almost like the team took a gut punch and never recovered.

I mean... when your best back up is a true freshman... regardless of talent, and having just lost a season due to your QB going down the year prior this team seemingly just packed it in... This is where coaches and team leaders build it back up. Time to beat BSU and move forward.

I really meant our 2006 defense, which was absolutely stoning some teams and single-handedly killed Garrett Wolfe's Heisman chatter.

Wassink the cause of our funk? That could be it, but if that's the case, there's a lot of build culture-wise if they fall apart mentally because a freshman is in at QB.

I really think more than just morale takes a hit when you lose your #1 QB... the tempo of the game changes... those long time consuming drives turn into 3 and outs or turnovers... and when your special teams can't kick it over a lawnmower your kind of jack your defense... which makes a rather less than defense look absolutely HORRID.

Im actually surprised we haven't seen any player on player animosity on the sidelines during these last two games... thats a testament to the coaches keeping them calm... which can be a great thing down the stretch...

(11-09-2018 11:04 AM)Bronc33 Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 04:46 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 02:41 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  I put the Ohio game on the offense and special teams.

Oh stop it. The defense isn't at fault. Laughable.

You stop it.

A post in here asked if you thought our best ever defense would have won the game on Thursday. I looked in to it... the defense from our best ever team (2016) was only put in the position of having to stop a team starting on our side of the field 4 times that entire year.

4 times!

Guess how many times they stopped the other team?

0 times

It went like this.

EMU - Gave them the ball at our 37, they scored a TD
Ohio - Gave them the ball at our 5, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 7, they scored a TD
Wisconsin - Gave them the ball at our 48, they ran the clock out on 1st and goal.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we gave Ohio the ball on our side of the field 8 times! It's very much on the offense and special teams that cost us that game. Sure the defense could have won it for us, but they didn't lose it for us.

You're right, it's our offenses fault we got crushed/embarrassed at home by Toledo and Ohio. Couldn't possibly be our defense that gave up 100 pts. and 1,000 yards of total offense in 2 games or our special teams buffoonery. LOL whatever... This place never ceases to amaze me.

The spin here these days is 100x worse than it ever was during the Fleck days.

(11-05-2018 08:12 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Lester just doesn't have the fire. I haven't seen ambition or passion from him since he was hired.

He seems content to go 6-6 every year at his alma mater.

I guarantee you he isn't content with 6-6. His demeanor and the way he carries himself are just super low key. He needs a nickname, like Tim "Sleepy" Lester.
He might benefit by getting out of his own comfort zone and display a little more Rah-Rah personality, or some spontaneous intensity. Sometimes people get a little too comfortable in their own skin. Maybe Hoople has some ideas about whether or not a little bit of "fake it to make it" is worthwhile. The rest of us just don't have the coaching experience to know if that is a good or bad idea.

(11-09-2018 05:15 PM)texasbronco1 Wrote:  

(11-05-2018 08:12 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Lester just doesn't have the fire. I haven't seen ambition or passion from him since he was hired.

He seems content to go 6-6 every year at his alma mater.

I guarantee you he isn't content with 6-6. His demeanor and the way he carries himself are just super low key. He needs a nickname, like Tim "Sleepy" Lester.
He might benefit by getting out of his own comfort zone and display a little more Rah-Rah personality, or some spontaneous intensity. Sometimes people get a little too comfortable in their own skin. Maybe Hoople has some ideas about whether or not a little bit of "fake it to make it" is worthwhile. The rest of us just don't have the coaching experience to know if that is a good or bad idea.

I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t do it. My personality is like Coach Leater’s Very passive. But I love watching a coach get fired up on the sidelines. I think it shows their true passion for the team and game. But let’s see how we play against BS. If we win... bowl game is a lock.