After seeing Kansas move the ball on us, is anyone else more worried about Wisconsin. Wisconsin might score on every possession. Harnish will have to play flawless for us not to get blown our. I thought 42-30 might be the game. Now 52 - 21 could be a reality

If wisconsin still has their starters on the field (or even dresed) at the end of the third quarter, Ill be shocked.....The badgers O is better and their D is night and day better than Kansas's....I am just hoping that we get out of CHicago unhurt. I am a little thankful that this game ISNT on ESPN network.

We'll be 1-2 with a blowout loss to Wisky. They've looked unstoppable and no reason to think we'll stop them. I'd like to see NIU play with a nothing-to-lose mentality with trick plays, fake punts and FGs, onside kicks, etc. I'd like to see a whole slew of new players on defense and hope we find 1 or 2 playmakers. You never know until you see them on the field.

To be honest I never thought we had much of a chance against Wisconsin. I just hoped to get lucky. Now I am hoping not to embarras ourselves. So, I guess I'm not worried. Hopeful that I could be surprised.

NIU's defense is going to surpise you next week with some great plays. NIU's defense will battle, again, with great effort . . . but I anticipate NIU's defense to be able to get "off a block" much sooner than how Kansas stunned them. Everything is correctable. There is no question that NIU's coaching staff will work on improving how to "get off downfield blocks"; kickoff coverage, etc. I am not worried . . . nor am I anxious. We need this full week to prepare for another exciting game. You will not want to miss seeing NIU's miraculous day at Soldier Field.

Who knows, what if our D turned around and played like the Bears today...?

I am not sure how fixable our D is at least at the Wiscy level of play. The key is to get out of the game without getting to banged up so we can compete in the MAC. Along the way, playing a team like Wisconsin can help to make us better as long as it does not shatter our confidence.

I am looking forward to seeing our offense play against Wisconsin. If Harnish keeps playing at this level we can play with anyone on that side of the ball.

I'm not worried about Wisconsin. I thought they were gonna kick our butts before the KU game, and I think they're gonna kick our butts now. But, just like any other game I will be glad to watch it and yell a lot of swears for my alma mater.

You know Bielema will do whatever he can to rub Coach D's nose in it too. Look for a nice two point conversion attempt late with the outcome already decided.

I'm not trying to make any excuses for the D, but do you think some of the players on D were looking past Kansas and at Wisconsin? Thinking the KU game might be a cakewalk and were surprised with how much quicker they are. With so many young players on D the thought has crossed my mind. There has been so much hype for this game at Soldier Field before the season even started.

(09-11-2011 07:14 PM)niuco90 Wrote:  You know Bielema will do whatever he can to rub Coach D's nose in it too. Look for a nice two point conversion attempt late with the outcome already decided.

Why would Bielema want to do that to a former colleague of his?

(09-11-2011 07:17 PM)UIHuskie Wrote:  

(09-11-2011 07:14 PM)niuco90 Wrote:  You know Bielema will do whatever he can to rub Coach D's nose in it too. Look for a nice two point conversion attempt late with the outcome already decided.

Why would Bielema want to do that to a former colleague of his?

+1. Our D won't stop Wisky, Bielema will. He won't run it up on his buddy.

WISC hasn't played anyone to even a Kansas caliber team.. They played a bad UNLV team and a bad Oregon St team(red shirt freshmen splitting time at qb).

But I think if we do better on the field position game(i.e. don't let them start at the 50 every time) then i think we keep it close(optimistic maybe)..

You don't have to worry about anyone running it up. Our offense is too good to get blown out.

I'm guessing something like 49-35 Wisconsin.

(09-11-2011 08:38 PM)7 Wrote:  You don't have to worry about anyone running it up. Our offense is too good to get blown out.

I'm guessing something like 49-35 Wisconsin.

I'm not saying our offence won't perform well, because i think they will. But Wisconsin's defense will be better than Kansas. We will score points but not enough to win a shootout.

(09-11-2011 08:53 PM)niuguy Wrote:  

(09-11-2011 08:38 PM)7 Wrote:  You don't have to worry about anyone running it up. Our offense is too good to get blown out.

I'm guessing something like 49-35 Wisconsin.

I'm not saying our offence won't perform well, because i think they will. But Wisconsin's defense will be better than Kansas. We will score points but not enough to win a shootout.

Oh I don't think we're going to win, I just don't think anyone will be able to slow our offense down enough to get blown out.

Our offense is legit. The question really is can our defense slow down WMU and Toledo enough to win the MAC? Probably.

this is a top 10 team we're playing. if you're not worried about wisconsin then you just don't know. this is not saying that NIU isnt a good team and cannot win the MAC, but that Wisconsin is just that good.

I just hope we do not get embarrassed against Wisky. We will score some points but our
defense will simply be unable to do anything to stop them.

Wisky 56
NIU 24

Jeez, too many doubters on here. They have looked good against crappy teams. We aren't a crappy team. We have an extremely good offense that will be able to move the ball and score against Wisconsin. They will have a hard time stopping us just like we will have a hard time stopping them. It very well could be another shootout type game and if it is i'll just call it a loss (because we have a terrible history at winning close games).

If I was giving advice (and I guess I am), I'd say try not to get too worked up about Wisconsin. I think 7's right that we can score enough to be respectable, but like all of you I saw the defense last night and I don't see a huge turnaround there.

Our team is put together like CMU was in 2007 & 2008. Tons of offense and maybe enough defense to win the MAC. I hope so, anyway.

I think we'll be better defensively Saturday, but I don't think we can make enough of a turnaround to shock one of the best teams in the country. I'd be willing to bet, though, we'll walk out of Soldier Field saying, "If the defense played like that last week, we'd be 2-1."