(10-25-2023 10:34 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I have to be the dissenter here. All of the talk about how good or how tough everyone is except Eastern. Western is good all of a sudden because they played Ohio tough. Could it be that maybe Ohio isn't as good as people think. Northern Illinois beat Boston College the first game of the year, and all of a sudden they are one of the teams to beat for the MAC West title. Boston College is mediocre at best this year, so how wonderful was the win for Northern?
I get that all the MAC teams brag when they beat the P5 teams. We did, when we beat members of the Big Ten, and I was there to cheer on those victories. The reality though, was that those were not very good teams
I think that the opponent, and their record, as the season progresses have to be taken into just how good a team is, when we discuss how good is any team.

I don't think Western is good as much as I think the teams are much closer than their records would indicate. As I pointed out, WMU has played maybe the hardest schedule of any MAC school, if he had played their schedule we'd probably have a similar record.

Ball State and Kent State both have bad records and both are pretty bad teams in my opinion. I thought we would be able to beat them both, at home, by multiple scores...which we did. WMU has a bad record, but I think are better than their record. If we win I think it'll be closer than those two games. Again, I wouldn't call WMU good, just don't be fooled into thinking they are a total pushover because of their record.

(10-24-2023 09:59 AM)Sellers dweller Wrote:  

(10-24-2023 09:37 AM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(10-23-2023 08:39 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  Didn't expect us to be 1.5 favorites. Was anticipating something more like EMU -3.

I know Vegas doesn't take series history into consideration, but EMU has won like the last 5 meetings. Hard to get that monkey off our back in a 'normal' year, much less in a total rebuild year.

The line is a head-scratcher. A 2-6 team is playing at a 4-4 team that has beat them 4 straight...and they're a 2.5 point favorite?

Something doesn't make sense. One might be inclined to use common sense and take EMU with the points. This seems like a trap, though, and I'll stay away from it.

I get the differnces in records, but let's say the schedules were switched. This would be my guess at how Eastern would have done:

St. Francis-W
@Syracuse-L
@Iowa-L
@Toledo-L
Ball State-W
@Miss. State-L
Miami-OH-L
@Ohio-L

...so basically we'd have the same record as them if we played the same schedule. I think these teams are much closer then the records would have you think. Also, despite playing a tougher schedule, their offense has been much better than ours and their defense hasn't been that much different in terms of yards given up.

That would be my exact take as well.