Why do you take over every positive thread with your negative Cuse self? It is annoying as F
We were the worst passing team in the B1G last year and look how we did. We are not trying to say how he did against NWU moves the needle much for the final record but to downplay how much it is a positive, is just silly.
There were two major areas of improvement we needed to see to avoid a disaster of a season- QB/OL
Both obviously improved over last year and neither played poorly- even if against a bad P5 team. We see improvement and it gives us hope as fans because these are two areas that couldnt even hold their own against a bad G5 team last year.
Wow Shelby’s ignorant comments suprise people ? Where have you been ? He does the same clueless **** on the basketball boards where his takes are horrific.
Trying to look at Saturday objectively and claim it showed nothing is Shelby being clueless. We had a whole off season of Kyk and accuracy and now Shelby, there was nothing there.
First , his accuracy was much better not perfect but a lot better. Second , he went through his progressions on 2-3 plays which is more than 0 in his prior QB experience and hit for first downs doing so. Third, he showed off his arm strength with the one read outs to Washington and Long for first downs or 8-9 yards . Fourth, he stepped up in the pocket and avoided a sack a few times , which showed tremendous improvement and awareness . Fifth, showed some strength running and falling forward including the 2 yard QB sneak for a first down and the TD run. I personally believe Kirk did not have him run in the RPO when it appeared he had an open field so it was not on tape . Sixth, his throw to Dremel on 4th down going left and the TD throw to Strong are 2 of the best passes any QB will throw this year. Not better but just as good and placed only where the receiver could catch or drop it. Seventh , the command and poise to be in shotgun or under center and standing in shotgun for 5-10 seconds and not have 1 false start penalty was a tribute to him as well as the entire offensive line . It was pretty amazing.
The other narrative about Northwestern being terrible is a little overblown when speaking about their linebackers and secondary. One of the linebackers had 19 tackles and the other one was also all over the field. Their secondary and safeties hit hard and were close on a couple. Their back 7 , like many Northwestern teams , were still good defensively . SoGavin passing his first test against a Big 10 defense , despite the uninformed Shelby’s of the world , was pretty impressive.
Even more telling , is the difference from last year to this year or from spring to first game was quite noticeable and gives us hope for the rest of the games , where most of the fans thought we would be held back from showing progress despite a very respectable defense because of Gavin and the lack of offense. We get a few more weapons back offensively so that is good as well. The only impression one could have from Saturday is that Gavin with Kirk’s coaching has gotten better at almost everything. But don’t tell that to Shelby because he is clueless and would not understand.