NU vs. Rutgers Opening Odds
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Since it's a home game for the NU, assuming the usual +3 for the home team, the Cats are effectively dogs. Unless they think Wrigley is a neutral field.
Edited to add: Thanks to multiple posters for the clue. The Purdue game is the one at Wrigley. So, yes, the Cats are effectively underdogs at Ryan.
Edited to add: Thanks to multiple posters for the clue. The Purdue game is the one at Wrigley. So, yes, the Cats are effectively underdogs at Ryan.
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Really don't care as long as we put up at least 31. Get a B1G win! WIN= Whatever is necessary.
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If it's not low scoring, we have a problem. I can understand the defense allowing Nebraska to run wild with a dual threat QB who's at least got the ability to do a lot.
Rutgers doesn't have that. We're likely to see a very one dimensional Rutgers team and a 3 yards and a cloud of dust kind of game.
If we can't stop them, then JON will never be able to be an effective DC.
Do you really think Rutgers is that much worse than Duke, which ran train all over us?
Rutgers has averaged 14 points per game against the four P5 teams they played: 17 against Syracuse, and 13 in each of their last three games against MSU, Michigan, and OSU.
If they score 30 on us, then that would be some shameful ****.
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Rutgers should be better, but they're somewhat heavily banged up. And the game is home versus the Duke game being away.
Duke ran over us for one half, we shut them out the 2nd half.
Which version of Northwestern do we see? The Duke first half or the Duke second half on defense. That will determine how this goes.
If we can't hold a one dimensional Rutgers squad with a lot of injuries under 20-25 points, then we're not going to ever have an effective defense under JON. This should be about as easy as it gets.
This is pretty much the best possible game to judge JON by...; there's just no excuses against Rutgers to not have an effective defense.
Disagree 1000% @Rebel_ . And here I was, starting to think you knew a bit about the game of football - or sports in general.
There is nothing shameful about a hard fought loss in a Big Ten game. Nothing at all. Matter of fact, some of the times that I’ve been proudest of our team were after hard fought losses in conference. OSU 2002. PSU 2005. Nebraska 2012. Michigan 2012. OSU 2016. Those are just five examples of losses where our team battled programs with “more talent”, had them on the ropes, and nearly gutted it out. Notre Dame 2018 also comes to mind.
What is shameful is when our players don’t try. Or when our coaches are incompetent and outmatched. That’s been the case for three games so far this season. I hope we don’t see a fourth, and we’ll find out how much fortitude the 2021 Cats truly have on Saturday.
Beat Rutgers, and it’s a brand new season.
Nebraska is averaging 17 against P5 teams who are not Northwestern…
Smart money is on 35+
And I had just begun to hope that you weren't totally crazy! You misread my statement. I am saying the same as you. If we give up 30, score 31. We all want to see a B1G win. All wins are good!!! And yes it would mean the rebirth of the season.
And you weren't wrong about your analysis. With age comes wisdom and I have been an NU fan since 1956. Coached for 50 years. 190-87 as a head coach, Indiana Football Hall of Fame member.
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I want a win as much as anyone, but I think the University of New Jersey is going to kick our asses.
I have the same thought. Schiano has that program chopping wood again while our team hasn’t played with passion yet this season… except for maybe against Ohio and in the second half against Duke.
But hopefully our Cardiac Cats prove our thoughts wrong yet again.
I’ve been crazy for longer than I’ve been on this board. No need to hope for something different there.
Did you mean that “if we don’t win, it’s some shameful ****”? Or that “NO win is shameful ****”, meaning that if we find any way to win it’s a proud day?
If it’s the former, then I interpreted you correctly. But if the latter, then you are correct that I misinterpreted and I agree with your summation.
Words and semantics both still matter, sir.
Until the next game vs Michigan and we are back at square one. Also, the Cornhuskers thought by beating Michigan it would be a brand new season. Beating Rutgers just matches the win total of 2019, nothing more. Right now our ceiling looks like 5 wins, unless the coaching staff can cobble together the right players for the right fit to turn things around. I hope it is indeed Saturday, but disappointment seems to be the theme this season. We get glimmers of hope, then hope goes down the drain.
It was the latter. Communicating on social media is difficult to say the least. You're back on the Reservation. Peace.
Thank you for clarifying. I also don’t care how many points we give up as long as we win. But if RU scores 30, I don’t know if our offense can do better against their defense.
But I’d love to see our seniors get a big victory on homecoming. They’ve done a lot for us fans.
That would be my expectation as well. I cannot imagine how the defense will repaired by next Saturday. And then there's Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin (in Madison). OUCH!
We've reached a point in a few short weeks that our trepidation level is "I hope we don't get embarrassed by Rutgers"...
Well, I'll be there, at least I get to see my grandkids.
Well, I'll be there, at least I get to see my grandkids.
Don’t despair. You just might get to see the epic victory over Rutgers used (in conjunction with the now legendary ‘scoreless quarters’) to justify ‘sticking with the system,’ even after the Cats get Wolverized to the tune of another 50 points the following week.
Fun times.
Edit: Apologies to the diehards, but I really don’t think this is going to play out the way people on this board think it is going to. I think we might be ’here’ for a while.
Edit2: Let’s hope the Cats can recruit a Brian Urlacher clone, as that seems to be the key to having one of JON’s defenses work well (theoretically.)
Is he a safety? Is he a linebacker? Nobody knows! Spooky.
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After our catastrophic start, it would almost be nice to see us beat Rutgers, find two more wins out of Purdue/Minn/Illinois, and reach a gentleman’s 5-7. But I fear that would be just enough “progress” for Fitz not to fire JON. We need a McCall-level debacle in 2019.
Vegas hasn’t caught on to these Cats yet. I don’t bet, but I’d bet Rutgers and hope I was wrong.
I'm all over Rutgers on this one. I haven't seen any evidence that the Cats can stop anyone. Even the #123 rated Offense, Ohio, looked solid against us. Unlike Ohio, Rutgers has a decent defense. Of course, if Marty plays then I think the Cats could actually pull it out.
The oddest line is that the #11 rated team, Kentucky, is 24 pt dogs this week. Kentucky has recruited massive OL and has run on everyone. This may be a decent game to actually watch.
I Agree. I have watched a lot of both teams, and Rutgers looks like the consistently better team. Even when Rutgers was getting beat up a bit, they looked better than NU except during the 20 minute Marty era.
We did have 6 quarters of "scoreless" defense... /s.
The scary thing to me is - if we had a Walker type offense and were scoring quickly, causing the other team to keep their foot on the gas, how much would these teams have scored on us? Would Nebraska have put up 70?
Nebraska might have scored less actually as Adrian Martinez crumbles under pressure. Knowing that they could score on us at will AND that we had no hope of catching up is what gave him the mental space to ball out without his standard backbreaking turnovers.
What does it say that many have been thinking that way for two of the last four years?--lose all of our games so change has to occur..
Yep, I think any Northwestern fan will agree that if we are not a measurably improved team (especially defensively), we'll lose this game.
There's no sugarcoating how bad some of these games have gone.
We can be optimistic that surely we can put something together that works on both sides of the ball, but it has to be shown before we can be anything other than optimistic.
I don't see a close win by RU. We might get our heads out of our butts and win a close one, but if RU wins, it's because we still stink and we will get beat by 2 TDs.