Western vs Illinois State - 10/18/2014

[sealhall74]

I will have to watch this one again to be sure, but was that last ISU interception on the exact same play that went for a big gain in the first half? If so, what is the old saying - don't go to the well too many times.

[Western_101]

Bob Neilson's Program took a step back today.

Western will not average more that 2k for the remaining home games.

WIU students don't care about Leatherneck football. This is a FACT.

Whatever momentum the 'Necks had coming out of YSU was squandered.

WIU will have another losing season, Best scenario at this point is 5-7.

WIU will have been in the playoffs now 1 time in last 11 years.

Everyone is emotional I'm sure after such a catastrophic collapse.

[Western_101]

ISU is a good team. Heck we really were not likley going to the playoffs this year anyhow. Let them have their year. Next year is our year.

[letsgonecks]

Yeah Seal, I thought the same thing on fake RB swing WR screen. Perkins made a hell of a play and his return set them up perfectly.

Two many mistakes in the second. ISU made theirs in the first to give us a nice lead, but cleaned it up in the second and realized the way to beat us is the pass.

[BobLovely]

WIU students don't care about Leatherneck football. This is a FACT.

This is absolutely correct. Something I have been posting on this forum for some time now. There is no school spirit in the current student body. This is incomprehensible to those of us who remember great crowds at Western football games regardless of the on field performance.

Missouri State had 15,527 in Springfield yesterday...

Bob

[sealhall74]

It was MSU Homecoming plus MSU has double the enrollment of WIU and Springfield, MO has about 8 times the population of Macomb, IL so who underperformed? The east side did look pretty barren yesterday for sure but student attendance is a problem just about everywhere these days. Even the Bison fans are apologizing on their board for all of the empty student section seats yesterday. Boredom seems to be the common thread theme up there. They are sick and tired of walking all over everyone and the game is usually over by half-time so they all leave to beat the traffic home or head to the bars. I took note on yesterday's Rocky Vision netcast when one of the announcers said at one point in the first half something to the effect that "we were walking all over these guys", the kind of remark that can be chalked up to youthful exuberance but will certainly not be found on any future demo tape. Folks, a whole bunch of things need to change before we earn the right to get up and leave at half-time.

[wiu712]

On the positive side: The noise coming from the west side crowd was the loudest in recent memory.

On the negative side: The north endzone speakers started blaring out loud music when the band was playing the Western Fight Song. The music completely drowned out the band. That is unacceptable.

[wiu712]

Student attendance is a problem just about everywhere these days.

There were several games in the Ohio Valley Conference that had crowds in the 3,000-4,000 range on Saturday.

And even FBS and BCS-Buster Northern Illinois is having difficulty in drawing crowds. NIU has 2.5 times the enrollment of Western. And their Rockford-Chicago metro area is much larger than west-central Illinois. Yet NIU only had 11,211 for their home game on Saturday. That has to be a very disappointing crowd for them.

[lovethenecks]

As has been said numerous times on this site this season lets recap what went wrong yesterday.
1. Good coaches adjust at halftime and that is really where they earn their pay. We are getting killed in 2nd half this week 31-10
2. Special teams: they had over 100 yards more of punting yardage. We had a 7 yard punt and less than 25 yard average. Have not seen those kind of numbers since Junior High
3. Decision making in key situations is questionable. Going for it on 4th and 1 I understand but 4th and 6 NO WAY. Only defense for coach is he had given up on the punting game
4.When you have good teams down you have to finish them, we let them stay in the game with a conservative game plan after leading
5. Last but not least Top 10 team and in state and we get less the 5,000, lots of work to do from top down.
6. This team has lots of playing talent many won't be here next year, think with this staff this might be the best we get at 4-8

[sealhall74]

As has been said numerous times on this site this season lets recap what went wrong yesterday.
1. Good coaches adjust at halftime and that is really where they earn their pay. We are getting killed in 2nd half this week 31-10
2. Special teams: they had over 100 yards more of punting yardage. We had a 7 yard punt and less than 25 yard average. Have not seen those kind of numbers since Junior High
3. Decision making in key situations is questionable. Going for it on 4th and 1 I understand but 4th and 6 NO WAY. Only defense for coach is he had given up on the punting game
4.When you have good teams down you have to finish them, we let them stay in the game with a conservative game plan after leading
5. Last but not least Top 10 team and in state and we get less the 5,000, lots of work to do from top down.
6. This team has lots of playing talent many won't be here next year, think with this staff this might be the best we get at 4-8

Excellent read LtN. I did some quick calcs yesterday. In our 5 losses, we have outscored opposition 51-42 in first half. In second half, opposition has a 107-20 advantage. So where does the problem lie? IMO, our pass defense is very soft (we rank last in conference) and that is about 75% of the problem. The other 25% is on the offense (we rank #9 in time of possession). Defense is much tougher on the body than offense - too much time on the field is not a good thing. Any lack of depth on defense could compound things.

I was looking at the NDSU/ISU-B game notes yesterday as well. Bison had one of the more dominating statistical beatdowns that I have ever seen.
Bison time of possession was 41+ minutes to 18+ for Trees. Bison currently rank #1 in defense. The way they are manhandling opponents (except for us?) is giving their younger players some time on the field, only adding to their depth.

To make a long story short, "the rich are getting richer".