Cig deliberately shutting down the punt return game has hurt. Do I think we'd have more than one loss if we'd let a guy other than Becker actually field punts? Trained by our special teams coach that just won a national award? No, no I don't. We may have lost a different game and won the OSU game, who knows. But extra yards may have won some games more comfortably.
Well, maybe we would've lost more games, because Cain hasn't been able to teach Becker how to do it...
So maybe the early drops against cupcakes showed us we were permanently screwed because we can't teach it? Either they are great returners, like we were blessed with two years in a row, or they aren't.
It’s crazy that Missouri lost by two touchdowns at home and dropped four spots while Indiana didn’t play and dropped five spots.
Great example of more SEC bias.
Cig deliberately shutting down the punt return game has hurt. Do I think we'd have more than one loss if we'd let a guy other than Becker actually field punts? Trained by our special teams coach that just won a national award? No, no I don't. We may have lost a different game and won the OSU game, who knows. But extra yards may have won some games more comfortably.
Well, maybe we would've lost more games, because Cain hasn't been able to teach Becker how to do it...
So maybe the early drops against cupcakes showed us we were permanently screwed because we can't teach it? Either they are great returners, like we were blessed with two years in a row, or they aren't.
Most punt returners are small, quick and shifty guys. Becker ain’t that. I think Cig is fine with him fair catching it. The problem is that Becker is so inexperienced at returning punts that he’s second guessing himself and letting too many balls hit the turf.
I'm honestly of the unpopular opinion that sometimes head to head is given too much weight, although it is tough when the number of losses is the same. The head to head thing is going to back them into a corner when you have the parity that we have this year.@gros-louis I think it is too... Just like Bama being 5 spots ahead of a Tennessee team that beat their ass. When both teams have 2 losses. It was hyperbole to call out everyone saying who you lose to, doesn't matter. Its who you beat that matters.
The committee is painting themselves in a corner. Its actually becoming way too similar to the "blind rankings" exercises that Brandon Walker does on his podcast.
It's not who you beat that matters. It's not who you lose to that matters. It's a balance of the two, imo.
Thank You.
The best example is the OSU-Texas game this year.
Setting aside how that final score specifically came to be......everything else being equal....a one point loss in a game involving two very highly ranked teams, especially very early in the year, should logically be viewed as not much more than a draw.
Factors like key players being out with injury, and freak plays (remember the OSU int early on in that game) should be considered as well as the final result. It's madness to send out a bat signal to all teams not to play such attractive OOC games for fear of being penalized.
Although I hate ND, I'd say the same thing about the ND-BYU result. One play in an evenly contested game, in the last minute of the game, should not be do or die unless the team is otherwise borderline. Let's face it, ND beats BYU 9.2 times out of 10 at ND. The home/away factor there is huge. Lets say ND lost to BYU at BYU and to #1 Miami at ND, both by one point. Is it sensible to keep them out for that reason? Not if you're truly trying to find the 12 best teams, subject to the automatic qualifying rules.
So we are really to believe the difference between being ranked 1 and 9 is half of Marsh's foot being out of bounds against OSU. We would probably be 2nd at the lowest had that been a win.
When they stop talking about IU, I'll be worried. Go Hoosiers!