Illinois at Maryland, Saturday, October 31st, 11:00am CT, FS1

#51      
Not sure Nebraska is trending towards a toss up.

SP+ has Nebraska 8.6 points better on a neutral field.

UCLA 7.6 points better, Iowa 5.6, and Northwestern 6.9 points better on a neutral field. So Iowa at home is likely the closest to a toss up.
I am viewing it from a trend perspective (three weeks ago I would have anticipated the game being at least 2-3 td Nebraska favorite...especially after the Purdue game). Nebraska is reeling a bit with two late game losses and you can see their confidence shaken in Eugene. If they come out flat against Washington out of their bye and lose three and a row, and Illini handle business @MD, then I expect the line to be very much closer to a tossup. That is what I meant by trending toward that direction (I suspect we will be about 3.5 point underdogs when all is said and done).

I believe we will be underdogs in all of the last 4 games, regardless of outcomes this week.
 
#53      
I don’t know man I think I’d swap UCLA and Iowa even with UCLA’s back up QB. UCLA is currently #17 in SP+ and Iowa is #23 + UCLA is on the road and Iowa is at home + the back up QB has played pretty decent (beat Wisconsin and Michigan St with 462 yards passing, 1 TD / 1 INT).
Winning on the road at UCLA will be a herculean task. It would dwarf the win over Oregon.
 
#54      
1) Bowl Edibility - This has to be the ultimate goal for this season ...
TL ; DR...Fighter is hungry. :ROFLMAO:

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#57      
The only constant this season has been inconsistency. If you watched the last four games out of context — Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State, Oregon — you’d think you just watched four different teams. At least that’s better than being consistently bad, and the last two, a clear upward trajectory. But I’m anticipating a frustrating struggle as I think most of us are.
 
#59      
The only constant this season has been inconsistency. If you watched the last four games out of context — Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State, Oregon — you’d think you just watched four different teams. At least that’s better than being consistently bad, and the last two, a clear upward trajectory. But I’m anticipating a frustrating struggle as I think most of us are.
at least 6-6 is not a crazy goal anymore .
it’s difficult , but realistic
 
#61      
I made a comment above about Maryland's poor D. They're better than us in total D (77 v. 98) but worse than MSU (64). Passing D they're 83 v. our 113. Rushing D, we're 61 and they're 80.

I find it interesting that Northwestern is 74th in total D. Virginia Tech's D, which I noted looked porous v. Maryland (and also intermittently when I saw them play Pitt on Oct. 2) is actually 26th. Never would have guessed that.

 
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