CPD says winner of Ohio/Akron will be MAC East Champ

[Flipper]

Our game with UMass will end up being the deciding game.

Massachusetts is the 2nd worst team in the division IMO, only ahead of Miami. How do you figure that game will be a deciding game toward anything? I get that losing that would be damaging toward the overall goal of getting to Detroit, but it's not like Massachusetts is going to finish .500 in conference play, much less get anywhere near winning the East.

Your takes are usually spot on, but this one you're going to expound on because I don't get it. To me Umass is bad.

Maybe part of the thinking is scheduling? They did draw EMU from the West (although they drew Toledo as well) and they miss Ohio within the East which should help them. But even with that schedule I'd be surprised if they did any better than beat Miami and EMU and then picked off 1 more win somewhere.

Their QB is the 2nd best in the division ...I think the rest if the division is pretty bad...OU's win over Marshall looks good...but Marshall's signature win is over Purdue with Appleby starting a QB . How good is Marshall? I just have a hunch that OU is going to be OU again.....whatever funk that hit them in the latter part of 2012 hangs on them. Kent? Akron? UB? Miami? UB is the best of that group and they're already out of the way for us. Fronhapel chucking the ball around scares me more than anything OU can do.

I also like being a contrarian from time to time...

[MarkL]

I've said it before, the four home conference games are the four biggest ones - UMass, Akron, Ohio, UT. Those are the three east teams with the best chances to beat us and our big must-beat rival.

UMass had a dangerous offense last year. If they wake up and play like last year, they are a legit title threat.
Akron is a good program with a solid defense. Now with a loss, they are in desperation mode.
Ohio is the deepest team. If they can ever complete a season instead of imploding down the stretch, they'll be a title contender.
We must beat UT. I've had it with losing to them.

We're still the safest bet but this is the MAC and anything can happen. Hell, Kent could suddenly find an offense and be the team to beat.

[Flipper]

CMU really shook up the west beating NIU in week one...CMU/WMU is this weekend, should be a very interesting game. OU has the Redskinhawks coming in to Athens. If they go out and Hulk smash them and not trip up....and that is the classic trip up opportunity for Frank's boys...that will be a bit of a boost for them.

[BGSU33]

CMU really shook up the west beating NIU in week one...CMU/WMU is this weekend, should be a very interesting game. OU has the Redskinhawks coming in to Athens. If they go out and Hulk smash them and not trip up....and that is the classic trip up opportunity for Frank's boys...that will be a bit of a boost for them.

I agree, CMU shook up the MAC West yesterday, and don't you know Toledo was loving every minute of it! While Toledo has beaten BG 5 consecutive times, the Rockets have also lost to NIU 5 consecutive times. NIU has now lost 3 consecutive games and Hare didn't even scratch 100 yards passing yesterday. Toledo is going to win the West and will end its losing streak to NIU. The Huskies will not be appearing in Detroit this year, it will be the Rockets. The question is, will it be BG or OU there to face them? Toledo should be in the AP Top-25 later today. They'll be undefeated coming into the BG on November 17th. And so much for all the concerns about their entirely new OL, the Rockets haven't even allowed a single sack all season yet and they played 2 Power Five teams in their 4 games. For comparison sake, BG was sacked 4 times on just 29 pass attempts vs Buffalo alone. That UT OL is not a weakness whatsoever. No way Frankie and the Boys lose to Miami. They're a more complete team this year and are a late hiccup away at Minnesota from also being undefeated. This is the week BG (UMass) and OU (Miami) play the two teams that the other one doesn't play. BG has the tougher opponent. UMass had Temple beat in a game they let get away and Frohnapfel is better than if you could combine every QB on Miami's roster into one player. I still expect the Boat Oars to take care of CMU.

[MarkL]

NIU lost to CMU last year and still won the conference. NIU is a great program, they'll be fine.

Now that CMU has a coach who didn't wreck their once great program, anybody besides me see CMU as a title contender? They look good. I think whoever comes out on top of CMU/UT/NIU wins the west. We're the east team to beat.

[Falconfreak90]

I think CMU is gonna win the West. They get slUT at home later in the year and after WMU this weekend, their road games the rest of the way are Ball State, Akron and Kent State.

[Flipper]

Their QB...Cooper Rush...is having a really nice year. Tough to win in the MAC without a top QB

[Falconfreak90]

Their QB...Cooper Rush...is having a really nice year. Tough to win in the MAC without a top QB

And their Non-conf schedule includes games against Ok State, Mich State and Syracuse. They played well in every one of them.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

and that teams like Ohio and Akron have the defenses to go against BG's offense

Just wanted to leave this statement by Mr. Alexander right here after the 59 Akron gave up today

[BGSU33]

and that teams like Ohio and Akron have the defenses to go against BG's offense

Just wanted to leave this statement by Mr. Alexander right here after the 59 Akron gave up today

We ripped up Akron, now we gotta do that to Ohio. He said the winner of the Ohio vs Akron game would win the East and Ohio won that one. The winner of the BG vs OU game is gonna win the East when it's all said and done.

[bgsufalcon24]

What 33 says is conventional wisdom, and there's a lot of reason to believe that's true...that the Ohio/BG winner will win the division. However, after today's results, I'm starting to reverse field a bit. I think Kent State might be more dangerous to us than Ohio.

My rationale for that is twofold. Ohio is the team that plays pretty consistently for the first half of the season, then generally blows up at some point during the stretch run. You basically know what you're going to get from them every year. And they never seem to win the really big games that you need to win to achieve the big goals teams have. On the flip side, Kent State is none of those things. Most years they suck. But every once in a while they catch fire out of nowhere and have a great run at it. They did it in 2006 when they had Edelman playing QB for them, and they did it again in 2012 when they nearly reached the BCS. Plus, the Golden Flashes are the only team inside the East DIvision who have had any sort of success against BG in recent years, running off 3 straight wins from 2010-2012, including beating us in a winner take all showdown for the division in 2012 when BG finished the regular season 8-4.

Maybe I'm playing devil's advocate a bit much here, but the point is, you know what you're going to get from Ohio. You have no idea what Kent is capable of most of the time, and I think that's why they are the bigger threat now.

[jpfalcon09]

Ohio suffered quite a few injuries today to some key players so we'll see how that impacts everything. They allowed over 400 yards rushing today to Western and it seemed like they had their inevitable implosion similar to their loss to CMU last season.

[BGSU33]

While all MAC wins and losses count in the standings, it still boils down to winning your division. BG is currently in the best shape as of right now being 3-0 in the MAC with all three wins vs the East. Ohio's loss was to WMU out of the West (a team BG must also play on the road), but OU is still 2-0 vs East teams and is the second-best team in the East (behind BG) and is also the team I most worry about if we slip up to someone. It also makes our game against them on November 4th critical as BG go must finish the year with three MAC West teams. Kent State is also 2-0 vs the East and has already lost to Toledo (who BG also has to play). Akron is already 0-2 vs the East so they're in a ton of trouble. Buffalo is 0-1 vs the East and both UMass and Miami are 0-2 vs the East and are essentially done.

[Falconfreak90]

and that teams like Ohio and Akron have the defenses to go against BG's offense

Just wanted to leave this statement by Mr. Alexander right here after the 59 Akron gave up today

Love it...Karma's a Joy Behar, eh Elton?

[Redwingtom]

and that teams like Ohio and Akron have the defenses to go against BG's offense

Just wanted to leave this statement by Mr. Alexander right here after the 59 Akron gave up today

Love it...Karma's a Joy Behar, eh Elton?

I tweeted Jon Wagner to go give Elton a cupcake for me on Saturday, but he (@eaPeeDee) wasn't even at the game. That was a shame.