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Halftime pep talk: 6 and maybe even 7 wins is not off the table yet

Assuming Ohio and Miami are the best the east has, I am actual more confident we hit 6 wins and maybe even 7 today than I was Saturday morning. I hate picking on kickers but, we should have won that game. In other words, we can plan with the best of the east. As for Miami, four turnovers gave that game away.

I am not sure I will find the time to re-watch the game, but the offense was actually kind of balanced. The passing game was nothing special, but it was effective. Was this the first time receives got open or is Vantrease just better at finding them? Seven different receivers caught passes, I do not think we have seen that before this year. The defense bent but still only gave up 14 points in regulation against (from what the announcer seemed to believe) the greatest QB in the MAC ever. Except for special teams, it was about as complete a game as we have seen. One other point Ohio had two weeks to prepare for this game, I know it was at Buffalo and the home team always wins but still.

It is hard to predict the MAC but is Ball St good? They beat NIU on the road. FYI Ohio and Miami have the same west schedule, NIU, WMU and BS. If Ball St can beat NIU on the road than Ohio and Miami have another game to worry about. Yes, it would be drawing to an inside straight but winning the east is a little more than just mathematically possible. I do expect Ohio or Miami to win the east but there is a chance. Yes our goal should be to win the east, at a minimum, every year but with all the changes was that a reasonable goal this year?

Preseason I had us winning 6 and being 2-4 at this point, I got the Liberty and Temple games wrong, but we are still at the same point. I had us beating CMU, their showing against the other Miami and what they did to EMU has me a bit more concerned about this game, but it is at home. Eastern, I had us losing on the road, but this now looks more winnable than winnablish. I am still confident about beating BG and Akron. It is hard to take too much from Kent’s games so far, let’s see how they do against Ohio and Miami. I still have that game as a win for us.

If we can play at the level we saw this week, I do not think we will need a 24 yard field goal to beat BG and Akron. That gets us to 4 wins. Assuming I am right we can beat Kent (on the road so we do not have to rely on their equipment truck) we are at 5 wins. Split the CMU and EMU games and we are at 6 wins, win them both we are at 7 wins. The defense has been surprisingly good this year, if we can repeat some balance in the offense we should be able to handle these lesser MAC teams. The caveat here is playing at the same level, or better, we saw this week. Taking any of these games for granted and/or turning the ball over repeatedly and bad things will happen. Toledo, it is at home and late in the season, maybe it will not mean too much to them and we can put this game in the winnablish column but if we do not already have five wins by the time we get to this game we are in trouble.

Take the bye week off, reflect on the first half of the season, sure there has been some bad but there has been a lot of good too. Preseason only a few of us were looking for more than six wins in a retooling year. The team still has a good chance to meet or exceed the fan base’s expectations going into the year. With all the talent that opted to not return for this season, a 6 win season is an accomplishment. If the program is at a point were 6-6 is the floor rather than 2-10 we are moving in the right direction.



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