r/CFB • u/CFB_Referee /r/CFB • 7h ago

Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Northwestern Defeats Michigan State 24-21

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team 1 2 3 4 T
Northwestern 3 7 3 11 24
Michigan State 7 7 0 7 21
963 Upvotes

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198

u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 6h ago

Smash the ball endlessly into the middle of the line ✅

Come out flat against a HC with a massive axe to grind ✅

Bring no pressure whatsoever to help out your undermanned secondary ✅

Sure seems like Braun/Chip wanted to intentionally lose this game but the team just wouldn’t let them

50

u/Training-Skill-868 Northwestern Wildcats 6h ago

very confused how the Oline was getting dominated by MSU's Dline today. We couldnt block to save our lives and had them all over the backfield the entire time. Chiles was running for his life

33

u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 6h ago

Because they were shooting gaps and playing aggressive as hell which was to be expected from Fitz who absolutely did not want MSU to get beat up the middle.

We were then very successful by just dumping it off to a RB or hitting a TE.

But instead of just keeping with that and having Chiles throw screens to beat the pressure, Chip kept trying to hammer it through the middle

8

u/Careless_Wishter Oregon Ducks • Portland State Vikings 5h ago

Oregon lost to Auburn with 1st and goal and arguably the top running back in the country. Guess what plays Chip called... Guess.

5

u/skoryy Dayton Flyers • Ohio State Buckeyes 5h ago

Chip thinking he can win by hammering it through the middle? Huh, that sounds kinda familiar.

1

u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

It’s just we were in this exact situation against Indiana and then Chip wisely was like “ok we’ll never get through this DL, Aidan air this thing out to our TEs” and we kicked into gear for the entire second half rather than the final 8 minutes of the game

1

u/ThePeemster228 Colorado Buffaloes 3h ago

Yeah, it's a Ryan Day trademark

15

u/Mr-Cantaloupe Michigan State Spartans 6h ago

We surprisingly have a good defensive line and a great interior. That’s it though, the rest of our team is MAC level outside of special teams.

3

u/Ancient-Book8916 Michigan State Spartans 5h ago

Yeah I can complain about a lot of things on this team but the D Line is not one of them. It's legitimately decent

2

u/Mr-Cantaloupe Michigan State Spartans 5h ago

It gives me hope that the staff actually has decent talent evaluation. Coenen has been awesome, with more money next season we could actually put together a squad.

Next year is playoff or bust, especially with it moving to 24 teams. I think we can do it, we need better QB play though.

1

u/huskersax Nebraska • $5 Bits of Broken Chair Tr… 6h ago

People forget that at most stops Chip has had this exact issue with overrelying on the inside zone.