Week 7 Football Tiers

[u/Crunchymau5]

New Mexico and UC Davis on byes this week.

UNLV and NDSU played this week in a battle of the defenses, and underwhelming offenses. NDSU with a lose had to drop to contender, and UNLV's offense looked too bad for me to move them up to favorite despite winning this game.

Air Force soundly beat NIU with a long ground out running game with nearly double the time of possession. Both performed to the tier ranking and don't move.

Wyoming and San Jose State played one of the ugliest games this week. Had to drop San Jose State with this disappointing performance, and their chances of making a bowl game look pretty bleak atm. Wyoming is somehow finding wins with one of, if not the worst, offenses in the conference and potentially make a bowl game. So these two teams flip spots as Wyoming seems to be failing upwards, and San Jose chokes games they should be winning.

Hawaii moves to the basement, and looks kind of what we've come to expect this year. Outside of Sacramento State at the end of the year, I don't know if I see any for sure wins for this team.

Nevada and UTEP played this week, and Nevada easily handled them in a dominate defensive performance complimented by a very good running attack (passing game looked poor though). Nevada will need another win in the next four weeks though if they want to move up and potentially make a bowl this year. UTEP looked rough this game, with an offense that struggled to produce any yards and needed a terrible fumble to make this game look more competitive.

It looks like it will be a close match for the basement teams, for who is the worst in the conference right now.

[u/copperstar22]

We will never lose a game again!

[u/Crunchymau5 → u/copperstar22]

I think somehow, someway you guys will find yourselves in a bowl game.

[u/seed_of_an_apple → u/Crunchymau5]

Dear god I hope not, Sawvel needs to go

[u/TomboAhi]

Can only go up from here. Probably.

[u/Crunchymau5 → u/TomboAhi]

You still have NIU, UTEP, and Sacramento State, so still a lot of chances to get some more wins.

[u/DryChemical5237]

I think it really goes:

Favorites: UNM, UNLV, NDSU
Contenders: Air Force
Basement: the rest of us

[u/Crunchymau5 → u/DryChemical5237]

For me the favorites is reserved only for those that are favored to get to the championship game, so no more than two. If you're not favored, but still have a shot I'd put you into the contender category. I do agree that there is a bit of a drop off after the top 4.

[u/SleazetheSteez → u/Crunchymau5]

Yeah, I'm with you. UNM's ability to just run up a score across multiple games makes them scarier, and a head above the rest in terms of theoretical favorites. I keep saying it, but I really wish we had UNLV's offense from last year.

[u/TransitJohn]

Dominate is a verb, dominant is an adjective.

[u/bicyclechief]

We belong in bowl bubble or feisty underdog

[u/Crunchymau5 → u/bicyclechief]

Think it'll take more than a slug fest lose to one of the top teams to move down that much lol. Outside of New Mexico, you guys should be favored the rest of the way.

[u/bicyclechief → u/Crunchymau5]

I mean I would agree on paper but idk if you watched the game or not but we looked absolutely horrible. Penalties, no consistent run game, one of the worst QBs in all of D1 (FCS/FBS), poor coaching decisions. It was one of the ugliest games of football I’ve seen ever for NDSU. Our defense is still in my opinion the best in the conference but unfortunately that doesn’t matter when your offense is probably the worst in all of FBS

I will be absolutely shocked if we beat Nevada next week. If we do it’ll be because our defense scores a TD or two.

[u/Crunchymau5 → u/bicyclechief]

Think last week was more of a poor match up than you guys having a terrible offense. Nevada and New Mexico have very good defenses and may pose a problem, but the rest of your schedule should be fine.

[u/bicyclechief → u/Crunchymau5]

We’ve had these issues all year, our offense looked really poor against everyone we’ve played. Our TDs have been big plays from broken coverage or a long run. We’ve had almost no sustained drives even against some of the worst teams in the FBS.

And our Qb needs to be benched. He’s absolutely atrocious and I’m kind of shocked he won a starting position