Sure, NW is looking horrible so far this season, and they have three starters in the defensive backfield who are predicted out for Saturday night's game, and so on and so on.
Just go back to last year. After opening with a stunning upset of Stanford in Evanston, NW stumbled through three more non-conference foes. They crushed Eastern Illinois, but beat Duke in durham by ony 9 and Ball State in Evanston by only 5. Then they rolled MN in Evanston before hitting the road.
On successive weeks, NW lost 38-0 in Ann Arbor and 40-10 in Iowa City. And those games were not as close as the scores suggested. NW arrived one week later in Lincoln with no pulse, no future, no socially redeeming value, for its third road game in a row against a conference power. We expected to just roll over what was left of them, and in all candor we should have.
Just go back to last year. After opening with a stunning upset of Stanford in Evanston, NW stumbled through three more non-conference foes. They crushed Eastern Illinois, but beat Duke in durham by ony 9 and Ball State in Evanston by only 5. Then they rolled MN in Evanston before hitting the road.
On successive weeks, NW lost 38-0 in Ann Arbor and 40-10 in Iowa City. And those games were not as close as the scores suggested. NW arrived one week later in Lincoln with no pulse, no future, no socially redeeming value, for its third road game in a row against a conference power. We expected to just roll over what was left of them, and in all candor we should have.
