This season

[photomuse]

How good is this team in your minds eye? They are 2-8, I know, but if you were to judge them on their performance over the last 3 weeks, what would you put their record at?

I have them at 6-4

Wins:
UNI
Kent State
&Toledo
Iowa
Kansas State
&Nebraska

Losses:
Texas
&Texas Tech
Oklahoma
&Missouri

I hope they play hard this weekend and get to 3 wins. This team has been a disappointment this season in surprising ways. Quarterback, running back (with the exception of the last few weeks), special teams, kicking.

They have been surprisingly good on both sides of the line. I attribute this to the trainers and coaching. Also, I feel good about the future of the quarterback and running back position, the development of the defense, and the direction of the program in general.

 

[Seth]

I watched the game with a KSU fan and she just couldn't understand how her team was losing to a 1-8 team. I told her we're the best (at the time) 1-8 team in all of NCAA football, and probably better than most 2-7, 3-6 or 4-5 teams as well. I'd probably put us at 5-5 only because I think even if we'd been playing like last Saturday all year, we probably still would have had a hiccup against K-State, Iowa, or Nebraska. I took a little heat a few weeks ago when I said I think if we were to play UNI, Toledo, or Kent State now we'd win handily. I'm thinking 10+ pt wins for all of those if we play them now.

 

[CYdTracked]

2-8. I'm not into all this hindsight and what if's crap, the bottom line is just to win games when you play them. If we played the what if game we would have gone to 2 Big 12 Championship games.

 

[clones_jer]

2-8. I'm not into all this hindsight and what if's crap, the bottom line is just to win games when you play them. If we played the what if game we would have gone to 2 Big 12 Championship games.

exactly ... Texas game.

 

[cyfanatic]

I would say that most of us really expected a 2 win season...but the 2 wins came from games we didn't expect them to come from! Other teams have likely improved as well...who really knows?

 

[ISUonthemove]

We might be one of the best 2-8 teams now, but you can't say we should have or could have been 6-4. They only reason we are improving is because guys are getting more experience and they're understanding their duties more. You have to accept what we took the first several games.

 

[ColoradoClone]

I do think winning two games the way we have, and playing well down the stretch is much better for this team than if they had beaten the teams we expected (Kent state, and UNI) but finished the season winless. They've done a good job keeping the excitement up for next year.

 

[ISUFan22]

No idea. Last night, before I went to sleep, I started contemplating this. Counted Kent State and Toledo as sure wins. UNI and Nebraska as likely wins.

Just based on that I put us at 6-4.

But, as stated, we can't go back and do it again and even if we could, no telling what would happen. Much of our early troubles was guys learning how to play their positions - learning from good things and many bad things.

I'm pleased with the progress we have made. I take no moral victories, but I do like our no-quit attitude after getting pounded (and seemingly quitting) against Texas. Then, the win Saturday actually gave something the players could hold onto - showing results for their efforts.

I hope we get one more this weekend.

 

[wesley_w]

The thing that has made me the happiest was when we went down two touchdowns to a very good Missouri team on the road in just a few minutes, and didn't go in the tank. When the team is 1-7 and faced that obstacle and responded the way they did, it just says a lot about these players and coaches and made me so much more optimistic for the future. It's been alot of fun watching the progress, and I can't wait for Saturday!!

 

[mt85]

Considering were 2-8. I can't believe how pumped I am for next week and the week after. As soon as the Kansas game is over, I'm going into countdown mode for next season.

 

[ISUFan22]

The thing that has made me the happiest was when we went down two touchdowns to a very good Missouri team on the road in just a few minutes, and didn't go in the tank. When the team is 1-7 and faced that obstacle and responded the way they did, it just says a lot about these players and coaches and made me so much more optimistic for the future. It's been alot of fun watching the progress, and I can't wait for Saturday!!

Amen.

So many times we've rolled over and died when we got down early. There are a few exceptions to that, yet they are rare.

It may sound really odd, but I would actually prefer it if CU jumped out to a 10-14 point lead on us Saturday, we fight/claw back and win in the end.

Would be another great teaching tool for our young players headed into next year.

Crazy that I'd say that, wanting our 2-8 team to get behind early, but - that's what happens when you're the best 2-8 team in the nation. :biglaugh:

And da spin continues...

 

[mwitt]

I don't understand people who say that there are no such things as moral victories, then talk about how we did some things that really made them feel good about our team in a loss.

In my opinion, the only people who should preach that there are no moral victories are coaches.

 

[ISUFan22]

As a Cyclone fan, I'm tired of moral victories, we've had way too damn many of them.

I was upset at both of those losses, especially the OU game we should have won.

However, I can be upset we lost yet appreciate some of the good things we did in the game. That's not accepting a moral victory. It's not liking to lose and recognizing we did good/bad things in the game.

Some of those good things we failed to do in previous games against easier opponents.

 

[mwitt]

yet appreciate some of the good things we did in the game ... and recognizing we did good/bad things in the game.

That's my definition of a moral victory. Am I wrong?

After the Oklahoma game, people were on this board saying that there is no such thing as a good loss, nothing good can come from a loss, that the Oklahoma loss was just the same as the Texas loss.

I think those people are out of their mind. I'm proud of how we've played the last three weeks, and we're 1-2.

 

[tejasclone]

As a Cyclone fan, I'm tired of moral victories, we've had way too damn many of them.

I was upset at both of those losses, especially the OU game we should have won.

However, I can be upset we lost yet appreciate some of the good things we did in the game. That's not accepting a moral victory. It's not liking to lose and recognizing we did good/bad things in the game.

Some of those good things we failed to do in previous games against easier opponents.

In that sense, it's really more a moral lesson than it is a victory. As you say, we have had multitudes upon multitudes of such experiences, and it seems like all the years before we never ever ever learned from our mistakes, or from our successes. It appears that we are perhaps headed towards a future where we do, in fact, learn from what's happened to us before. And for that alone, I am excited.

 

[ajk4st8]

I still think UNI would beat us.

There is no reason to think about wins and losses too much. This is the first season we have improved throughout the season that I can remember in the last 10 years. All these guys can do is improve. I will be more concerned with wins and losses in a couple years.

 

[mt85]

I don't understand people who say that there are no such things as moral victories, then talk about how we did some things that really made them feel good about our team in a loss.

In my opinion, the only people who should preach that there are no moral victories are coaches.

I'm with you mwitt. We all know the objective of any sporting event is to win, and accepting defeat will only perpetuate losing.

With that said, there have been very few times when ISU has squared off with a highly ranked opponent where they haven't been run off the field. We actually stood toe to toe with a highly ranked OU team and never backed down. Even a blind man knows there was something different about that.

 

[ISUFan22]

mwitt....I hear where you are coming from.

I look at it differently. When fans leave the stadium and feel good after a loss, as if they've won - to me that is a moral victory. I was torqued after that interception at the end. How we let them run on us in the 2nd half.

I was delighted with how we played the first half with exception to a couple missed opportunities.

I was happy we fought back at Mizzu and hung with them instead of letting 14-0 turn to 56-3.

But as a Cyclone fan, I'm done being "ok" with a close loss to good teams. Done too much of it here, most notably the 2002 ISU-FSU game. I left that one feeling hosed (questionable call at the end) and glad we played them like we did.

 

[Chris]

I don't understand people who say that there are no such things as moral victories, then talk about how we did some things that really made them feel good about our team in a loss.

In my opinion, the only people who should preach that there are no moral victories are coaches.

There is no such thing as "moral victories"; but with that being said, you can look to minor improvements, better execution, limited turnovers, playing hard with more effort, etc., that gives hope to better days ahead in the win column. Bottom line is wins or losses and our record is 2-8, pretty bad, bottom of the standings: it is what it is. Now, why it too so long to visibly see such improvements until now is another story - sometimes players take awhile to buy into the program and I think that is the case here with the Cyclones.

 

[Wesley]

I believe we had three sacks Saturday against KSU which was high in national rankings at 0.89 sack allowed per game. We really laid an egg for the Kent State and Toledo game. if we played like we did in Lincoln, we would have won both those games.

When Gene said he was out of pep talks, the team started to play with passion. Passion wins a lot of games. if we had 22 Ace Bowens we would be awesome. He hops up and down quite a bit during the game.


At the same time: Banks roams the sideline well. Tuba looks like a load. Kurtis Taylor is doing his thing. Jesse Smith tackles. Kris Brown punishes. Chris Singleton is playing tighter. James Smith is not afraid. We can tackle very well.

The all time best play of that game was the scrum at the goal line. Does anyone have a picture to post? We had all 22 players join in the pile to stop at the goal line. Has anyone seen that before?