We got 2 players back from injury. They combined for 4 INTs and 1 sack against WMU. No aberration.

Arguments for an aberration include that turnovers are often fluky things and a lot of what happened Saturday was a step change in turnovers forced from almost none to six in one game. Late in the second quarter when we most had to avoid getting Kokosioulised it still happened again. I think a main reason the Défense has given up so many yards has been receivers getting behind the defense or our defense having to be so worried about it that they surrendered everything else trying to prevent it. It still happened when it most couldn't happen.

Arguments for it being a real change include we got some guys back from injury, the team has been adapting to a new scheme, and, possibly most importantly, our defensive line dominated physically at the line of scrimmage for most of the game. That was a big factor in most of the interceptions.

We had one of the very worst defenses in FBS and Saturday was way out of line with everything else that had happened defensively this year. It makes me think that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I certainly wouldn't bet on getting 6 turnovers against NIU. I am not saying that it couldn't happen but that would be an insane bet to accept. But 463 yards given up to Iowa State is Ohio's second best yards allowed total on the season after WMU. Iowa State is a slower paced team with probably a top 15 defense and had put us away early and wasn't all that interested in getting that many yards. We gave up 692 and 736 to Fordham and Kent State. I wouldn't bet on that happening either.

No doubt the defense looked better by far than any game this season. It helps to have most everybody back, but that fact doesn’t explain why they were so bad in the previous games when they were playing.

So WMU is the 13 worse offensive team in the country, with a QB going in who had a 50% completion rate with 7TD’s and 5 INT’s, and a running game averaging about 110 yards a game, and giving up about 3 sacks a game (probably the best of any of these stats). They are bad, and our guys came ready to play defense.

That explains their record, but Lombardi will play I think, he did last week right?

Temple had one of the very worst offenses in the FBS last year regardless of who was playing quarterback. He didn't have a lot of success last year on those 154 attempts even with the the defense having to have some respect for him as a runner. We don't know what NIU is seeing in practice but a safer statement is that he is capable of throwing more than he has been to keep a defense honest. I wouldn't expect him to consistently beat us with just his arm.

Didn't know he was out, LC. That pretty much makes my comment worthless. That said, we cannot lose at home to the #3 QB at any level. They will have to be run heavy I would think? If this guy comes in and throws for 400 yards we deserve the L. I like the improvement of our D. Confidence matters.