And the over/under is 54.5. Take the under.

While I would have liked to see at least 2-2 OOC, I knew in my heart of hearts that 1-3 would be much more likely. 0-4 never entered my mind. I knew Louisiana would kick our @$$. I thought we might pull off an upset at home over Syracuse, but that didn't happen, and they appear to be somewhat improved over last year. I don't even want to talk about mighty Duquesne.

While the start of MAC play represents a clean slate, my current pessimism is rooted in the WAY we've arrived at 0-4. I've seen zero improvement over the four games, the same chronic issues in all phases of the game. Speaking of chronic, Albin continues to say that he's seen improvement, from where I sit, it seems more likely that he has obtained his medical marijuana card.

I really want to buy into the optimism - and I sure hope it's well-founded.

Made me spit our the water I was drinking. A good laugh. I needed that. Thanks. However, in all seriousness, there does appear to be some hallucinations going on here somewhere. I've seen a team get worse each game, not better. NW was, IMHO, weaker than either Syracuse or Louisiana, yet we looked more hapless than ever. I know if you look at the stats you can see some improvement, and we gained an impressive number yards between the 20s against the Wildcats, but since this isn't horseshoes getting close to the goal line doesn't count. You actually have get across it into the end zone to get credited with a TD. We've had trouble doing that with every team we faced, except for the Mighty Dukes. Akron would probably have run all over the Dukes.

Not sure what game you watched ... but Ohio had one drive get inside Northwestern 20. That was the opening drive. The only other "drive" that got inside the Northwestern 40 was the fluke Rodgers TD run on the final play.

The closest they got into NW territory was their 41 when Rourke fumbled.

Take away the opening drive where they held the ball for 7 minutes and they ran 13 plays (and came away with NOTHING) ... the next best drive was 8 plays covering 3 minutes.

Pathetic.

11 drives after that opening drive ..

FUMBLE
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
INT
DOWNS
INT
(Then fluke TD)

That's an embarrassment. Period.

49 plays, 207 yds. 10 penalties.

That's not improvement. (Not saying you were trying to sugar coat this) ...

Bottom line. They stink. And it sucks to say that.

There's enough talent to be better than this. This is a coaching issue. Plain & simple.

And the sad reality is we're stuck with it for two seasons. There's no way they ever buy him out. Won't happen.

Just hope he doesn't burn it completely to the ground. But 2-22 over the next two years isn't out of the question.

Which is why I'm not confident we'll beat Akron Saturday or win at all this year. Akron scored more pts against Auburn than we scored against Syracuse and more against O$U than we did against NWern (not sure we would've made the PAT even if we had tried). They're D has been making other teams look good but so has ours. If we don't get some Viagra in the offense by Saturday, it's likely to be pretty embarrassing.

The infamous November clunker(s) when championship game berths were on the line.

I noticed Cox is back. Any word on Meservy?

It would be nice if we had stuff like Participation Listings like we’ve had in the past.

I’m hoping he is since it wasn’t injury related.

Brilliant, OhioBobcat. No one else saw Ohio beating Akron, thus starting league play at 1-0. However, I still disagree with your opinion that non-league games not meaning anything.

I'm saying they mean nothing in the MAC standings. Yes, every game "matters" one way or another in the long run. But the results of non-conference games don't count for squat come conference play time. Hence the reason you see a winless MAC team in the non-conference sitting atop the division in MAC play. This is when it matters most.