Mid Season Big Sky Power Rankings

[SloStang]

Just pointing out that DefendtheRed claimed Montana deserves the #1 in conference spot for their "dominant" defense. Yet Cal Poly has only scored more points on Portland State. Aside from the not very good PSU, Montana is Cal Poly's highest scoring game. Otherwise, they have played bad teams which have made their defense look good.

This is a fair comment, but Cal Poly is such an outlier based on their style of offense. A solid defense against spread or pro style teams may struggle a lot against the triple option. It doesn't mean their defense is bad because they gave up 42 to Cal Poly, only that they didn't adapt well to that specific style.

I think you could make an argument Montana has looked better, and you could just as easily make the argument we've looked better. It'll be settled on the field. We've certainly got the better resume and have beaten better teams, but Montana has shown a lot of killer instinct by pounding lesser teams early and winning by huge margins.

To help make your point Cal Poly put 601 yards and 38 points up against South Dakota State's defense. SDSU just held #1 NDSU to 304 yards and 17 points in Fargo.

 

[marceagfan5]

Just pointing out that DefendtheRed claimed Montana deserves the #1 in conference spot for their "dominant" defense. Yet Cal Poly has only scored more points on Portland State. Aside from the not very good PSU, Montana is Cal Poly's highest scoring game. Otherwise, they have played bad teams which have made their defense look good.

This is a fair comment, but Cal Poly is such an outlier based on their style of offense. A solid defense against spread or pro style teams may struggle a lot against the triple option. It doesn't mean their defense is bad because they gave up 42 to Cal Poly, only that they didn't adapt well to that specific style.

I think you could make an argument Montana has looked better, and you could just as easily make the argument we've looked better. It'll be settled on the field. We've certainly got the better resume and have beaten better teams, but Montana has shown a lot of killer instinct by pounding lesser teams early and winning by huge margins.

To help make your point Cal Poly put 601 yards and 38 points up against South Dakota State's defense. SDSU just held #1 NDSU to 304 yards and 17 points in Fargo.

I think Montana may have more deficiencies than we think… they have played absolutely nobody at home, so yes, their defense looked good, but they may have played one of the easiest schedules in all of Division I to date…

Realistically, they've only played one good team, and that good team beat them by scoring 42 on them…

As far as Eastern moving forward, I'm way more concerned for the game against Cal poly, I don't think we'll have any problems with Montana this year…

 

[LDopaPDX]

In fairness to Montana, they beat UNI in Cedar Falls. They didn't win by much, but we sure didn't look all that good against them either.

Ultimately, you can only beat the teams you line up against. And they've been doing that in spades; their last two games were basically over before halftime.

I like our chances in this game playing at home. But Montana is going to be one helluva challenge. First things first, we need to beat Montana State. We destroyed any momentum we had last year by playing like crap and getting beat the week before the game. We certainly cannot afford any letdowns this weekend, and ideally, we play a full 60 minutes and get the reserves in as soon as possible.

 

[ewueagle2010]

Just pointing out that DefendtheRed claimed Montana deserves the #1 in conference spot for their "dominant" defense. Yet Cal Poly has only scored more points on Portland State. Aside from the not very good PSU, Montana is Cal Poly's highest scoring game. Otherwise, they have played bad teams which have made their defense look good.

This is a fair comment, but Cal Poly is such an outlier based on their style of offense. A solid defense against spread or pro style teams may struggle a lot against the triple option. It doesn't mean their defense is bad because they gave up 42 to Cal Poly, only that they didn't adapt well to that specific style.

I think you could make an argument Montana has looked better, and you could just as easily make the argument we've looked better. It'll be settled on the field. We've certainly got the better resume and have beaten better teams, but Montana has shown a lot of killer instinct by pounding lesser teams early and winning by huge margins.

To help make your point Cal Poly put 601 yards and 38 points up against South Dakota State's defense. SDSU just held #1 NDSU to 304 yards and 17 points in Fargo.

I think Montana may have more deficiencies than we think… they have played absolutely nobody at home, so yes, their defense looked good, but they may have played one of the easiest schedules in all of Division I to date…

Realistically, they've only played one good team, and that good team beat them by scoring 42 on them…

As far as Eastern moving forward, I'm way more concerned for the game against Cal poly, I don't think we'll have any problems with Montana this year…

I get what you're saying about Montana...however, my concern is our D. They're better yes, but I think the Montana O is also. I think it will be a tight, high scoring game.

 

[Get'emGriz]

Just pointing out that DefendtheRed claimed Montana deserves the #1 in conference spot for their "dominant" defense. Yet Cal Poly has only scored more points on Portland State. Aside from the not very good PSU, Montana is Cal Poly's highest scoring game. Otherwise, they have played bad teams which have made their defense look good.

This is a fair comment, but Cal Poly is such an outlier based on their style of offense. A solid defense against spread or pro style teams may struggle a lot against the triple option. It doesn't mean their defense is bad because they gave up 42 to Cal Poly, only that they didn't adapt well to that specific style.

I think you could make an argument Montana has looked better, and you could just as easily make the argument we've looked better. It'll be settled on the field. We've certainly got the better resume and have beaten better teams, but Montana has shown a lot of killer instinct by pounding lesser teams early and winning by huge margins.

To help make your point Cal Poly put 601 yards and 38 points up against South Dakota State's defense. SDSU just held #1 NDSU to 304 yards and 17 points in Fargo.

I think Montana may have more deficiencies than we think… they have played absolutely nobody at home, so yes, their defense looked good, but they may have played one of the easiest schedules in all of Division I to date…

Realistically, they've only played one good team, and that good team beat them by scoring 42 on them…

As far as Eastern moving forward, I'm way more concerned for the game against Cal poly, I don't think we'll have any problems with Montana this year…

Famous last words... :kisswink:

 

[Atomic Eagle]

We have to get past Montana State first.

 

[GoldenEagle]

I think the UM defense and team as a whole has benefitted from a cream puff schedule especially at home. As posters have mentioned the EAGS schedule has been much more difficult. Montana's Sagarin strength of schedule rank is 200 out of 253 Division 1 teams. The EAGS is 113. In the table below the weakness of Montana's opponents really stands out when total offense and passing offense rankings are compared with the EAGS opponents. In fact one of the worst teams in FCS has the highest passing ranking of all teams Montana has played. I'm almost embarrassed for the griz.

 

[Rjones61]

1 - Montana, superior defense and adequate enough offense to go deep in the playoffs.
2 - EWU, need more consistency from the D.
3 - North Dakota, will probably win at least a share of the Big Sky.
4 - Weber State, highly underrated this year.
5 - Cal Poly
6 - Southern Utah
7 - UNC
8 - Portland State
9 - Northern Arizona
10 - UC Davis
11 - Idaho State
12 - Montana State
13 Sac State

NAU just handed Montana's ass to them on a platter. I hope this shows you that dominating weak opponents isn't very valuable.

 

[Rjones61]

Some interesting things happened this week, so I thought I would give another crack at my current Big Sky rankings. Things have gotten very very messy.

Tier One:


1. Eastern Washington: Eastern has had convincing wins over all of its conference opponents. Wins over Washington State, Northern Iowa, and Northern Arizona look more impressive every week.

Tier Two:


2. North Dakota: Okay, okay I know that they have only one quality win and they keep it close with bad teams. But so far, they have no bad losses, while everyone else below them does. North Dakota's road to the championship seems to get harder with Weber State and Northern Arizona ahead of them. I think North Dakota is a pretender, but there is no hard evidence to put another team above them.

3. Cal Poly: Wins over Montana and South Dakota State can't be ignored. If they were better than North Dakota, they should have shown it on the field. However, there is nothing else pointing to why Cal Poly is not a contender. They will be a tough opponent in two weeks.

4. Weber State: Also a lot to prove, probably a pretender, plays games close to proven bad teams, but they are undefeated in conference with an impressive comeback win over Southern Utah. Yes, good teams find ways to win, but Weber is going to have to have at least one impressive win to be taken seriously.

5. Northern Arizona: Preseason favorite seems to be making a resurgence. Their impressive win over Montana raises eyebrows. However, Northern Arizona's loss to Western Illinois and Northern Colorado can't be ignored. They'll have a chance to climb the numbers with North Dakota and Weber State ahead.

6. Montana: Montana has a win over Northern Iowa. I would still call that a quality win, despite Northern Iowa struggling to start the season. However, UNI dominated Montana in every stat, but the score and Montana has no other quality win. Their wins against weak opponents seem to be fluff and Montana can't seem to play on the road. A close loss to #3 Cal Poly and an absolutely ugly loss by #5 NAU bumps them down significantly. They'll have a chance to come back if they can beat EWU... but I just don't see that happening.


Tier Three:

7.Southern Utah: This section is pretty hard to sort... who is the worst of the worst? This is a hard team to gage. On paper they seem like a really good team and after their win over SELA, I thought they would make some noise. Pretty ugly so far, though. They had an opportunity to beat Weber State, but did not find a way to finish the game. SUU never plays middle of the road. Their year is either garbage or top tier. This seems to be a garbage year for SUU

8. Northern Colorado: They have a gunner for a QB, but that position seems to be the only place UNC can recruit for. They have an anomoly of a win over a very down Northern Arizona... but aside from that what else do they have to show. The loss against UC Davis hurts UNC. And they will be big underdogs against UM, Cal Poly, and UND.

9. UC Davis: UC Davis's win over Northern Colorado helps elevate them to number 8. Aside from that, it's hard to see what UC Davis has going for them. I think they are better than what they are putting on the field, but won't really be able to prove much with their remaining schedule.

10. Portland State: Biggest disappointment of the conference. I was hoping to see PSU bounce back after an early boot from playoffs and make noise a second season in a row. Unfortunately, their only division 1 win comes from a convincing win over Idaho State. They'll have a chance to finish with some dignity with three out of four opponents remaining that are in the third tier.

11. Idaho State Only division one win is against Suck State. How much longer can Kramer keep his job?

12. Sacramento State: They have a win against Montana State... but that isn't saying much. Suck State has nothing going for them and will probably get their asses kicked by everyone ahead of them.

13. Montana State: Still atrocious on offense, but they might be able to get some things figured out and pull out a conference win. With SUU, UC Davis, and Montana ahead of them, the only team I can concievable see them beating is UC Davis. They'll be underdogs even in that matchup. It would be pretty humorous to see MSU lose every single conference game.

 

[Jibjab68]

Is Idaho State so bad that you didn't even put them on the list?

 

[Rjones61]

Is Idaho State so bad that you didn't even put them on the list?

:lol: Hahaha, thanks. Had them written down on my pen pad, but skipped over them on the post. Fixed.

 

[LDopaPDX]

I think Montana is far better than the sixth best team in the conference. But that's based on an eye test; the resume isn't all that strong unless you give bonus points for pummeling crappy teams.

 

[Rjones61]

I think Montana is far better than the sixth best team in the conference. But that's based on an eye test; the resume isn't all that strong unless you give bonus points for pummeling crappy teams.

Yup. They just really have nothing to show for it. And even worse (for them), unless they beat EWU, there will be no other team on their schedule to give them redemption.