Illinois State at Northwestern

[bonarae]

Wow. Nobody made a thread while the game was in progress?! xeekx

No wonder Northwestern was snucked in by a MAC school (a close game) the week before this game.

Surely the Redbirds have improved on both sides of the ball...

[REALBird]

Still some inconsistent QB play, but the DEF played out of this world. Still room for improvement, but I like what I see so far. Keep improving on both sides of the ball.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Impressive win! Northwestern was thought to be pretty good. Many people thought they'd challenge for the Big 10 West. WMU is legit so that wasn't a bad loss.

[kdinva]

a toast to the Redbirds...

[Twentysix]

Congrats redbirds

[DaBurds!!]

If no one paid attention; Redbird defense was prepared and solid. Sniffed out their 1k yard rusher and and pressured their QB. We probably left 15 points on the field.
The refs attempted to grab MVP but it went ISUs way.

[veinup]

good work birds

making michael wilbon cry xsmileyclapx

[skinny_uncle]

Congrats Deadbirds.

[catamount man]

Awesome job Illinois State!

[Bisonator]

Congrats Redbirds!

[Jacks02]

Nice win Redbirds, congrats!

[REALBird]

Kolbe 31-41, 287 yds, 2 INT in only his third start. The first one he just made a bad throw. Second he threw up a ballon after being pressured.

Classic case of growing pains. First one he should have tucked it and ran. Second one he should have taken the sack.

Neither led to points for NW. But we won't be so lucky all the time. For a kid making his third start, the fact that he went 7-7 on the game winning drive shows he took control when needed most. Still a work in progress, but lots of upside for the kid.

[birdsflyhigh]

Can I get my vote here for the biggest FCS win of the day? WOW! The Birds go into Big 10 turf and get it done against a NW Wildcat team that should win a good amount of games this season. Will this be enough to vault the ISU Redbirds into the FCS top 3? Now it's back home to beautiful Hancock Stadium to play our oldest rival EIU. Man, getting off to a 3-0 start would be amazing. Great day to be a Bird fan :)

[semobison]

Yup, nice win by the Redbirds! Looking forward to this years game in Fargo.

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

Wow. Nice win for the Redbirds!!!

[Red & Black]

Congrats, Redbirds!

[ST_Lawson]

Does this mean Illinois State gets to inherit the "Chicago's Big Ten Team" nickname now?

[Jrbird2]

Cannot wait to read the Chicago Tribune tomorrow! So much pro-NU stuff in there these days.

[bonarae]

Does this mean Illinois State gets to inherit the "Chicago's Big Ten Team" nickname now?

Not exactly. Normal is quite far from Chicagoland.


Cannot wait to read the Chicago Tribune tomorrow! So much pro-NU stuff in there these days.

And then... what shall they replace those stuff with? Those of pro sports? xconfusedx

[ST_Lawson]

Not exactly. Normal is quite far from Chicagoland.

Sorry, that was meant to be a joke. I know full-well where Normal is...I've actually been to the stadiums of every DI school in the state (SIU's was old McAndrew though), including 2 games in Normal and one in Champaign (just down the road from Normal) last year alone.

[The Yo Show]

Congrats Redbirds!

[Laker]

Redbirds knock off a BIG team. Usually it is a MAC team that does that. Nice win!

[underdawg]

Congrats to Dead birds--but don't get too big of heads--Northwestern's Clayton Thorson was one of the worse FBS QB's I've seen (17 for 41 passing)

[REALBird]

I commented that he wasn't very accurate. But we did hold their 1000 yard running back to something like 35 yards before he was injured.

Playing on the road, against a team that supposed to win. Yeah, we'll take it and some of us will have a big head about it. Our QB was more accurate but he was starting his 3rd/4th game. A FBS win is a win. They should have shown up.

[kdinva]

Redbirds knock off a BIG team. Usually it is a MAC team that does that. Nice win!

So Barry Alvarez was correct to ask Big 10 teams to quit playing 1-AA's.....and the MAC, on paper, seems to have fallen below the Sun Belt...

[Thumper 76]

Nice win Readbirds!

[Schism55]

Way to go Ill St! Get that scalp!
Going to be a looong year in Evanston.

[Redbird 4th & short]

I commented that he wasn't very accurate. But we did hold their 1000 yard running back to something like 35 yards before he was injured.

Playing on the road, against a team that supposed to win. Yeah, we'll take it and some of us will have a big head about it. Our QB was more accurate but he was starting his 3rd/4th game. A FBS win is a win. They should have shown up.

Hey RealBird .. from my simiiar redbird forum post ... Pass defense was very strong at all levels .. note these stats:

- pass break ups advantage was 9 to 3, with 4 of ours coming from tall DL .. Thorson is 6'4" and still struggled

- QB hurries advantage was 6 to 0, though we both had 3 sacks.

This largely explains why Kolbe completed 30 of 41, and Thorson only completed 17 of 41, and why we were able to overcome 2 to 0 turnover deficit.

Passing 30-41-2 17-41-0
Yards per Attempt 7.0 4.7 .. this 4.7 is anemic especially since we also held their run game to 2.8 yards per carry.
Yards per Completion 9.6 11.2

Our entire defense at all 3 levels made Thorson uncomfortable all day and we still stuffed their run game as well .. pleasantly surprising given our horrible Q1 against Valpo. Key was speed and schemes run with our rotation of 230-235 DE's. NU o-line could not keep up. And our secondary coverage was tight all game. Our game plan was very good and we executed despite not getting our run game going. Very surprised we won game in trenches as much as we did .. great game planning.

[catamount man]

So Barry Alvarez was correct to ask Big 10 teams to quit playing 1-AA's.....and the MAC, on paper, seems to have fallen below the Sun Belt...

Toledo has punk slapped Arkansas State now for 2 seasons in a row.

[dewey]

Great win for Illinois State. Congratulations Redbird fans.

Dewey

[REALBird]

Their receivers also dropped at least 5-6 passes during the game, minimum. Some hit them right in the hands on what would have been gains.

Thorson could have completed at least 50% of his passes.cant throw it and catch it too. That being said, our guys still played pretty good DEF and tackled guys once they did catch it for short gains or losses.

Solid DEF effort.

[Redbird007]

A very nice win for both Illinois State and the MVFC. I was surprised by how much time ISU QB Kolbe had to get him self set and observe the play development. Usually one of the big differences FBS schools have over FCS's is the battle in the trenches. For whatever reason that was not the case....I am hoping it was predominately Illinois State's qualities and not Northwestern's deficiencies.

[Gil Dobie]

Good job Redbirds

[OSBF]

$400K and the win

cool

[UNIFanSince1983]

Scoring 9 points = not impressive
Allowing 7 to a B1G opponent = impressive
Beating said B1G opponent = impressive

Overall = Impressive!

Good Job Birds!

[OSBF]

Keep SOME perspective,

This will likely turn out to be the 3rd/4th "best" or "toughest" team on the schedule

[Twentysix]

Again congrats. I have to wonder id ndsu sdsu uni are better than nw. Clearly isur is.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Again congrats. I have to wonder id ndsu sdsu uni are better than nw. Clearly isur is.

So is Western Michigan.

[Redbird007]

Keep SOME perspective,

This will likely turn out to be the 3rd/4th "best" or "toughest" team on the schedule

Agree that could be the case and although some Lake Michigan fogged-over-brain NU fan had posted that he still believes that NU will come in second place in the Big Ten West this year the rest of their posts on the NU board seems to think NU may be second worst in the BIG with only Purdue underneath. This weeks game vs EIU will be a much better reference point as to where ISU stands.