Bobcats vs Idaho 3rd round predictions

[bcatfan1]

All the talk about how hard it is to beat a good team twice reminds me of the build up to our rematch with Weber a couple years ago. Their fan base was saying the Cats "only won because of the safeties from the terrible long snaps". And some of our fan base was saying Weber had the advantage playing us a second time. Then the Bobcats came out and ran it down their throats for 4 straight quarters for a dominant win.

[BelligerentBobcat]

All the talk about how hard it is to beat a good team twice reminds me of the build up to our rematch with Weber a couple years ago. Their fan base was saying the Cats "only won because of the safeties from the terrible long snaps". And some of our fan base was saying Weber had the advantage playing us a second time. Then the Bobcats came out and ran it down their throats for 4 straight quarters for a dominant win.

It is hard to beat a good team twice, but when the first game was a blowout, I think it shows a distinct talent disparity. That wasn’t a fluke blowout, MSU was just that much better.

And yeah, Eck will have his guys ready. He’ll have some trick plays, and be aggressive. Great. Vigen will have his guys ready too. It might be closer than last time, but I don’t think it will be all that close, and I’m really not worried about having a tight game until/if we play a DSU.

[Prodigal Cat]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

[ECBobcat]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

As for defense, quick math says MSU is surrendering an average of 13.7 points per home game. I won’t dive into it deeper, but the 2s and 3s have likely surrendered half (probably more) of the points that contribute to the average. For UI to win, the Cats will have to flop AND the Vandals will have to play the game of their lives. I hope those things do not happen—chances are, they will not.

[TomCat88]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

As for defense, quick math says MSU is surrendering an average of 13.7 points per home game. I won’t dive into it deeper, but the 2s and 3s have likely surrendered half (probably more) of the points that contribute to the average. For UI to win, the Cats will have to flop AND the Vandals will have to play the game of their lives. I hope those things do not happen—chances are, they will not.

The Bobcats have allowed 20 first half (starters in) points at home. Seven at the end of the half to a team that was trailing 35-0; 3 to UM, which started its drive on its own 46 and only needed 24 yards on six plays to get into FG range; 10 to UTM, which got 7 on a 78-yard play with 2 minutes remaining in the half and a FG after a 14 play, 56-yard drive.

[TomCat88]

https://herosports.com/2024-fcs-playoff ... tion-bzbz/

Decent write up, however I’m not sure about his statements about the d-line being healthier this go. I’m pretty sure they came in against us with healthy d-line and maybe a few sustained injuries during the game. A lot of these writers have a good grasp of the teams, however, and maybe it’s what makes a story, but they are really rallying with this idea that we played the Vandal’s Band the first go

I'm assuming that Idaho had some guys that weren't 100% but played or that were injured during the game vs MSU. I did a preliminary check of the PP report and the starters (Williams, Krotzer, Newby and Afalava) and subs (players in the 90s) are the same seven players for both the MSU and Lehigh games. I'm doing a story on this subject today/tomorrow, so I'll do more digging, but my assumption is that a couple starters were playing with nagging injuries.

From what I gather, James-Newby and Afalava were playing injured. A linebacker who rotates in was ejected for targeting and Williams limped off the field but I think he returned. Along with Layne their leading rusher was out and no. 2 guy was out after his first carry of the second half. The starting quarterback was having his first career start and was knocked out early in the second quarter.

This isn’t to say that MSU wasn’t affected by injuries too, but that’s fairly significant for Idaho.

MSU lost Danny U during the game and the botched call during the play that he was injured on might’ve cost the Bobcats four points. MSU was without Perkins, Davis, Schmidt and C. Dowler. It was Polidore’s first game back and Johnson had just returned from injury.

[FA_Q_M]

Idaho is a good team; they have talent. Just seems the Cats are on another level. No disrespect to our fellow BSC members. Gonna be a long night...

Cats 44
Vandals 14

[CodyCat]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

I can’t stand the Vandal fans. They’ve been terrible since joining the Big Sky. The are on par with gris fans.

[RootinfortheCats]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

I can’t stand the Vandal fans. They’ve been terrible since joining the Big Sky. The are on par with gris fans.

Yikes.

Venomous criticism there…

[ilovethecats]

The Idaho fan board is Egriz but with about 10 posters. I went over there and made a couple comments. They are predicting they win by scores like 24-17 or 28-24 and I pointed out that the Cat's are averaging 45 points at home so holding them to a 1/3 or 1/2 of that is not a reasonable expectation. Nothing but trashing the MSU fanbase. No football discussion at all. Won't be going back.

I can’t stand the Vandal fans. They’ve been terrible since joining the Big Sky. The are on par with gris fans.

I’ve never really got that feeling. Well maybe a little bit when they dropped back down and some of their more vocal fans assumed they’d just take over the league. But I think most see now that the big sky is a great conference and to their credit they’re building a solid program over there.

Had the chance to meet some of their fans last time and they were all great. Even before the game started. Obviously after. I have nothing bad to say about them. Fanbase seems good. Great head coach. Good big sky team. My confidence in the Cats is no slight to Idaho. No disrespect intended. I just feel this years squad is on another level. If they make this a hard fought game they’ll have all my respect.

Still like the Cats by something like 42-13

[aucat]

Bobcat Stadium is gonna be rockin. 34-14

[CelticCat]

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/ ... b9D7zuE8qA

"The Vandals, winners of six straight since their loss to the ’Cats, bring the momentum of a runaway freight train and a roster at full strength after dispatching Lehigh, 34-13, in the second round of the FCS playoffs."

No doubt, geez it seems like they are really hyping up the "Injury depleted" talk as of the last go round. I mean I think we were missing 4 or 5 starters as well. At any rate, I'm sure they'll come in fired up with a chip on their shoulders, but the way this Bobcat team has done things for THIRTEEN games this season, I just don't see much of a departure from that. I mean sure there could be a mistake or two but it seems like EVERY time this team makes a mistake, that player or team makes up for immediately with a huge play. I think one big question here is... is Idaho going to be the first team all season long to score against this Bobcat defense in the first quarter?

Davis scored on their opening drive.

So did EWU, who was the first FCS team to do so.

[kwcat]

Bump for those that want to venture
https://247sports.com/college/idaho/boa ... 241579139/

I didn’t think they sounded like a bad bunch.hopeful and optimistic. We will have to play well. It is the quarters. We play our game and get our defensive stops we are fine .
https://theanalyst.com/2024/12/fcs-play ... prediction

[tetoncat]

I keep trying to wrap my head around media hyping up the Idaho injuries, especially Lane. But pretty quite on MSU injuries prior or during that game.
Idaho beat Wyoming and almost UCD without Lane. Then after Cats smoke them it's because of that injury. Why couldn't others defenses shut the backup down?

[ike11ike]

45-21

[catatac]

Like a lot of posters, I feel good about how this looks on paper. However, still nervous as $*** because strange things can happen in football games and if Idaho came in and beat the Cats it would be one of the most devastating losses in program history, IMO. I say that simply because again, on paper, and based on the body of work we've seen so far, this looks to be THE team that can finally win it all. Yes we thumped them the first time, but the fact that they played Oregon so close when they were healthy is what makes me the most nervous.

If someone made me bet on how this game was going to play out though, I'd have to think that this team is going to be focused, and Bobcat Stadium is going to be rocking and super fired up and Idaho is going to get overwhelmed. Fingers crossed!

[GoldstoneCat]

Like a lot of posters, I feel good about how this looks on paper. However, still nervous as $*** because strange things can happen in football games and if Idaho came in and beat the Cats it would be one of the most devastating losses in program history, IMO. I say that simply because again, on paper, and based on the body of work we've seen so far, this looks to be THE team that can finally win it all. Yes we thumped them the first time, but the fact that they played Oregon so close when they were healthy is what makes me the most nervous.

If someone made me bet on how this game was going to play out though, I'd have to think that this team is going to be focused, and Bobcat Stadium is going to be rocking and super fired up and Idaho is going to get overwhelmed. Fingers crossed!

I'm with you. The nervous buildup is killing me and I've invented all kinds of ways for us to lose. Haha. But I keep coming back to this... there was a physical gap in talent in October, especially in the trenches as well as the speed of our offense vs their defense. Back 7 didn't have the speed. You can do a lot of scheming and a lot of new looks but you can't erase a physical disparity like that during a season. I expect them to have some new stuff for us, especially when they have the ball, and I think our defense was lucky a couple times that night as they had guys get free that Wagner never got to. I do not think they can get enough stops or have the ponies to play keep away. I think in the end we win comfortably.

[Bobcat Sig]

Like a lot of posters, I feel good about how this looks on paper. However, still nervous as $*** because strange things can happen in football games and if Idaho came in and beat the Cats it would be one of the most devastating losses in program history, IMO. I say that simply because again, on paper, and based on the body of work we've seen so far, this looks to be THE team that can finally win it all. Yes we thumped them the first time, but the fact that they played Oregon so close when they were healthy is what makes me the most nervous.

If someone made me bet on how this game was going to play out though, I'd have to think that this team is going to be focused, and Bobcat Stadium is going to be rocking and super fired up and Idaho is going to get overwhelmed. Fingers crossed!

It's worth noting that while Idaho was healthy when the play the Ducks, Oregon was missing most of its starting o-line and had other injuries in key areas. Who Oregon was when they played Idaho and who they are now - Big 10 Champs - is a much different team.

[CelticCat]

I haven't been nervous since the first Idaho game. Maybe a little for UCD. Not at all for Cat/Griz.

This team hasn't given me a single reason to be.

[coloradocat]

I keep trying to wrap my head around media hyping up the Idaho injuries, especially Lane. But pretty quite on MSU injuries prior or during that game.
Idaho beat Wyoming and almost UCD without Lane. Then after Cats smoke them it's because of that injury. Why couldn't others defenses shut the backup down?

Hype is the right word for it. They're just trying to justify a reason to give Idaho a chance.