Last night's game wiped out any statistical gains NW made against IL. #170 NW is now at its low point of the season. So far. The defense actually played as one might expect a #37 ranked team would play. In fact NW's adjD rating remains unchanged. To be certain that nice defensive performance was aided by Michigan State playing without Adreian Payne and with a physically limited Branden Dawsen due to illness. Still to play like the #37 defense in a game is a good thing.
On the other hand the offense continues its rapid descent to the bottom of the rankings. This 40 point gem of a game dropped NW's adjO another 15 rungs to #313 in the land. NW has the worst offense of any major conference school. That's inexcusably bad.
The B1G GAMBLE Report is somewhat better because the offense can't do much worse than in prior reports while defensive statistics have improved. NW is now the 10th best defense in the B1G. The two rung improvement was aided by the Spartans shooting 2-16 from 3 point territory.
The offense continued to sputter. NW has an adjO figure of 83.6 within B1G conference games. Not even #351 Southern Utah's 84.1 adjO is THAT BAD. That means that over the past five games NW fans have had to watch THE WORST performing offense in the land.
Overall NW is #12 in the B1G and that has no chance of changing until next year.
