Penalties, not AA killed us against K-State

I just re-watched the game for the third time last night, and two things stood out as reasons we lost that game. News flash for all the AA haters out there, he wasn't one of them. Almost everytime we had a drive stall on Saturday it was because of a killer penalty. We had 4 penalties in the red-zone, 3 of which were 10+ yarders, and we had 5 10+ yard penalties in KSU territory. You cannot score TD's when you have 2nd and 20 or 3rd and 15 all the time.
The second thing that stood out was obviously the rush defense....KSU had 10 yards whenever they wanted it, and they took a ton of time of the clock with those drives. Its hard to score a lot of points when you're never on the field.
Everyone wants to crucify AA for the overthrow on the last drive, and yes, he should have completed that pass, but there is no way you can put this loss on him. He made several huge plays just to keep us in the game (mulitple 4th down conversions, huge runs on 3rd and longs, the TD on 3rd and 12). Its obvious that the staff doesn't trust Tiller to throw the ball around, they called 5 runs and a fade pass while he was in. I'm going to go on a limb and say that they know more than the arm-chair coaches on this board. Without AA we lose that game by 20.

Get your common sense out of here - you're ruining our perfectly good meltdown! Dontcha know none of those penalties would have occurred had JT been on the field?

Oh, yeah - :jimlad:

Agreed. I re-watched as well and I'd forgotten how many tough, tough first downs AA got us with his feet late in the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. The missed throws were frustrating but it wasn't as bad as I remember it being in person.

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Originally Posted by The_Architect

Agreed. I re-watched as well and I'd forgotten how many tough, tough first downs AA got us with his feet late in the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. The missed throws were frustrating but it wasn't as bad as I remember it being in person.

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I remember coming to this conclusion after last year's KSU game.

AA can, and needs to, play better, but we win that game without the boneheaded penalties.

These penalties are the most detrimental part of our offense right now, and the most correctable. If they don't stop, it's going to get ugly.

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Originally Posted by Al_4_State

I remember coming to this conclusion after last year's KSU game.

AA can, and needs to, play better, but we win that game without the boneheaded penalties.

These penalties are the most detrimental part of our offense right now, and the most correctable. If they don't stop, it's going to get ugly.

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The penalties have been a problem all season too...in the NIU game we had a TD taken off the board and two other deep drives stopped by offensive pass interference. We cannot continue to shoot ourselves in the foot like that. I wouldn't matter if Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers were our QB with the amount of big red zone penalties we've had this year.

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Originally Posted by shawn_200m

I just re-watched the game for the third time last night, and two things stood out as reasons we lost that game. News flash for all the AA haters out there, he wasn't one of them. Almost everytime we had a drive stall on Saturday it was because of a killer penalty. We had 4 penalties in the red-zone, 3 of which were 10+ yarders, and we had 5 10+ yard penalties in KSU territory. You cannot score TD's when you have 2nd and 20 or 3rd and 15 all the time.
The second thing that stood out was obviously the rush defense....KSU had 10 yards whenever they wanted it, and they took a ton of time of the clock with those drives. Its hard to score a lot of points when you're never on the field.
Everyone wants to crucify AA for the overthrow on the last drive, and yes, he should have completed that pass, but there is no way you can put this loss on him. He made several huge plays just to keep us in the game (mulitple 4th down conversions, huge runs on 3rd and longs, the TD on 3rd and 12). Its obvious that the staff doesn't trust Tiller to throw the ball around, they called 5 runs and a fade pass while he was in. I'm going to go on a limb and say that they know more than the arm-chair coaches on this board. Without AA we lose that game by 20.

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I think this had to do with field position and the game situation. Had we not been down and in the red zone and behind in the game the coaches may have been a bit riskier with him. Either way it shows some lack of confidence in JT. I think you make good points and lost in most of this was that AA played his best game of the year so far. The thing I think you're missing is that Austen is a 3 year starter, the face of our program and a team leader. You can't expect those guys to play perfect 100% of the time but those are the kinds of guys you expect to make plays in the clutch when they need to, not only to win games but to help this program turn those "almost" games into W's. Those are the expectations he has a leader on this team and as a leader he's got to expect criticism when things don 't go right. That combined with unrealistic expecatations from the Kool aid crowd create the meltdown situation going on now, but that doesn't matter because AA is our QB and hopefully is the rest of the season because I don't see him being benched unless this season goes completely south and the focus changes to next season.

the underlying problem with Iowa State football is they don't know how to win. As a program they have been so bad for so long that a culture of losing pervades it and this fan base.

Just about every time they get a chance to get a big win they pee it down their leg. Penalties, dropped passes, bad passes, missed field goals...it's always something. When they actually do get a big win they don't keep the momentum going (see 2002). Even in 2000 when ISU had the best team in a long time they really didn't beat anyone who was any good and got stomped by the elite teams on the schedule (K-State, A&M, kNU). At some point the team has to step up and get a big win and actually carry the momentum through the rest of the season.

4 penalties in the red zone. BRUTAL.

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Originally Posted by shawn_200m

I just re-watched the game for the third time last night, and two things stood out as reasons we lost that game. News flash for all the AA haters out there, he wasn't one of them. Almost everytime we had a drive stall on Saturday it was because of a killer penalty. We had 4 penalties in the red-zone, 3 of which were 10+ yarders, and we had 5 10+ yard penalties in KSU territory. You cannot score TD's when you have 2nd and 20 or 3rd and 15 all the time.
The second thing that stood out was obviously the rush defense....KSU had 10 yards whenever they wanted it, and they took a ton of time of the clock with those drives. Its hard to score a lot of points when you're never on the field.
Everyone wants to crucify AA for the overthrow on the last drive, and yes, he should have completed that pass, but there is no way you can put this loss on him. He made several huge plays just to keep us in the game (mulitple 4th down conversions, huge runs on 3rd and longs, the TD on 3rd and 12). Its obvious that the staff doesn't trust Tiller to throw the ball around, they called 5 runs and a fade pass while he was in. I'm going to go on a limb and say that they know more than the arm-chair coaches on this board. Without AA we lose that game by 20.

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I assume you want your post taken seriously, yet you throw out the label, "AA haters".
Thats a fail.
Its entirely possbile that a lot of fans are very concerned and/or troubled by AAs play, and in fact do not hate him.

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Originally Posted by Cyhart

I assume you want your post taken seriously, yet you throw out the label, "AA haters".
Thats a fail.
Its entirely possbile that a lot of fans are very concerned and/or troubled by AAs play, and in fact do not hate him.

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Didn't you get the memo? In today's society if you disagree with a position or a person, you're deemed a hater. That is just the way it works now. :jimlad:

Anybody know what our most prevelant penalties have been so far this year? I'd guess offensive pass interference (WTF?!?!?), false start and holding. The false starts and holding penalties have been especially disappointing, since our o-line was supposed to be a strength. To me, false start indicates lack of focus or fatigue, and holding indicates physical inequality - both equally worrisome for our line.

This has been my perspective all along. It goes back even to the Northern Illinois game - first penalty of the season (illegal formation) takes away a touchdown. These need to get corrected! Don't give away points like that and it's a completely different situation.

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Originally Posted by Cyhart

I assume you want your post taken seriously, yet you throw out the label, "AA haters".
Thats a fail.
Its entirely possbile that a lot of fans are very concerned and/or troubled by AAs play, and in fact do not hate him.

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Out of that entire post that is what you want to focus on? Please.

An offense that averaged more than 4.6 yards per play might be able to overcome a penalty or two here and there. Unfortunately, we don't have one of those offenses at ISU. 3rd and 6 for us might as well be 3rd and 20.

Great post.