Official ISU vs Toledo Autopsy Thread (Post-Game)

[AirWalke]

Toledo is TERRIBLE. Kansas absolutely destroyed them. We pushed a team that leads ON THE ROAD against the #8 team in the country with the longest win streak in the country. There is no good reason for this other than our team cares WAY more about Iowa and can play at another level but choose not to against other teams.

Poor comparison. Iowa's pushing a team that got pushed by The Citadel in the same damn environment. Toledo is also outstanding at home. Considering how much we've struggled on offense, I'm amazed no one is happy about the offensive output today. Losing by one point does not reflect any justice as to how hard these guys played today.

I can't believe all the arguments on this board saying that we only get up for the Iowa game. Toledo was not exactly pushing ISU, and once the guys got settled, they almost pulled away. The defense did not even get a chance to prevent the last two Toledo scores.

 

[everyyard]

Sorry its a habit.....but yes that would definitely be the pot calling out the kettle......

Honestly though, our team didnt choke, our punt team and field goal teams let us down, but, the rest of the team played very well. I only wish our d could have held them a time or two more to a field goal.....but the playcalling on our last drive, what the hell........draw , draw, draw......go for the juggler........whats to lose, show the balls to call out a player like blythe and say, go win the frickin game for us........oh no, we want to be conservative crap, draws and draw plays thinking were foolin someone inside the 25.....news flash - its not working!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I was so sick of the draw play and I thought new staff, new strategy...but no, we still use it anytime we need more yardage than it will ever get. SICK!

 

[cycloneryan]

It just never ends with us.

 

[ISUFan22]

I was so sick of the draw play and I thought new staff, new strategy...but no, we still use it anytime we need more yardage than it will ever get. SICK!

Um, was the offense the problem tonight?

Didn't think so....

If you failed to notice, Meyer had about 40 yards tonight. Seems that play is in our playbook and being used for a reason. It's working.

 

[everyyard]

Poor comparison. Iowa's pushing a team that got pushed by The Citadel in the same damn environment. Toledo is also outstanding at home. Considering how much we've struggled on offense, I'm amazed no one is happy about the offensive output today. Losing by one point does not reflect any justice as to how hard these guys played today.

I can't believe all the arguments on this board saying that we only get up for the Iowa game. Toledo was not exactly pushing ISU, and once the guys got settled, they almost pulled away. The defense did not even get a chance to prevent the last two Toledo scores.

Stats are nice, but the only one that matters in the end is L or W. And we are getting real good at going for the L.

 

[BD4CY]

We need the throwbacks or maybe a day game. Night games arent working out so well.

 

[AirWalke]

And this was our first road game. We had a meltdown on special teams, not that it wasn't hard to imagine with how they've played before this game. Hell, we play Toledo at home like we played at their house today, we probably would have won.

Thank you. If the ISU team that played Kent State and UNI showed up tonight, ISU loses this game easily.

 

[stateofmind]

And next week when they go for the kill and Meyer throws an interception... GET ARNAUD OR BATES OR THE NEXT GUY. These guys obviously have a lot of faith in Bret and the team kicking FGs. My guess is that they do very well in practice, hence the reason Mac and the current staff keep putting it in his hands.

 

[Cyclone62]

You, my friend, are in a fantasy land. The only way we go bowling is if at least 7 of our games are against iowa. Didn't you see Kansas lay the wood on toledo?

Don't you remember Kansas losing to Toledo at the Glass Bowl last year?

 

[everyyard]

Um, was the offense the problem tonight?

Didn't think so....

If you failed to notice, Meyer had about 40 yards tonight.

Did we win. Last I checked to win you have to outscore the opponent. Do we have a suspect field goal unit when over 35 yards...yes. Should we have kept what was working and tried to pass our way into short field goal or touchdown...without a doubt.

 

[michaelrr1]

This certainly won't help with the perception that the Iowa game is the Super Bowl for us.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Just back from the game, sitting in the hotel room.

First, a few thoughts from the game being there live in person, before doing the ripping (some of you may have posted similar thoughts, but allow me anyway):

Our guys struggled with the AstroTurf tonight. Make no mistake, this was not FieldTurf. This was old school Jack Trice circa 1990 rugburn AstroTurf. It was obvious that these guys are not used to playing on it. They did get used to it, but we blew opportunities early because of it.

We could have, and SHOULD have, shredded Toledo's defense tonight. In the 2nd and 4th quarters spent so much time trying to establish the run (which was solid, but not as dominant as I thought it would be) that we took time away from gunning it and getting scores. In the 3rd quarter, the receivers could not be stopped.

NOW.....to special teams. WTF....before that kickoff I was screaming to kick the ball out of bounds and give it to them at the 35. I was pleading...BEGGING, because our kick coverage had been woeful all night, to just PLEASE PLEASE kick it out of bounds and give our defense a chance to fight another down.

Brandtner.....PLEASE kick the ball out of the back of the end zone next time. Again, give the defense a chance to fight another down and live another day.

A 2 possession lead with 5 minutes left, and my g/f was celebrating, but I was despondent (and so was Steve, MoTownCyclone, great meeting you). We had all seen this charade before.

I'll have more thoughts later on. I'm still reeling from the energy of the ginormous 18,000 person crowd..or whatever it was.

GAH.

 

[ISUFan22]

Thansk Alum2002 - appreciate the insight.

 

[Clone_12]

Iowa is not that good...don't be fooled by tonight. Wisconsin is very, very overrated at #7. They beat UNLV 20-13 in a game that came down to the very end...that same UNLV team got smoked by Utah State...Wisconsin also just had to pull away from The Citadel in the second half for a win, after being tied at 21 at the half...there's a squad that's worse than UNI and maybe even Drake that was tied with the Badgers at the half...all of this further supports the theory that the first polls for college football should not come out until October...and back to the point at hand-Iowa was a big win for our coaches and players, especially after we had lost to the likes of Kent State and UNI, but not one single person in the lockerroom after tonight's game considers our season even remotely a success because of that win...I can GUARANTEE you that.

 

[StLouisClone]

I was so sick of the draw play and I thought new staff, new strategy...but no, we still use it anytime we need more yardage than it will ever get. SICK!

ditto, ditto, ditto. the only game that play ever worked effectively was our bowl win over Miami-Ohio during Meyer's first year. we've continued to use it in every close game we've played in the last few years, and it's gotten us almost nothing but FG attempts.

did anyone else watch the end of the 1st half of the Iowa game. with only 35 seconds left on the clock and the ball at their own 37, the Hawks drove it 63 yards for a touchdown. plus they had no timeouts! that's something we never saw Mac do. let's hope the new coaching staff will show a little more guts than we've seen so far. i did like the fact that ISU went for it on 4th down near the goal line. that's a step in the right direction!

 

[CrossCyed]

Just back from the game, sitting in the hotel room.

First, a few thoughts from the game being there live in person, before doing the ripping (some of you may have posted similar thoughts, but allow me anyway):

Our guys struggled with the AstroTurf tonight. Make no mistake, this was not FieldTurf. This was old school Jack Trice circa 1990 rugburn AstroTurf. It was obvious that these guys are not used to playing on it. They did get used to it, but we blew opportunities early because of it.

We could have, and SHOULD have, shredded Toledo's defense tonight. In the 2nd and 4th quarters spent so much time trying to establish the run (which was solid, but not as dominant as I thought it would be) that we took time away from gunning it and getting scores. In the 3rd quarter, the receivers could not be stopped.

NOW.....to special teams. WTF....before that kickoff I was screaming to kick the ball out of bounds and give it to them at the 35. I was pleading...BEGGING, because our kick coverage had been woeful all night, to just PLEASE PLEASE kick it out of bounds and give our defense a chance to fight another down.

Brandtner.....PLEASE kick the ball out of the back of the end zone next time. Again, give the defense a chance to fight another down and live another day.

A 2 possession lead with 5 minutes left, and my g/f was celebrating, but I was despondent (and so was Steve, MoTownCyclone, great meeting you). We had all seen this charade before.

I'll have more thoughts later on. I'm still reeling from the energy of the ginormous 18,000 person crowd..or whatever it was.

GAH.

Brandtner was too busy getting hit to know what was going on.

 

[stateofmind]

Iowa is not that good...don't be fooled by tonight. Wisconsin is very, very overrated at #7. They beat UNLV 20-13 in a game that came down to the very end...that same UNLV team got smoked by Utah State...Wisconsin also just had to pull away from The Citadel in the second half for a win, after being tied at 21 at the half...there's a squad that's worse than UNI and maybe even Drake that was tied with the Badgers at the half...all of this further supports the theory that the first polls for college football should not come out until October...and back to the point at hand-Iowa was a big win for our coaches and players, especially after we had lost to the likes of Kent State and UNI, but not one single person in the lockerroom after tonight's game considers our season even remotely a success because of that win...I can GUARANTEE you that.

Didn't Utah State dominate a highly ranked UCLA? You can't play that game. Emotion, mistakes and execution decides every game in today's world. The only difference between USC and Drake are the athletes. But I bet that Drake could be USC at least once in a hundred tries.

 

[DevilDog]

Jerseys

I wasnt able to catch the game. Was wondering which jerseys we wore?

 

[AirWalke]

Didn't Utah State dominate a highly ranked UCLA? You can't play that game. Emotion, mistakes and execution decides every game in today's world. The only difference between USC and Drake are the athletes. But I bet that Drake could be USC at least once in a hundred tries.

That was Utah. Utah State still sucks from last year.

 

[stateofmind]

And let's hope that the Texas Tech game is the last time we play at night. It worked for Mac, but not Chizik.