Excited for the rest of the season!

[cycloneworld]

I saw nothing to think this season will be any different than the last. Same stupid mistakes.

Agreed. While Campbell turned over some personnel on the offensive staff, it’s clear so far that he’s not willing to change his approach.

Putting up yards and drives only to settle for FGs or missed/blocked field goals with an inability to get into the end zone continues to be a major problem.

We will probably have 8-9 more chances to win games this year but, right now, I don’t have any confidence we can actually win close games consistently.

 

[longdriveforsom]

I'd just like to see the offense adapt to the game. There were several times I felt we should have upped the tempo for a play or 2 just to keep them on their heels. We used to do that but stopped after 2020 it feels like

 

[atlantacyclone]

We’re going to lose to Ohio aren’t we

No. Not with this defense. The offense should put up points as well.

 

[atlantacyclone]

Agreed. While Campbell turned over some personnel on the offensive staff, it’s clear so far that he’s not willing to change his approach.

Putting up yards and drives only to settle for FGs or missed/blocked field goals with an inability to get into the end zone continues to be a major problem.

We will probably have 8-9 more chances to win games this year but, right now, I don’t have any confidence we can actually win close games consistently.

I don’t know… special teams.

 

[quasistellar]

I guess I had two positives to take from this game:

1. Special teams continued to be "not game breakingly bad". Not great, just not "oh my god no team can overcome this" kinda bad. I would have said actually good, but we just had to have a blocked kick.

2. No red zone false starts. The line still can't block, but at least they aren't losing yards *before* the snap.

 

[mark82]

I liked CMCs explanation for the clock management. It had to be done right. We don’t score that td, we had no shot. We had a shot, all you can ask for

We got the ball back with plenty of time to score. But, IMHO, the plays were too predictable. It looked like Iowa knew the last play before we did and crashed it from the snap.

Why no play action, why didn't Rocco every keep on the zone read, why no routes down the middle of the field?

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Honestly, encouraged moving forward. Roco will grow, Norton and Sama looked good, FG goals were good and D was solid. Iowa is a no mistake team, we had two big ones (blocked FG and pick 6) and that’s the difference. Not too mention the drops

I didn't think about this when looking at final score. Both offenses produced same amount of points but plays on special teams and defense for Iowa truly was the difference.

 

[stewart092284]

I have zero excitement. Well, excitement for watching that offense. I love watching the defense. And the ST it might very week to week.

I'll watch because I hope to hell i'm wrong. But no, I don't have excitement for the future. i don't trust this offensive staff at all to game plan and I don't understand why some players are still playing. They might well be better than the backups. And I get that.

But at some point, be it drops, Simmons picking up his 1 millionth holding penalty, or whatever it is, when that player is always there, its deflating because it says either the staff is so stubborn that they refuse to change OR we've missed on every single linemen and the backups are even worse.

Neither is good.

 

[joefrog]

I have zero excitement. Well, excitement for watching that offense. I love watching the defense. And the ST it might very week to week.

I'll watch because I hope to hell i'm wrong. But no, I don't have excitement for the future. i don't trust this offensive staff at all to game plan and I don't understand why some players are still playing. They might well be better than the backups. And I get that.

But at some point, be it drops, Simmons picking up his 1 millionth holding penalty, or whatever it is, when that player is always there, its deflating because it says either the staff is so stubborn that they refuse to change OR we've missed on every single linemen and the backups are even worse.

Neither is good.

We're not good, creative, or entertaining.

There is almost no hope of being entertained or achieving victory.

Viewing is punishment.

 

[Remo Gaggi]

We’re going to lose to Ohio aren’t we

Why on earth are we playing an away game at Ohio?

 

[Cyched]

Maybe it’s just me, but the next 2 games feel critical for Campbell. 3-1 going into Norman and no one will remember the CyHawk loss. Lose at Ohio or to this weird OSU team at home and this year might be over

Going into the season, I had the Iowa game as a tossup (as it always is) and the OSU game as a win. Should've won in Stillwater last year, and I'm not sold on what they're trying to do with the 3 QB thing.

(I realize they had a good win in Tempe last night)

Win that game at home, and we're back on track. Lose, and it's not completely lost, but we probably top out at 5-7.

No need to expand on what happens if we lose at Ohio...

 

[larrysarmy]

I didn't think about this when looking at final score. Both offenses produced same amount of points but plays on special teams and defense for Iowa truly was the difference.

And thus the reason for some rational encouragement. Our special teams were great (2nd week in a row), punt, punt coverage, kick off-touchbacks, FG’s. Even the miss FG had some funky-ness to it per CMC. No false starts, sans a holding penalty and PI, we were clean in that aspect. No fumbles, but the costly pick. Our D gave up 13 points against and revamped Iowa offense with portal additions at key spots.

Not to mention we lost our most experienced playmakers at QB, RB, TE and our starting Tackle….all at a time we couldn’t go portalling for replacements, thus we go and are young and played decent in a tough spot, but growth is there and the floor feels high with growth to gain higher as the season progresses. Ohio is a huge one to keep a young team locked in.

 

[MisterO]

I do believe it’s true that Iowa year after year wants this game more than ISU. Which says more about ISU than Iowa

Who cares? Don’t all players really really want to win every game they play in? I don’t understand the whole ‘they care more about this game than we do’ thing. Even if true, now what? It looked like our coaches didn’t care about the game with vanilla play calling and piss-poor clock management. Our coaches looked like they were content to just keep it close.

The fact is we have no offense and we have no coaching staff willing to fix it. We got whipped again by our mediocre rival and it sucks.

 

[SolarGarlic]

I guess I had two positives to take from this game:

1. Special teams continued to be "not game breakingly bad". Not great, just not "oh my god no team can overcome this" kinda bad. I would have said actually good, but we just had to have a blocked kick.

2. No red zone false starts. The line still can't block, but at least they aren't losing yards *before* the snap.

I thought the line did OK. There were holes, but Norton doesn't find them or hit them correctly. Look at how Patterson ran for Iowa. That's what you need in games like these. See hole, hit hole.

 

[quasistellar]

I thought the line did OK. There were holes, but Norton doesn't find them or hit them correctly. Look at how Patterson ran for Iowa. That's what you need in games like these. See hole, hit hole.

Sama is really more guilty of this IMO. He runs sideways waaaaaayyyy too much. Can't do that vs Iowa.

 

[BoomerClone]

It'll be so much fun playing someone who doesn't have ISU circled as a Superbowl!

I’m excited for the rest of the season too but Iowa doesn’t consider this game their Super Bowl any more than ISU does. That’s just the cold honest truth.

 

[SolarGarlic]

Sama is really more guilty of this IMO. He runs sideways waaaaaayyyy too much. Can't do that vs Iowa.

A lot of his runs are designed to go to the outside. Sama is the guy at RB, just needs more carries. Norton doesn't run sideways, he just doesn't run anywhere, and then the defense is on him. I think we saw Sama's potential later in the game when he was running inside the tackles. He's more subtle than Norton.

 

[dirtyninety]

Why on earth are we playing an away game at Ohio?

It will be great recruiting exposure for us on the local access cable channels for all the players in the Ohio Hotbed of football that aren't being recruited because they are too slow, short, or dumb by Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Akron, Toledo, Cinncinnati, West Virginia, Ohio, Dayton, Mount Union, Marshall, Purdue, Northwestern, and Kent State. Future's so bright we got wear thoroughly formed baseball hat brims.

 

[chuckd4735]

Why on earth are we playing an away game at Ohio?

Because ISU only does one buy game a year.

 

[OscarBerkshire]

Campbell is just a politician at this point. Says meaningless platitudes and nothing ever changes. Doing enough to keep his job and the main reason he isn’t fired is mostly only because the alternative is much worse