ISU -3 @ WVU

[madguy30]

Listening to Ben Bruns' podcast Sunday, he had good words for the youngsters playing linebacker. He did say, iirc, they had problems with the cutback runs. Ben thought they would work on that a lot this week, of course.

All we can do is trust our people and see what happens. I'm picking our guys, because of the tremendous grit and courage they've shown this season.

(But, cripes, can we start games without falling scarily behind? . . .)

Yeah to me they look just fine when they're on the spot but then the inexperience/youth shows on occasion.

The general speed and ability seems to be really good though.

 

[jctisu]

The most annoying thing is the amount of injuries to one specific position. It’s just a what if? and you can’t change anything, but damn could you imagine this defense if we were only out Willich (injured before the season)?

I am a strong believer that eventually injuries catch up to a team when it’s decimated one group. However, they can absolutely still win this game and any game if the d-line and secondary help them out.

This is a game we need to play at worst, even, in the first half. Then I trust Heacock and Mouser to do what they do in the second half.

Sure would be nice at some point to come out with our hair on fire on offense and score a couple of TDs on the first two drives though.

 

[Jdk]

Last season I had doubts going into the BYU game in Provo and the Kansas State game in the little apple we would come out with 2 W’s this years team even though we are beat up is a deeper and more experienced so let’s keep the faith cyclone nation in the remaining games we know what we could achieve with great results if we all do our part.

 

[frackincygy]

I'm trusting these Cyclones to play harder for longer. Against a team like WVU, I think the rest will work itself out.

 

[Nolaeer]

WVU, under NB, seems to play nervous in big games. Sure, PSU had the better team, but WVU fumbled 2 snaps and showed other signs they just were not ready for a big moment. NB is the opposite of RROD, who always had his teams out for blood in big games.

With all the hype of this game, I fear WVU again pisses down its leg. Much rather this be a 11 am kickoff on espn +.

 

[T-oh double D]

Thanks for saying that there is a chance.

 

[Aclone]

I think WVU wins because:
-They’re a physical running team and our LB corps is basically dead

-That will be a phenomenal environment

I think ISU wins because
-WVU doesn’t need the excuse of injuries to struggle with pass defense

-Taylor Mouser, Rocco Becht, Jaylin Noel, Jayden Higgins, Ben Brahmer…

-Need I continue?

 

[werdnamanhill]

Little worried that our LB injury issues catch up to us this weekend. We've got 7 LBs with various degrees of injury.


Feel like Vegas lines haven't adjusted to our injury situation because we have kept winning.

Id still say I feel like WVU -3.5 or so seems more reasonable

 

[Billups06]

I've read similar sentiment from other posters; feels like a game where we need 4 quarters from the offense and touchdowns early. Take some pressure of the D and make WV play from behind.

 

[VeloClone]

We should beat that Joe Paterno fellow.

Yeah, JoePa ain't what he used to be...

 

[bosco]

I think this weekend will be the quintessential “bend but don’t break” defense.

This is the counter point to my initial thought on the over play.

WVU is going to attack on the ground which lends to time consuming long sustained drives. ISU knowing that the defense has health concerns tries to limit their exposure with time consuming drives as well.

 

[t-noah]

This is the counter point to my initial thought on the over play.

WVU is going to attack on the ground which lends to time consuming long sustained drives. ISU knowing that the defense has health concerns tries to limit their exposure with time consuming drives as well.

I think ISU will open the pass attack, and try to score relatively quickly. WV has a good rush defense.

We try for balance but pass to open the run.

 

[Cyhig]

Let's not forget that it's Rocctober!!

I think this is the type of game ISU needs to come out aggressive right out of the gate. Heacock likes to start games with a base defense to understand what the offense is trying to attack, then he adjusts and takes that away from the offense. That's great for many games, but not here. ISU needs to make WVU a passing team. The sooner ISU can push to a two score lead, the more pressure WVU will have to abandon the run game. This will be a more difficult game to come back from a 14-3 deficit like they did vs Baylor

 

[Nolaeer]

I listened to MC, and he said the LB corps should be ready for the wvu game. One of your players is out the 1st half for targeting, but im not sure wvu tries to take advantage.

WVU is as healthy as you can hope to be after 5 games.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I listened to MC, and he said the LB corps should be ready for the wvu game. One of your players is out the 1st half for targeting, but im not sure wvu tries to take advantage.

WVU is as healthy as you can hope to be after 5 games.

I would take what MC says on injuries with gallons of salt. He’s notoriously secretive about publicly communicating injuries. A lot of times I’ll start watching a game and they’ll say “so and so” is out for the game I had no clue the player was even hurt.

The player out for the first half is a back up safety. We should be able to survive a half without him.

 

[Cyclonsin]

I listened to MC, and he said the LB corps should be ready for the wvu game. One of your players is out the 1st half for targeting, but im not sure wvu tries to take advantage.

WVU is as healthy as you can hope to be after 5 games.

The ejected player was redshirt Frosh safety T'Shawn James. On the season he's logged 5 total tackles, all in garbage time against UND, Ark St, and UH.

 

[MeowingCows]

I listened to MC, and he said the LB corps should be ready for the wvu game. One of your players is out the 1st half for targeting, but im not sure wvu tries to take advantage.

WVU is as healthy as you can hope to be after 5 games.

Guy that's out is a depth CB. Not worried there. However, your comment earlier about trying to force the run... We have done some of that this year, but not as much as in the past. Our pass volume has changed quite a bit from game to game, but in our three P4 games so far, we had our three highest passing volumes. In the Baylor game, Rocco actually completed a relatively low number of passes for his highest total passing yardage of the season.

I've noticed that ISU will occasionally set up shot plays and Rocco will throw them if it looks remotely possible. If ISU is to win this game, I feel it will be because we catch WVU sleeping in the secondary a couple times. We beat Iowa the same way. Defensively for ISU, we seem a little weak against the run, but the scheme is perfectly happy with teams running the ball and the clock away against us... especially when we turn around and score fast offensively.

 

[acoustimac]

So far every pick has WVU winning this by 3-7 points. This was one of the games going into the season I had penciled in as a loss. At their house we just seem to make the 1-2 critical mistakes that turn a game. I’m more concerned about stopping their offense (they can score quickly) than our offense Which I think will score a bunch of points if we don’t turn it over. Get by this one and I think ISU is unbeaten prior to the last two games of the year. And I think we take KSU at home.

 

[CoachHines3]

So far every pick has WVU winning this by 3-7 points. This was one of the games going into the season I had penciled in as a loss. At their house we just seem to make the 1-2 critical mistakes that turn a game. I’m more concerned about stopping their offense (they can score quickly) than our offense Which I think will score a bunch of points if we don’t turn it over. Get by this one and I think ISU is unbeaten prior to the last two games of the year. And I think we take KSU at home.

the closer the game gets the more and more i feel like we will drop this one

hope im wrong

 

[acoustimac]

WVU has lost to the two best teams they played, but should have beat Pitt.

Iowa is really the only good team we played and we barely pulled that out. Sagarin has Iowa at 21 and WVU at 27. Our next best opponent was Baylor at 58. There is still a possibility we are a paper tiger. Given our injury situation and the tough road environment I think we lose this one and show that we may be a little overrated at 11th.

This is a total prove it game though. Win this and I would say we go no worse than 10-2.

Wow…I said we were overrated and got blasted by the koolaid drinkers…

But I also said this was a statement game. Win at a hostile location and prove you deserve that lofty ranking.