Close Calls i still believe in this team for next year

[quasistellar]

I disagree completely. If an offense chooses to run right at the best defensive lineman in the country, and they can't block him well enough to make the run successful, that doesn't necessarily mean that the blockers made a mistake. It could mean that they didn't have the skill and athleticism to carry out what they were asked to do. Perhaps a play with the better likelihood of success should have been called.

Amen to that. I was a severely undersized guard in highschool. 5-7 160 lbs (strong wrestling build though--looking back I regret not even trying to be the fullback because it should have been an upgrade for us). I was pretty quick -- 4.6 40. Our other guard was similar build but much slower.

Well I was pretty good but good only does so much when you are outsized so badly. If I had a bad matchup, mostly we'd run to the other side or I'd pull and the left tackle or center would slant onto that guy. Same for the other guard. Basically never trying to straight up block 1v1 into bad matchups. Always a double team, or mostly traps or counters to use my speed to get ourselves an extra lead blocker at the point of attack or outside.

It was very successful.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I don't see this team winning another game this year.

 

[LtRaczack]

So you are suggesting that the reason ISU can't score well from the red zone is because of players making mistakes?

Well it’s inconsistency and lack of execution. It has nothing to do with the basic play call that everyone in the stadium knows is coming.

Man, I just don’t know why running up the middle from shotgun didn’t reach the end zone on FIVE successive plays against Texas Tech. We need to take a greater look at this in the coming months. Then we will be able to execute with consistency and reach the end zone by running up the middle from shotgun. It may take more than one play from the two yard line but it’ll work man!

 

[cymonw1980]

I love CMC and hope he retires here. I grew up going to games during the walden era... I understand winning records and bowl games should not be taken for granted.

That said... I think we need to be honest about the situation and call out the obvious issues.



Close Games: Yes, I know just competing is miles ahead of where we were pre-CMC. But if we want to take the next step, we have to start winning close games. We have only won 12 of 38 1 score games (31.6%) against P5 opponents (if you want to throw in games against Drake, UNI, etc it "jumps" to 16 of 43 or 37.2%). Simply put, not good enough. In the last two seasons (this includes one of the most talented and experienced teams in program history) we have won 2 of 13 1 score games vs. P5 opponents. To me this is very simple... it comes down to two things:

a) Offensive Line: I really don't care if we bring back manning at OC or not... I don't think the offense is changing as long as Campbell is here. Don't love that. But it is what it is. Campbell has had more success than anyone else so I am not going to argue with him. BUT, if we are going to play this way, you need a DOMINANT OL to win close games consistently. If we don't win 1 score games we are going to constantly hover around .500 and have a very slim chance of getting to 10 wins. It's not enough to say we have an avg OL, or " the RB missed the hole", etc. We play for 5 yds at a time, we need to execute in the red zone, we need to keep the ball at the end of games and run the clock out to win close games. We have never been able to that consistently under CMC. We can be fine if everything else is perfect. But our yds / play have never really lined up to our ability to dominate, control games because our offensive line cannot win on 3rd and short. We are more "effecient" offensively based on the analytics than our opponents; but when you have 0 big plays (offense and defense) you need to be elite in offensive efficiency just to have a shot.... so, when I see people saying we lost a game while dominanting key stats like yds/play it doesn't make me feel like we are unlucky. It just is part of how we play offense. Efficient? Sure. But not effective enough if we want to take the next step... it will take a dominant OL to do that. Look up the all conference teams under CMC; we have had some of the best representation on the All Conf teams since he took over. But at OL, very few have made the list - NFL draft picks the same. We need to be cranking out NFL OL if we want to play this way. We need to move on at OL Coach and find a proven vet to take over that spot.

b) Special Teams: We have been very poor here (especially lately). Yes we had Kene returning kicks of a season, Ryan was good as well early in the Campbell era. We also had Walling sniffing out fakes. But blocked kicks have been an issue for us and we have been very inconsistent in the kicking game overall (exception was Mevis who it inexplicably took half the season before he was handling the majority of the kicking... did we really need to see our other punters struggle to kick the ball 40 yds against uni, iowa before we put in the all conf senior kicker?). We need a ST coach.

If you solve the issues at these two spots we can take the next step as a program... maybe finally win 10 games, get back to a B12 title game. Unfortunately, OL takes time. Even if we do make a change it could take some time to see growth....

 

[BCClone]

So you are suggesting that the reason ISU can't score well from the red zone is because of players making mistakes?

Along with a bad FG kicking, that is basically why any team doesn’t score. We also did change our offense at times. We never run the ball 3 out of 3 downs and such. I understand you can’t run a 30 yard fade on the 5 yardline so part of the play book is lost due to the position, but if your offense executes that is all you have to do.

 

[BCClone]

Well it’s inconsistency and lack of execution. It has nothing to do with the basic play call that everyone in the stadium knows is coming.

Man, I just don’t know why running up the middle from shotgun didn’t reach the end zone on FIVE successive plays against Texas Tech. We need to take a greater look at this in the coming months. Then we will be able to execute with consistency and reach the end zone by running up the middle from shotgun. It may take more than one play from the two yard line but it’ll work man!

Perfect example of changing your play calling when you get in the red zone. Don’t abandon what brought you there

 

[LtRaczack]

Perfect example of changing your play calling when you get in the red zone. Don’t abandon what brought you there

Ok that series included three Sanders runs that went for a total of 21 yards and one pass to Stanley for 37 yards that got Iowa State to Tech's 2-yard line on 2 down and 1.

You cannot exactly do a deep route from the 2-yard line. So, they did not abandon the play that brought them to the red zone with three consecutive Sanders runs that went negative 3 yards.

Maybe try a counter, a fake hand off, a pitch, bring back some version of Landram, an isolation short pass to a tall receiver who's 6'6" or taller? I believe we have a few receivers and even some tight ends that are 6'6" or even taller. Nope, if you cannot score by using the same play that moved you down the field you just don't deserve to score.

I must be out of my mind that crazy stuff would never work because we are going away from what brought us to the red zone. Trying a change up in plays and catching the defense unprepared never works and those change up plays didn't work for Tech against the Iowa State defense and they didn't ever work for Iowa State in the past.

 

[BCClone]

Ok that series included three Sanders runs that went for a total of 21 yards and one pass to Stanley for 37 yards that got Iowa State to Tech's 2-yard line on 2 down and 1.

You cannot exactly do a deep route from the 2-yard line. So, they did not abandon the play that brought them to the red zone with three consecutive Sanders runs that went negative 3 yards.

Maybe try a counter, a fake hand off, a pitch, bring back some version of Landram, an isolation short pass to a tall receiver who's 6'6" or taller? I believe we have a few receivers and even some tight ends that are 6'6" or even taller. Nope, if you cannot score by using the same play that moved you down the field you just don't deserve to score.

I must be out of my mind that crazy stuff would never work because we are going away from what brought us to the red zone. Trying a change up in plays and catching the defense unprepared never works and those change up plays didn't work for Tech against the Iowa State defense and they didn't ever work for Iowa State in the past.

Assuming you mean possession instead of series in your first paragraph. You are proving my point. We didn’t just run it run it run it. We used passes, different runs (just saying we ran it is like the guys yelling in the stadium, I knew it was going to be a run, doesn’t mean you know if you are trapping, countering, lead blocking or to what side). So we had exactly 4 plays in that possession? Or were there incomplete passes somewhere in there? We typically pass more than we run, should have continued it

I also addressed the situational part earlier, so unsure if you aren’t reading or just wanting to add stuff I covered?

 

[FallOf81]

We could be in the hunt for Horseshoe National Champions this year. So we've got that going for us.