The 70 yard play was on the coaches. As soon as I saw their RB to wide and Bacon go to cover him, I knew it would be bad for us.
Game Thoughts Oklahoma State
- Thread starter cyclone1209
- Start date
I didn't think OSU was terrible. Good defensive line, good linebackers. Good enough skills players.
On a different topic, the AD made a big mistake sending out a premature weather warning a couple days before game. Lots of empty seats as a result.
OSU proved that everyone disparaging our players at skill positions (especially Rocco) were wrong. It also proved that Iowa and Ohio were both winnable if the coaching staff had opened up the offense.
On the defense...
The big plays are a bit of a consequence of the changing identity of the defense. For much of the Heacock era, the defense was more in the bend but don't break style. Now, with the talent of the defensive backfield, they're playing a lot more man coverage and daring the skill guys to beat them. Much of the time, those receivers, tight ends, and RBs are unable to do so. But if the receiver does get a step or if there is one missed tackle, typically that means a really big play, rather than a medium play. I guess the question becomes how you value those tradeoffs.
For the lack of pressure on OSU passes, a lot of that seemed to me to be because Bowman was just getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible if there was a free rusher. So it seems like there wasn't very much pressure, because it was rare that any Iowa State player got close to him. But I'd bet that pressure that was on it's way accounted for at least 5-10 of Bowman's incompletions.
Side note: It feels crazy to me that Alan Bowman is in his 6th year of college. It feels like just yesterday he was a pretty promising freshman at Tech, but that was way back in 2018.
The big plays are a bit of a consequence of the changing identity of the defense. For much of the Heacock era, the defense was more in the bend but don't break style. Now, with the talent of the defensive backfield, they're playing a lot more man coverage and daring the skill guys to beat them. Much of the time, those receivers, tight ends, and RBs are unable to do so. But if the receiver does get a step or if there is one missed tackle, typically that means a really big play, rather than a medium play. I guess the question becomes how you value those tradeoffs.
For the lack of pressure on OSU passes, a lot of that seemed to me to be because Bowman was just getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible if there was a free rusher. So it seems like there wasn't very much pressure, because it was rare that any Iowa State player got close to him. But I'd bet that pressure that was on it's way accounted for at least 5-10 of Bowman's incompletions.
Side note: It feels crazy to me that Alan Bowman is in his 6th year of college. It feels like just yesterday he was a pretty promising freshman at Tech, but that was way back in 2018.
Gotta take that chance some. We could maybe have won more with Purdy by not going so conservative to protect him. It's not like we would have to run Becht 10-15 times a game. It's sort of playing to not lose rather than using everything you have to try and win. I get the later is the Campbell Way but it's not likely the current scheme gets us to a bowl game or anything this year so play to win some of the games that we can. If we play those to not lose we will lose for sure unless we get a crazy good defensive gem.
The OL deserves criticism for the run game, but they have done the job in the pass game.
Being conservative /= ball control.
Moving the ball = ball control.
We killed it on time of possession this week and we ran with a little more tempo and went down field more. Turns out actually putting together drives helps you win time of possession. Don't need to be jet tempo but getting into a rhythm and going on a drive takes way more time then bleeding the clock and only running a few plays on a drive.
I've been wanting us to get more in a rhythm on offense the last few years. It seems like we move the ball better that way than just totally deflating momentum by trying to squeeze out every second. Again, doesn't have to be a jet tempo but playing with offensive rhythm and getting the defense on their heels is so important imo. Especially with our young team. Get them feeling good and keep going.
Moving the ball = ball control.
We killed it on time of possession this week and we ran with a little more tempo and went down field more. Turns out actually putting together drives helps you win time of possession. Don't need to be jet tempo but getting into a rhythm and going on a drive takes way more time then bleeding the clock and only running a few plays on a drive.
I've been wanting us to get more in a rhythm on offense the last few years. It seems like we move the ball better that way than just totally deflating momentum by trying to squeeze out every second. Again, doesn't have to be a jet tempo but playing with offensive rhythm and getting the defense on their heels is so important imo. Especially with our young team. Get them feeling good and keep going.
No way. They were in man and that is a common play. That is on the player.
They aren’t. It’s people overreacting to one disasterous week, then a bunch of our fans buying into it.
Exactly. That's where he screwed up against Iowa. You don't need 20 yard returns to have a good game. Make good decisions and get the yards that were there. OSUs coverage was pretty good so he just needed to field them cleanly and not let them roll. That run might be the best play he's made all year, even though it won't make a single highlight reel.
Hopefully this was a big confidence builder for him. He played a great game.
Curious, do you trust Campbell to let Rocco just play, like he did with Brock in his first year?
Or will he revert to form, and turtle up if he ever gets up by ten points?
It took intensive pressure to get him to open it up yesterday, because at 1-3 with losses to bad teams it would have resulted in that seat REALLY heating up.
The "team" isn't bad, but based on Saturday I'd say Bowman is not "the answer" and their secondary, at best, needs to clean up some major communication issues. They blew a lot of coverages, making things much easier than they should have been.
If we give teams with competent QBs as much time as we afforded Bowman yesterday, it will be problematic. A good QB, all other things being equal, tears us apart.
It is a common play.......and most coaches when they see their linebacker being exploited call timeout like right now. There is a reason defensive backs aren't playing linebacker and linebackers aren't playing defensive backs.
Our D has had the occasional bad game but you have trust Heacock to adjust and the D to play well again. Bowman is what he is. Not all that great but has played a ton of games and can be serviceable.
He just isn’t elusive like Purdy… Purdy always seems to make the first couple of guys miss and then he goes down after the line…
I don't know if his seat is really warm, and I don't want him fired.
All I know is if the 2017 version of Matt Campbell shows up against OU.........ISU has a much better chance of winning than the Matt Campbell trying to imitate Kirk Ferentz. In fact this year I would say that was/is the case in all games this year.
The line can pass block.....Rocco can throw....the receivers, while not barn burners look like they can catch the ball. The defense is still very good. No reason beating your head against a brick wall trying to establish something. And after 4 games other teams aren't concerned at all about the run. You won't even be keeping them honest. Let it fly coach!!!!!
I would argue that we would be in good shape to make a bowl with more aggressive play calls against Iowa and Ohio…
It also speaks to our OL being overall effective at pass blocking.
