Neutralizing Iowa's best player

[cyphoon]

In order to win Saturday, I feel like we have to neutralize Iowa's biggest threat. He hurt us last year, and is the main reason they eked out a win last week.

I would like to see us bring some token punt block pressure. SDSU was content to just let him sit back there and calculate his punts. If Taylor doesn't sense any pressure, he a will hold the ball and wait for his coverage to get a running start. Why let them do that?

I would like to see us always bring 2 or 3 rushers from his right side. Take away that rugby nonsense and put some heat on him. Yeah, we risk taking a 15 yard penalty. So what?. Iowa's offense likely isn't going anywhere. Those same 15 yards would have shown up in the punt if gave him all the time he wanted.

10 of Iowa's 60 offensive snaps are going to be punts. We can't just concede those to them.

H

 

[dosry5]

Is Petrash the best player for us in this game?

 

[madguy30]

I'm more concerned with Jack Campbell and their D line.

 

[Cychl82]

Take away LaPorta and they’re completely effed because Petras can’t complete anything past 10 yards in coverage

 

[DeereClone]

You don’t have to go for the block necessarily but you have to get some pressure on him. If you don’t, he will stand there for 3 seconds while the gunners run down the field, then he will punt it and the gunner will catch the punt inside the 5 yard line.

 

[Frak]

I think it’s pretty obvious that you need to rush him and then plan on fair catching everything you can.

 

[NorthCyd]

 

[StPaulCyclone]

In order to win Saturday, I feel like we have to neutralize Iowa's biggest threat. He hurt us last year, and is the main reason they eked out a win last week.

I would like to see us bring some token punt block pressure. SDSU was content to just let him sit back there and calculate his punts. If Taylor doesn't sense any pressure, he a will hold the ball and wait for his coverage to get a running start. Why let them do that?

I would like to see us always bring 2 or 3 rushers from his right side. Take away that rugby nonsense and put some heat on him. Yeah, we risk taking a 15 yard penalty. So what?. Iowa's offense likely isn't going anywhere. Those same 15 yards would have shown up in the punt if gave him all the time he wanted.

10 of Iowa's 60 offensive snaps are going to be punts. We can't just concede those to them.

H

And we may need to go for it on more 4th downs…seriously.

 

[stateofmind]

I'm glad Charlie Jones is at Purdue now. He was the guy that killed us last year. He had a huge game against Penn State Thursday.

 

[KennyPratt42]

On short field punts against Iowa blocking them from getting downfield to down the punt is likely more effective than trying to get a punt rush (both raises the chances of it getting into the end zone or the returner being able to field the punt and gain a few yards). Also, instead of letting anything go over your head at the 10 moving that back to the 5 probably makes sense.

 

[KidSilverhair]

I would like to see us bring some token punt block pressure. SDSU was content to just let him sit back there and calculate his punts. If Taylor doesn't sense any pressure, he a will hold the ball and wait for his coverage to get a running start. Why let them do that?

I was thinking the same thing. SDSU’s strategy was apparently “don’t rush, let’s set up the return instead,” only to never get the chance at any returns (or, if they seemed to have a chance, watching the return guy let the punt hit and roll until he didn‘t have a chance anymore).

If you rush Taylor, you probably won’t have the chance at a return and you’ll have to fair catch. If you don‘t rush him and give him all the time he wants, you’ll never get a chance to return it and you’ll likely end up with Iowa downing the ball instead of even a fair catch. So let’s put a little pressure on him and try to make him, if not rush his kicks, at least not take forever to choose his angles and strides.

He’s an incredible weapon for the Hawkeyes - he alone can give them the field position advantage all day. Just don’t make it easy for him to do that.

 

[KidSilverhair]

On short field punts against Iowa blocking them from getting downfield to down the punt is likely more effective than trying to get a punt rush (both raises the chances of it getting into the end zone or the returner being able to field the punt and gain a few yards). Also, instead of letting anything go over your head at the 10 moving that back to the 5 probably makes sense.

Although this is a good take as well.

 

[KCClone1]

Teams rarely do this, but what about sending two returners back? One deeper and one shorter. That way there is much less chance of a punt bouncing for an extra 15-20 yards. You absolutely can't let the punt hit the ground unless it is inside the 5 yard line.

 

[KennyPratt42]

Although this is a good take as well.

The thing I really didn’t like is SDSU would “rush” two. They would hardly get to the 3 shield blockers prior to the punt. I’m sure the thinking is to prevent the chance of a punter fake punt run, but they weren’t even doing much to accomplish that. Iowa sends 7 downfield at the snap (they get close to covered players being too far down field prior to the kick but it never gets called) so your best play is to block 10 on 7. Double the two gunners, one jam at the line and the other picks him up as he gets downfield. Then 4 on 5 at the line (can’t cover up the long snapper) with two in linebacker/safety depth, first being fake punt protect then picking up the first two from the line to get downfield.

 

[KennyPratt42]

Also, the returner absolutely has to field this punt. If you don’t think one guy can cover the width of the field you have to put two back like KCClone1 suggests.

 

[CycloneVet]

All out block everytime, you are bound to get one. Plus he may shank one under heavy pressure

 

[Statefan10]

Teams rarely do this, but what about sending two returners back? One deeper and one shorter. That way there is much less chance of a punt bouncing for an extra 15-20 yards. You absolutely can't let the punt hit the ground unless it is inside the 5 yard line.

Only problem with this is you now have two guys back there who have to communicate who’s ball it is. Could spell trouble for us.

 

[KidSilverhair]

Also, the returner absolutely has to field this punt. If you don’t think one guy can cover the width of the field you have to put two back like KCClone1 suggests.

SDSU did that several times, having the return guy watch the punt land in front of him and then just … letting it roll. You have to get the fair catch on those.

 

[KennyPratt42]

All out block everytime, you are bound to get one. Plus he may shank one under heavy pressure

You will never get one or rush a good punter into a shank on a short field punt, it’s a two step kick so there’s not enough time unless it’s a real bad snap.

 

[KidSilverhair]

Only problem with this is you now have two guys back there who have to communicate who’s ball it is. Could spell trouble for us.

Never! Why would you ever think a thing like that would happen to Iowa State in a Cy-Hawk game? Inconceivable!