1. ISU's OL, without any doubt, is not as strong as it was last season. As of my writing of this, Arob would only be averaging about 2.5 YPC if it weren't for his one big run and NIU is regularly pressuring Arnaud while only rushing 4. Arnaud is running the ball effectively with the zone read, but that is about the only thing the ISU ground game has going for it.
2. ISU's DL still cannot get any pressure on the QB. While rushing four, the NIU QB had all day to throw the ball.
3. ISU's DL held their own in run support more than I thought they would...that was a positive for ISU tonight.
4. ISU's young LB's look promising, but have a long way to go with regard to learning how to tackle and taking proper angles. ISU's LB's will be inconsistent this year...making a big play on one down, and giving up a 30+ yard TD on the next because they are out of position.
5. ISU's DB's did a very poor job sticking to the NIU WR's when they went deep...NIU had 2-3 TD's easy if their QB didn't look like he was trying to do his best impression of Jake Christiansen.
6. Arnaud still has his maddeningly frustrating habits of staring down WR's and throwing into blanketed zone coverage. His throws seem more accurate, but he still makes terrible decisions at times.
7. ISU's WR's had some impressive grabs tonight, and showed some good agility to gain YAC (Johnson/Darks in particular).
8. Colin Franklin is definitely going to be one of Arnaud's favorite targets this year. I'm actually very glad he had a big game tonight....the Iowa coaches will definitely try to cover him up next week.
9. ISU's DL is not deep...they wore down considerably as the game went on.
Overall, I think Wally has done one hell of a job with this defense. I expected to see "terrible", but instead what I saw was "average"....that guy does a hell of a job considering the talent he has to work with. Two things that appear to be "areas for improvement" for ISU: Tackling needs to improve and they need to either a.) get more pressure on the QB or b.) play better in the defensive backfield. The one thing I think ISU is going to get beat on this year consistently is the passing game. The DB's left guys wide open downfield tonight (though that was to somewhat be expected since ISU was playing run first), and I don't think NIU has any world beater WR's. Further, I think the green LB's could really struggle next week covering Iowa's LB's....getting Sims back will certainly help, but I don't see Benton holding his own against McNutt...I expect McNutt to have a big game next week.
ISU's offense actually looked pretty formidable at times....but then inconsistency struck. ISU kept shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and the inability to run the ball consistently like they could last season. Arnaud's INT's continue to kill the ISU offense...he needs to iron those out. Overall, I don't think NIU has a great defense, and ISU struggled to run the ball as the game wore on...if that is the case...it will be a long season for ISU, because I am not convinced Arnaud can put this team on his shoulders and win them games.
Final thoughts: Offense looked better than expected for the 1st quarter, then looked like what I thought it would in quarters 2-4. Defense looked better than expected throughout the entire game....but they did where down in the 4th quarter. I won't make any prediction about next week's game before watching Iowa, but these are my thoughts on ISU. I will say I am slightly more nervous about this game simply from what I saw out of ISU's offense in the 1st quarter than I was before tonight....but if ISU plays as inconsistently next week as they did tonight, next week's game won't be close. If ISU plays as well next week as they did in the 1st quarter tonight, it will probably be a game. I'll make my actual prediction sometime next week.
2. ISU's DL still cannot get any pressure on the QB. While rushing four, the NIU QB had all day to throw the ball.
3. ISU's DL held their own in run support more than I thought they would...that was a positive for ISU tonight.
4. ISU's young LB's look promising, but have a long way to go with regard to learning how to tackle and taking proper angles. ISU's LB's will be inconsistent this year...making a big play on one down, and giving up a 30+ yard TD on the next because they are out of position.
5. ISU's DB's did a very poor job sticking to the NIU WR's when they went deep...NIU had 2-3 TD's easy if their QB didn't look like he was trying to do his best impression of Jake Christiansen.
6. Arnaud still has his maddeningly frustrating habits of staring down WR's and throwing into blanketed zone coverage. His throws seem more accurate, but he still makes terrible decisions at times.
7. ISU's WR's had some impressive grabs tonight, and showed some good agility to gain YAC (Johnson/Darks in particular).
8. Colin Franklin is definitely going to be one of Arnaud's favorite targets this year. I'm actually very glad he had a big game tonight....the Iowa coaches will definitely try to cover him up next week.
9. ISU's DL is not deep...they wore down considerably as the game went on.
Overall, I think Wally has done one hell of a job with this defense. I expected to see "terrible", but instead what I saw was "average"....that guy does a hell of a job considering the talent he has to work with. Two things that appear to be "areas for improvement" for ISU: Tackling needs to improve and they need to either a.) get more pressure on the QB or b.) play better in the defensive backfield. The one thing I think ISU is going to get beat on this year consistently is the passing game. The DB's left guys wide open downfield tonight (though that was to somewhat be expected since ISU was playing run first), and I don't think NIU has any world beater WR's. Further, I think the green LB's could really struggle next week covering Iowa's LB's....getting Sims back will certainly help, but I don't see Benton holding his own against McNutt...I expect McNutt to have a big game next week.
ISU's offense actually looked pretty formidable at times....but then inconsistency struck. ISU kept shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and the inability to run the ball consistently like they could last season. Arnaud's INT's continue to kill the ISU offense...he needs to iron those out. Overall, I don't think NIU has a great defense, and ISU struggled to run the ball as the game wore on...if that is the case...it will be a long season for ISU, because I am not convinced Arnaud can put this team on his shoulders and win them games.
Final thoughts: Offense looked better than expected for the 1st quarter, then looked like what I thought it would in quarters 2-4. Defense looked better than expected throughout the entire game....but they did where down in the 4th quarter. I won't make any prediction about next week's game before watching Iowa, but these are my thoughts on ISU. I will say I am slightly more nervous about this game simply from what I saw out of ISU's offense in the 1st quarter than I was before tonight....but if ISU plays as inconsistently next week as they did tonight, next week's game won't be close. If ISU plays as well next week as they did in the 1st quarter tonight, it will probably be a game. I'll make my actual prediction sometime next week.
