Nine observations from tonight

[CyCloned]

The ISU OL has some things to clean up, but a lot of the lack of running was from the way NIU was attacking the LOS, daring AA to beat them through the air. Having everyone in the box can stop a running game, but it can also give up a huge play. Don't forget that AA had a 55 yard td called back by a PS alignment penalty. With another 55 yards and 7 points, that game would have been a blow out.

 

[isuno1fan]

OL was my biggest disappointment. Truthfully, I thought they got worse as the year wore on last year. Will need to do much better against Iowa because we will need an established run to win that game.

 

[hawkeyescott]

People can talk all they want about our OLine sucking, but I thought they did a good job on the pass rush. I don't think AA got sacked once did he? He only got hurried a few times. Thats gotta be worth something.

And he won't get sacked much because the system ISU has is a lot of short quick passes to the flat or 5 yard outs before any rush is even started, how many balls did AA throw over 20 yards last night where he had to stand in the pocket for 3 or 4 seconds?

 

[hawkfan]

There were quite a few problems, but the good news is that we didn't get "out-talented" at any position. i.e. - I think almost all of our problems are fixable with a little coaching.

The two biggest problems.....

- The DB's were out of position a few times (mostly the safeties...we need Sims), but I don't think they got "beat". They just need to be in better position which is coachable.

- We missed a lot of tackles, but were in the right position to make them. Just need to work on technique. Again, coaching.

Now, with those two things being said....we only gave up 10 pts. Obviously, Iowa will take advantage of our mistakes better than NI did, but lets face it...the Iowa offense isn't gonna light the world on fire as long as we don't give them 4+ turnovers again.

Our biggest problem next week will be scoring points. How long has it been since we scored a TD against Iowa? That has to be remedied to have any chance of being in the game.

Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's like the NIU QB did.....if the NIU QB didn't suck, NIU easily had two more TD"s last night when his WR had the DB beat and he just couldn't get the ball there.

ISU's DB's are going to have to play well next week in order to slow down DJK/McNutt/Davis.

 

[Cyrocks]

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.

And Arob would have been averaged 5.8 yards a carry if you take away his one yard run and kept his one big run. :wideeyed:

See how stupid your comment is.

 

[hawkfan]

The ISU OL has some things to clean up, but a lot of the lack of running was from the way NIU was attacking the LOS, daring AA to beat them through the air. Having everyone in the box can stop a running game, but it can also give up a huge play. Don't forget that AA had a 55 yard td called back by a PS alignment penalty. With another 55 yards and 7 points, that game would have been a blow out.

There were plenty of times last night where there were only 7 in the box and one of NIU's front four just got in the backfield and stopped Arob in his tracks.

 

[dtclones]

And he won't get sacked much because the system ISU has is a lot of short quick passes to the flat or 5 yard outs before any rush is even started, how many balls did AA throw over 20 yards last night where he had to stand in the pocket for 3 or 4 seconds?

That's a good point, but even besides not getting sacked, it's not like the OL was just collapsing on every play. AA wasn't getting knocked down after many of his passes. I thought they held their own pretty well. Yeah, it's only going to get tougher, but I think they deserve some credit.

 

[Cyclone1985]

Our OL could not dominate NIU's DL, so I hardly think we can dominate Iowa's?

Outside of Arob's one big run, tell me another good run he had? 18 carries for 35 yds if you take away his long one. 2 yds per carry is BAD. And AA was flushed from the pocket numerous times as well. I really think this OL is going to get chewed pretty good in the video room.

Our OL was dominating Iowa in the first half last year in the run game. ARob was ripping off 6+ yds a crack last year against Iowa in the first half. I didn't see that kind of dominance last night at all. I hope to see a big improvement next week.

i hate when people say that stuff. Thats like saying, well minus AA's 25 completions, he was 0-2 with 2 INTs. The fact is, Arob did have a huge run, because of great blokcing. Quit taking it away from him.

After AA took one to the house, but was called back, and Arobs long run, they keyed on stoppping the zone-read the rest of the game. Without those two big runs, they might not have put much emphasis on stopping that, meaning more yards per carry.

 

[hawkeyescott]

There were quite a few problems, but the good news is that we didn't get "out-talented" at any position. i.e. - I think almost all of our problems are fixable with a little coaching.

The two biggest problems.....

- The DB's were out of position a few times (mostly the safeties...we need Sims), but I don't think they got "beat". They just need to be in better position which is coachable.

- We missed a lot of tackles, but were in the right position to make them. Just need to work on technique. Again, coaching.

Now, with those two things being said....we only gave up 10 pts. Obviously, Iowa will take advantage of our mistakes better than NI did, but lets face it...the Iowa offense isn't gonna light the world on fire as long as we don't give them 4+ turnovers again.

Our biggest problem next week will be scoring points. How long has it been since we scored a TD against Iowa? That has to be remedied to have any chance of being in the game.

The Iowa O won't light the world on fire, but Stanzi won't miss the wide open WR's either like the NIU QB did last night. Also didn't NIU have 3 missed FG's? I know they had a 1st and goal and came away with 0 points, you can't count on the ISU D to stuff Iowa like that. Iowa can put up points and I think they will, IMO ISU needs to make more improvement on their D next week to have a chance, the O is going to be just fine.

 

[Cyrocks]

Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's like the NIU QB did.....if the NIU QB didn't suck, NIU easily had two more TD"s last night when his WR had the DB beat and he just couldn't get the ball there.{QUOTE]

I'm wondering how you actually type in "Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's" without dying of laughter. He does it a lot, you know.

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

NIU's front 4 was damn good. We were without the captain of our defense. We are worlds ahead of where we were this time last season. If we played some pee wee team like last season ISU would have crushed them.

 

[dtclones]

Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's like the NIU QB did.....if the NIU QB didn't suck, NIU easily had two more TD"s last night when his WR had the DB beat and he just couldn't get the ball there.

ISU's DB's are going to have to play well next week in order to slow down DJK/McNutt/Davis.

Wrong. If you want to play that game, those two plays were within the same series so they would have gotten one TD. Holding that team to 17 would have still been an accomplishment.

 

[weR138]

Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's like the NIU QB did.....if the NIU QB didn't suck, NIU easily had two more TD"s last night when his WR had the DB beat and he just couldn't get the ball there.

ISU's DB's are going to have to play well next week in order to slow down DJK/McNutt/Davis.

You should take up the analysis thing professionally. Good stuff.

 

[Cyclone1985]

And Arob would have been averaged 5.8 yards a carry if you take away his one yard run and kept his one big run. :wideeyed:

See how stupid your comment is.

Thank you!

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Stanzi isn't going to miss wide open WR's like the NIU QB did.....if the NIU QB didn't suck, NIU easily had two more TD"s last night when his WR had the DB beat and he just couldn't get the ball there.

ISU's DB's are going to have to play well next week in order to slow down DJK/McNutt/Davis.

How the hell do you even know Stanzi plays in the game? How do you know how he plays tomorrow? Iowa has not even step foot on the field and you are already this stuff. Iowa may come out tomorrow and not keep Stanzi upright long enough to throw. Let Iowa play a damn game before you start trash talking, remember UNI?

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Arnuad had a td called back I believe the 5th play of the game. I only know one drive where NIU should have scored a TD. ISU left at least 14 points on the field.

 

[hawkeyescott]

NIU's front 4 was damn good. We were without the captain of our defense. We are worlds ahead of where we were this time last season. If we played some pee wee team like last season ISU would have crushed them.

You're giving the NIU front 4 way to much credit, they will be at most the 5th best DL the ISU OL will face this year behind, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Thats fine, 1st game of the season not bad EXPERIENCE. I would rather play the 5th best DLine we will face all year than not even a D1 caliber team (EIU) in week 1, ISU will be ready next Saturday, you can bank on it.

 

[hawkfan]

For those of you complaining about "taking away Arob's one big run" - obviously you don't follow statistics.

If Arob had 1 big run and 19 bad ones....do you know what that 1 big run is called? It's called an outlier...the 19 bad ones are the more statistically relevant runs.

 

[clonedude]

Arnuad had a td called back I believe the 5th play of the game. I only know one drive where NIU should have scored a TD. ISU left at least 14 points on the field.

Off the top of my head, I believe NIU had several chances at TD's in our redzone. I could be wrong about that though?