The pressure was better than you think. NIU QB was not holding the ball long before running. Rhoads even mentioned that in the post game.
Nine observations from tonight
- Thread starter hawkfan
- Start date
The pressure was better than you think. NIU QB was not holding the ball long before running. Rhoads even mentioned that in the post game.
ISU has had some outstanding defenses over the years, if we could only remove the long TD runs by Nebraska and OU.
eiu looked solid in their opener last year.
The TV guys WAY over-stated the "guys wide open" thing.
I would personally say they were open or had a window of opportunity.
They could be called wide-open perhaps if Peyton Manning was pulling the trigger but not the guy playing for NIU.
I find this whole thing funny. I saw KO, Lamaak and Avarez miss blocks last night. Did they all of a sudden forget how to be a good lineman? No. It's the first game against a decent defense. It's WAY too early to make season-long conclusions. I don't think that the OL looked all that great against NDSU last year, but they came around. I mean, iowa doesn't have the market cornered on season long improvement, do they? I guess iowa can get better during the year, but everyone else has to either stay the same or get worse??
But what I find funny about the OP is that while multiple aspects of the ISU team were supposedly disappointing, and ISU has all these faults, iowa players won't make any mistakes. I guess if ISU plays like they did last night and every single iowa player plays at their top level, it WOULD be a blowout. Stazi would hit those open WRs. DJK and McNutt would tear up those DBs. Sure. Lord knows that Stanzi NEVER makes any mistakes and DJK NEVER drops a ball. Pretty easy to act like your team has no faults when they haven't played a game. I guess it won't change next week, though, because they just have an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday.
But what I find funny about the OP is that while multiple aspects of the ISU team were supposedly disappointing, and ISU has all these faults, iowa players won't make any mistakes. I guess if ISU plays like they did last night and every single iowa player plays at their top level, it WOULD be a blowout. Stazi would hit those open WRs. DJK and McNutt would tear up those DBs. Sure. Lord knows that Stanzi NEVER makes any mistakes and DJK NEVER drops a ball. Pretty easy to act like your team has no faults when they haven't played a game. I guess it won't change next week, though, because they just have an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday.
Hawkfan - instead of 9 things you observed maybe you shud have named this thread 8 things that ISU did wrong and 1 thing that was ok....
Anyhow, regarding this commentary.....lets remember a couple things from last nights game...
Oddsmakers were betting this game would be with 4 points swing - thats usually an indicator of what the expectations are for both teams...it wasnt as predicted, therefore the people who's living is based upon knowing all the numbers and how these two teams should matchup drastically underestimated the cyclones....
Your comment about WR running wide open was on two successive plays. One was a broken play scramble and your right, the db did fall off as the wr turned and ran deep while the db had his head turned watching the lb tackle the qb. on the second route it was a double lb blitz up the middle that was picked up and the db was trailing in coverage - no doubt, probably playing press because of the blitz.
Secondly, your comments directed at next weeks game give indications that you think Iowa has somehow or another developed a great offense.....thats not the case, it wasnt the case last year and it wont be the case again this year.....Iowas success is generated by a great running game and a great defense - period. The style of play is designed for the big ten and cold weather and has been highly successful. Also, iowa is a Execution first team and their always not as good early in the season as they are late, thats ferentz's coaching style and he's had a lot of success with it...he wants to be ready for the big ten period...if he loses to isu he could care less if that loss propels him to the big ten crown....
Lastly - the comments around AA...we will see who has a better year offensively AA or Ricky Bobbi....AA had a great game besides his two blunders trying to throw that middle routes with safety's sitting there...if your going to throw that route you have to look out wide to bring the safety with you and then come back to the middle and throw..staring down that deep slant is exactly what he did last year in the iowa game and iowa made us pay for it.....
regarding our opponent....lets not forget that defense was #30 in the nation in total defense and also #30 in the nation in scoring defense and they lost nobody. Their offensive running attack was 19th in the nation and here's some stats to compare them too....
in their loss to wisconsin last year they had:
NIU - 174 yards passing and 138 yards rushing - wisconsin had 281 passing and 159 rushing.
In their WIN over purdue they had:
NIU - 178 yards passing and 293 rushing and purdue had 188 passing and 151 rushing.
So for isu's game last night:
NIU - 93 yards passing and 156 rushing and ISU had 265 passing and 138 rushing.
So if you want to look at it from a numbers standpoint, ISU's numbers offensively were very comparable to Wisconsins, and Defensively we held our opponent to under 250 yards of total offense where as wisconsin gave up over 300....this is just me but from an innocent bystanders position, it would be easy to say that the performance although marked with mistakes and places for improvement was an excellent win over a team expected to win the MAC and as a hawkeye fan you should know that the mac is not a conference to take lightly (western michigan)...
Just sayin...
Stanzi plays well with the game on the line, and that was kind of my point. Arnaud has gone 97 yards in less than a minute needing a touchdown. On that drive he converted a 4th and long where he scrambled up the right side of the field, crossed to the left, picked up the first down, and then got out of bounds to stop the clock.
Is he prone to bone headed mistakes? You bet. But when it's late in the game, and ISU NEEDS a score, he usually gets it. Honestly, they're very similar QBs in the sense that they're both good for a bone headed play or two, but do more good than bad. Except for last year's Iowa/ISU game.
I thought the same thing about them putting up yards but not points. Then I saw the stats and they had less that 300 total yards. I was shocked.
You have to give the DL credit for the 2 tipped passes that led directly to INTs. I'm also assuming that Bailey Johnson was not at full strength for the game since it came out that he had missed some recent practices and it was up in the air if he would even play. If he can get better physically, the push from the middle of the line should improve.
What is more indicative of Arob as a whole? His 65 yard run or his 1200 yard season last year(with 100+ agaist Iowa). Keep in mind that run ended in a TD. NIU geared up to stop Arob and did for awhile, but the addition of a good passing game kept them off balance.
Question: What offensive line was he running behind last year?
Answer: A better one than he has this year.
Don't forget that NIU are run-stoppers. That's an emphasis, and they have always had great backs in their own backfield to practice against. Last year, opponents averaged something like 125 rushing yards per game, total. A-rob ran great against a run-stopping defense in an offense that passed the ball around.
You see problems because there are no videogame stats. I see balance and surprising combinations.
You see problems because there are no videogame stats. I see balance and surprising combinations.
Here's my point about Arob: Iowa doesn't give up big TD's to RB's.....it just doesn't happen. So if ISU can only average 2 YPC against NIU's defense....I have to imagine they'll struggle to run the ball on Iowa's...whose defense, I think we can all agree, is quite a bit better than NIU's. And, due to the effectiveness of Iowa's D at limiting long runs....we can also probably assume that Arob won't get helped out next week by a 64 yard run.
Correct, and this game would be considered an "outlier" when statiscally comparing Arob`s body of work over his career. The fact that he broke the big run for a TD further validates his body of work. He will have a solid ypc regardless, and he will find a way to contribute even with a stacked defensive front.
See the above quote....I think it explains pretty clearly why the game isn't considered an "outlier" in the context of THIS SEASON.
You've been lecturing us on sample sizes this entire thread, and now you're making conclusory statements based on one game?
I imagine you post only out of fear that eiu's D-line will give up a couple hundred more rushing yards to ISU next week.
What did A-Rob run for against eiu last year? What did ISU run for as a team against eiu last year?
Must be something about having "hawk" in the nickname. Jayhawk of Hawkeye, give them a Top Ten rated team and their fans think that makes them experts in that sport and can provide a full scouting critique of any team.
You determined this after the 1st game? A better determination will be made next week an beyond. The coaches claim this OL is as good or better than last year, and I will trust their analysis as opposed to yours. No disrespect to you of course.
LOL! What do you not get about this! Is Reggie Stephens suiting up for ISU next week? How about Scott Haughton?
ISU lost two really important lynch pins of their offensive line this offseason....so again...it really doesn't matter what happened LAST YEAR...it matters what will happen THIS YEAR.....and THIS YEAR ISU's OL, at least from what I saw last night, wasn't NEARLY as dominant as they were LAST YEAR, where ISU averaged over 5 YPC on Iowa.
Last year, no one slowed down ISU's rushing attack....this year...NIU did....draw your own conclusions I guess....
