Nine observations from tonight

hawkfan

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Feb 18, 2009
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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.

Do you believe that Nebraska's defense will be better this year without Suh just because Bo Pelini says so? Hell no.

What are the coaches supposed to say? "There is absolutely no chance that our offensive line will play to the level it did last year"? They can't go out and say that.
 

MartyFine

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Jul 7, 2009
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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....

No, Hayworth Hicks is. Hicks played a ton in 2008, and would have started last year except for off-field stuff that kept him out. Burris is the best athlete on the line according to Yancey Thigpen, and this is a line with one guy who will probably play in the NFL in Osemele, and another in Lamaak who will get a look.

Please enlighten us on all of our other position groups, genius.
 

clonestar12

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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....

160 yards and 3TDs on the ground is slowing down the run? Add in 250 yds passing, and we will take that every time. If you are trying to claim that the offense is more balanced and does not need to be centered on the run, then I am with you all the way.

How many sacks did NIU have? Let me save you some time. They were credited with one, when Burris stepped on Arnaud`s foot and he went down. OL performance is not just based upon the run, so your statistical model is flawed when trying to compare the OL`s.
 

hawkfan

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Feb 18, 2009
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No, Hayworth Hicks is. Hicks played a ton in 2008, and would have started last year except for off-field stuff that kept him out. Burris is the best athlete on the line according to Yancey Thigpen, and this is a line with one guy who will probably play in the NFL in Osemele, and another in Lamaak who will get a look.

Please enlighten us on all of our other position groups, genius.

That "beastly line" got owned all night by the NIU defense except for one play....sorry if I'm a little bit skeptical of its ability as of now.

Again, I don't think ISU will have a terrible line this year...go back to my OP...I'm just saying considering what I saw....it was clear to me this line WON'T be as good as last years line. ISU's OL impressed me in week 1 last year....this year that was not the case.
 

swammi

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May 10, 2009
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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.

1 That is not a very accurate observation on the OL. You can take out A-Rob's long run, in which Aklvarez drove the Middle Linebacker into the stands and Ossemelee cleaned out the other side and made a hole you could put a semi through side-ways. And you could disregard Arnaud's 60 yd trot to the endzone untouched (more killer blocking) that got called back, and all his other rushes. And that fourth down play where Arnaud strolled along behind center while the Oline drove the Huskies four yards downfield on a fourth and one (after they lined up tight and telegraphed to everyone exactly what the play was and where it was going), and you could totally disregard the fact that we had only one punt late in the game, and our offense did what it wanted to. In other wordw, if you ignored all the evidence to the contrary, you could reach the conclusion that you did.

2 Grady threw 3 INT's and got sacked once. Of the three, 2 were tipped by rushing members of the front four. I think they bothered him a little.

9 ISU played 6 guys at D Tackle. They were all effective.

You overlooked probably the biggest thing. The major thing you overlooked was the ISU punter. I bet Ferentz didn't miss that performance. I was worried coming into this game about our kicking. Now, I'm petrified.

Other than that, I think you are right on.
 

hawkfan

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Feb 18, 2009
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That "beastly line" got owned all night by the NIU defense except for one play....sorry if I'm a little bit skeptical of its ability as of now.

Again, I don't think ISU will have a terrible line this year...go back to my OP...I'm just saying considering what I saw....it was clear to me this line WON'T be as good as last years line. ISU's OL impressed me in week 1 last year....this year that was not the case.

Someone here can argue with me if they want to make the following statement:

"I think this years ISU offensive line will be equal to or better than last years"

Is there anyone that wants to make the above statement?

Again, I'll clarify for the 3rd or 4th time, I'm not saying ISU will have a BAD OL, I'm saying their OL WON'T be as good as last seasons.
 

clonestar12

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Do you believe that Nebraska's defense will be better this year without Suh just because Bo Pelini says so? Hell no.

What are the coaches supposed to say? "There is absolutely no chance that our offensive line will play to the level it did last year"? They can't go out and say that.

Yes, I do. The same 5 or 6 OL don`t play every down of every game. Developing depth is key to the strength of the OL or DL for that matter. I would expect you to understand rotations If Neb lost Suh, but developed 3 or 4 other DL, then absolutely I would consider their unit to be stronger.
 

The_Architect

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Apr 11, 2006
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Someone here can argue with me if they want to make the following statement:

"I think this years ISU offensive line will be equal to or better than last years"

Is there anyone that wants to make the above statement?

Again, I'll clarify for the 3rd or 4th time, I'm not saying ISU will have a BAD OL, I'm saying their OL WON'T be as good as last seasons.

CPR just said in an interview this week that the O-line would be better than last years.
 

oldman

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Nov 5, 2009
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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.

Please don't mistake my statement as thinking the DL did not do a good job. I was merely pointing to Hawkfan's analysis of the DL not getting a good pass rush. Actually, I thought they had the opposing QB on the run quite often. He definitely was not standing back in the pocket, picking us apart.

I just think that the game plan probably leaned more toward stopping the run, as that was supposed to be NIU's main threat. I think the front seven did an admirable job of making Spann pretty much a non-factor. He had a couple good runs, but for the most part, he was held in check. The 3rd down defense was outstanding.
 

MartyFine

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Someone here can argue with me if they want to make the following statement:

"I think this years ISU offensive line will be equal to or better than last years"

Is there anyone that wants to make the above statement?

Again, I'll clarify for the 3rd or 4th time, I'm not saying ISU will have a BAD OL, I'm saying their OL WON'T be as good as last seasons.

You base your opinion on the first game from last year where ISU played a weak 1-AA team, and the first game from this year when ISU played one of the MAC favorites that returned I believe 11 starters from a team that was 30th in total defense last year.

Really difficult to refute your bullet proof opinion.
 

jdoggivjc

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Sep 27, 2006
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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....

And??? Are you next going to tell me that Iowa's defense is going to be weaker overall because they had to replace a few players from last season? :confused:

As the previous poster said, I'll take the coaching staff's word that the O-line is better this year compared to last than your word.
 

clonestar12

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Someone here can argue with me if they want to make the following statement:

"I think this years ISU offensive line will be equal to or better than last years"

Is there anyone that wants to make the above statement?

Again, I'll clarify for the 3rd or 4th time, I'm not saying ISU will have a BAD OL, I'm saying their OL WON'T be as good as last seasons.[/QU

Good for you, and I am hopeful that Clayborn and Co feel the same way next week. I would bet that he is regretting making the inflamatory statements earlier this year. Good luck next week. I expect the game to be decided late.
 

abcguyks

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Apr 11, 2006
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Sorry if this has already been noted, but I just realized that EIU is playing EIU this week. I'm going to be so confused - who should I be pulling for?
 

Steve

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Apr 11, 2006
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And??? Are you next going to tell me that Iowa's defense is going to be weaker overall because they had to replace a few players from last season? :confused:

As the previous poster said, I'll take the coaching staff's word that the O-line is better this year compared to last than your word.

I saw two encouraging developments last night - both from the new starters. Burris might not be quite as physical at this point as Haughton was, but he is light years ahead of him in terms of pass protection. This is an upgrade in terms of what is desired at RT in terms of protecting the pocket edge from speed rushers.

I expected Hicks to be physical, but I was surprisingly pleased with how well he did on some of the pull plays and 2nd level blocks.

I can see why the staff believes that this year's OL could be better than last year - especially when you factor in the backup guys that can contribute if needed.
 

Bubbahotep

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I would have loved to see hawkfan's nine observations after the UNI - Iowa game last year. I'm glad we didn't play a perfect game, because then there would be nothing to tweak. I would rather win and stink doing it than stink and lose. This coaching staff obviously knows what they are doing, Rome was not built in a day. Just remember years 1-3 in the Ferentz era.
 

hawkfan

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Feb 18, 2009
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I would have loved to see hawkfan's nine observations after the UNI - Iowa game last year. I'm glad we didn't play a perfect game, because then there would be nothing to tweak. I would rather win and stink doing it than stink and lose. This coaching staff obviously knows what they are doing, Rome was not built in a day. Just remember years 1-3 in the Ferentz era.

Oh, I absolutely love Rhoads. I think he is the best coach ISU has had since Earl Bruce. Don't get me wrong on that.

I'm simply talking with regard to this year....I think within 5 years ISU will be consistently within the top 5 of the Big 12 conference (I see ISU being a team that could be 9-3/8-4 regularly with Rhoads there). I really like Rhoads, but I think it will be 2012 or 2013 before ISU really sees what he is capable of as a coach.
 

KMAC_ATTACK

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Feb 20, 2007
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LOL! What do you not get about this! Is Reggie Stephens suiting up for ISU next week? How about Scott Haughton?

SO hawkfan, let me ask you this - based upon your original comment, that the game next week is a blowout if our db's cant cover better then allowing 93 yards passing.

Using your logic, why would you think your offense will be better is Bulaga, Eubanks, Doering, Calloway, Moeaki, Stross, suiting up for Iowa tomorrow??? Iowa has 4 returning starters on offense yet all hawkeye fans think the offense will be vastly improved....

We shall see, we know the defense is the heart and soul of that team....
 

Bubbahotep

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Jul 23, 2008
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Oh, I absolutely love Rhoads. I think he is the best coach ISU has had since Earl Bruce. Don't get me wrong on that.

I'm simply talking with regard to this year....I think within 5 years ISU will be consistently within the top 5 of the Big 12 conference (I see ISU being a team that could be 9-3/8-4 regularly with Rhoads there). I really like Rhoads, but I think it will be 2012 or 2013 before ISU really sees what he is capable of as a coach.
I think this coaching staff knows the teams limitations and coaches around them, which is very similar to O'keefe and Parker. I just think this team is ahead of the curve, right now.
 

Cyclone1985

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Nov 18, 2008
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I am looking forward to his 9 observations from the EIU game:

here is a sample

1. Iowa won 28-14, but 14 of those points were in the 4th quarter when our defense wasnt trying.
2. Stanzi's 2 INTs are outliers. The rest of the game he was 12-20.
3. Clayborn never got to the QB in the backfield, because Norm was trying a new scheme where the D-End spies the QB.