The Offensive Line

[cycloneman003]

hicks is actually a very VERY big part of that OLine. he absolutely anchors the right side, and i personally think having him there makes burris much more settled down because he knows he has a really good player inside of him and can focus outside. our OL will be fine IMO

 

[CloneIce]

I kind of figured the OL would have some issues with two youngsters starting and a freshmen center, but I was hopeful after hearing the coaches discuss the position group. Really need Hicks back and KO. After this year, we will be almost out of Mcfarland's OL recruits, which is too bad because he really was good at finding solid, under-recruited OLmen. I think this years RS FR class will be good but probably not til they are Jrs.

 

[Al_4_State]

Worst O-line play I've seen from ISU since 2006.

 

[azepp]

The fact that the offensive line has its own thread should tell you all you need to know on this topic.

They were terrible last night.

 

[cyrocksmypants]

Whenever an FCS team has no problem getting pressure on our qb with a three man rush, you know there's a problem. That being said, you could arguably say that we have two offensive lineman that are NFL prospects, and neither of them played (technically KO did, but not really). Hopefully they'll be ready next week and I can make more of an educated guess at that point. If this same oline comes out next week, though, we may be the first team to have negative points, we'll lose so badly.

 

[HoopsTournament]

Big question: will Ko be back next week? If so, then I am not worried. The line is much different with Hicks and KO playing.

 

[reignofthetiger]

We were bad, but I think a lot of that had to do with the UNI DT Ben Boothby. He is a beast, which we could have only countered with Hicks... He's short, so his pad level is really low, plus he has a very strong wrestling background so he's quick and has great hands. All of those things play to exactly our line's weaknesses.

 

[hippiehawk]

Having two good O-lineman out can make an enormous difference, obviously.

 

[CyCloned]

the line play was horrible, not going to discount that, but with KO either out or not effective and Hicks out that takes away the whole side that the Clones would like to run to and get the two most experienced, best guys on the OL off the field. I have not heard what KOs problem was, but I hope he can come back full power next week.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I think losing KO and Hicks was crucial. Losing 40% of your line is a big deal and can make all the difference in the world. Obviously the depth isn't there behind two such important pieces in the O-line. Hopefully the game experience will help the back ups, and we'll get the full, regular line in action for a while.

 

[LutherBlue]

Shaban Dika (#73, I had to look it up) and Farniok were getting worked over by Boothby from UNI. It was a wretched night for those guys.

I kept thinking, wow we have to play OU this year. They will completely de-pants our guys.

 

[hawkfan]

Is KO seriously injured? Or was it just something minimal?

 

[BCClone]

KO was supposed to have tweeked an ankle they said. Went in and out a little I saw.

It looked like we were running screens all night by the way the line blocked, bump the D-Line and turn him loose. Some of our best plays were dumps to the back in the middle with Jantz backpeddling. We need to clean this up hard, this (and D Line) is our biggest concerns.

 

[cycloneace55]

Only excuse I heard on the call-in show and postgame show tonight was KO was injured, and they're starting with a new center (and that showed as he got beat badly a couple of times). A few false starts but no holding calls that I remember. That being said, I hope they get a lot better than this before next week. A LOT BETTER! Can't have free rushers coming up the middle, or Steele under pressure in no time against a 3-man rush.

Don't you have to get a hand on someone to get a holding call? I have never seen so many "look out" blocks in one game.

 

[CyBroncos]

They better get s**t straightened out this week or Iowa's D-line is going to dominate in the trenches. When we run our little predictable shotgun draws up the middle we'll be lucky to get back to the LOS

 

[isuno1fan]

I think the O-Line has been getting progressively worse since mid-2009. We started that season really, REALLY good and were running all over people and then it started to slowly dwindle from about game 6 or 7 onward.

UNI was getting in the backfield easily with a 3 man front against our 5. That's plain bad. Everyone gripes about Herman, but Bleil has done nothing to get my respect YET.

 

[clonedude]

Worst performance I've seen in a VERY long time. You know when Bruns says the same thing... it's bad.

This HAS to be the most over-hyped position group on this team every year. Last year we had KO, Alvarez, Lamaak, Hicks, and Burris.... and we still were VERY average. This year all we heard was that yes it hurt to lose Lamaak and Alvarez, but we were going to be improved anyway. Uhhh, maybe not?

KO not being 100% and Hicks being out obviously hurts, but there's no excuse for UNI's 3 man front to be on Jantz in no time flat.

Jantz didn't have a good night overall, but you can hardly blame him. We gave him absolutely no running game to speak of, and he was running for his life all night long. You are going to make some mistakes when the entire game is put on your shoulders in your first game on the big stage.

But this O-line was simply horrible last night. On some plays we'd have been better off to not have an O-line in there at all. At least then Steele wouldn't have had any expectations for someone to actually be able to block someone, and he could just take off an run immediately.

If this group doesn't improve by a HUGE amount this week, Steele had better take out a life insurance policy for the Iowa game. And no, I'm not kidding about that.

 

[dualthreat]

i think steele jantz deserves some credit after reading this thread. Rushing 3 guys or 4 and getting pressure is almost a sure fire way to have a terrible passing game.

I could probably make a generalization about any passing team. If the defense can get pressure with 4 guys against 5 o-linemen and a RB, allowing 7DB vs 4WR for the majority of the night, the passing team will lose 9 times out of 10.

 

[GoClones123]

UNI lost this game, I still believe it would have been a loss in our column if they hadn't reverted to the "DannyMac Prevent" late in the 4th quarter. They stopped doing what worked with overloading our offensive line, and went to 3 down D-lineman allowing Jantz to not have to find receivers out of the earhole in his helmet while running. If UNI would have played to win this game instead of playing to not lose it who knows what would have happened. But I think this also showed me that if Jantz is given a little time to read the field....he could really be something.

 

[cyatheart]

I think the O-Line has been getting progressively worse since mid-2009. We started that season really, REALLY good and were running all over people and then it started to slowly dwindle from about game 6 or 7 onward.

UNI was getting in the backfield easily with a 3 man front against our 5. That's plain bad. Everyone gripes about Herman, but Bleil has done nothing to get my respect YET.

Agree, they have been falling off and I can't figure out why. Last year we had KO, HH, and Lamaack and it still wasn't any good consistently. They were good agaisnt Texas and Neb but they also were terrible at times as well iin other games. With that kind of talent we shouldn't have any worries and yet....