No worries. Never stopped anyone else on this board from telling us the right answers after the fact before.
THE SUNDAY AFTER: TCU
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
No worries. Never stopped anyone else on this board from telling us the right answers after the fact before.
Manning put up 41 points on Iowa, and the offense was more functional against TCU last year.
I'm not saying Tom Manning was the OC GOAT, I'm just saying his offense was better than anything we've seen this year, and this year's offense would be better with him on staff.
The defense is really good, so I think they are just being very conservative and hoping that playmakers will do enough to score a few points.
Can we have a series like this for basketball...?
Maybe something JS could write because he used to play at a relatively high level...?
Maybe not after every game, but weekly or something?
You’re saying the same thing. Beyer isn’t implying that a collection of those plays randomly lumped together would fix it imo.
Nevertheless, your point is spot on imo. The timing and feel for context in our play calling is what you typically expect from a team with a big talent advantage.
If our goal is ball control because we feel good about our defense and think our margin for error is small, do we really achieve ball control by intentionally being easy to defend? If we’re so limited in talent, is it more likely we’ll have success repeatedly executing transparent, optionless plays for long drives? I think we’d have better luck getting lucky from a mistake/slip by the defense. If the defense slips up in our current approach, it results in 5 more yard
This is going to be posted every week isn't it?
I could buy being conservative against Akron at home. But TCU on the road???
Yeah....it's conference play a month into the season.
Let it rip or at least get things going downhill to stress the defense.
Not a bad thought. BB is much more simple and less scheming compared to FB. It's a game of back and forth runs. FB has a lot more moving parts and nuances to analyze, but you can still pinpoint some things after a couple BB games.
These quotes sum up my feelings pretty well. And, once again, excellent analysis by Jay.
Some here are saying that Campbell wants to make ISU an "Iowa 2.0", or some version of a team that undertakes long, grind-it-out 10-15 play time consuming drives to take pressure off the defense. I can understand the philosophy in some circumstances.
Because of the high offensive precision required to pull this off, I personally think this scheme is better suited to a team playing in a weak division, and in a conference where you miss 1 or 2 (or sometimes more) of the best teams every year (like the Big 12 North of the mid 2000s, or where Iowa is now), rather than in a conference where most teams have an above-average functional offense, and where you have to face the best teams every year. We'll see.
In any case, the bottom line is that the game is won by scoring more points than the opponent. When the opponent's defense can anticipate or successfully defend a significant percentage of your plays because those plays are too predictable and don't challenge the defense, ISU is simply not going to score enough points to win.
For the past two years, ISU has not consistently achieved those those long grind-it-out drives to keep the opponent's offense off the field. Yet, the defense has managed to do well in containing the other Big 12 offenses in games where the ISU offense has not produced. Maybe the (what often seems) extreme offensive conservatism isn't necessary to enable the defense to be successful???
There should be some way to balance the long-term (implementing an offensive philosophy) with the short-term (making in-game adjustments that can lead to a few more points being scored to win games). Winning, especially in a coach's early tenure, does matter.
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He's been noting the same problems every week. This isn't rocket science. The fact is that we come with very basic playbook and conservative play calling. We haven't had a designed run outside the tackle, what, maybe three times all year?
Let me know if this is a fair simplification --
Our best game plan of the season was Oklahoma, even if we lost.
Try and do that more.
But we haven't averaged 23 points per game. And there's a reason why we haven't.
Yup. I think that was Jay's and Beyer's point. We play to easily diagnosed tendencies. Jay's been advocating for running to the edge since last year (he's finally given up). All off season he talked about utilizing Kene and others on the perimeter. Jeez, Noland broke tendency and took off to convert a 3rd and 25. I'm still laughing about his run, but it was an ugly thing of beauty. It feels like there's some stubborness and some perfectionism at play in trying to build the "right" kind of offense. Our defense has tried a lot of stuff and is constantly evolving. There's some room for the offense to take a similar approach and stay within the overall Plan.
That's the shocking thing. Our defense is wildly multiple and constantly doing different things. There was more than one staff last year that said we didn't do anything they had seen on tape. Then we have the offense that almost refuses to use the middle of the field. Yeah, you can find instances of throws in the middle, but it's amazing how often no ones doing anything there. Don't get me started on the 10+ yard routes to the outsides with no one coming into the middle on 3rd and 4.
You mentioned Kene. I'll mention Milton. That guy, when he's had the chance, looks to have some real juice. Run some middle screens or try to get him on a LB across the middle.
I understand Campbell's desire to play things conservatively, keep the game close and hope to get the critical crunch time scoring drive. Problem is Zeb Noland isn't an accurate possession passer that can consistently put together 10 play drives. That is Kyle Kempf's strength.
Zeb has a strong (although not accurate) arm. Campbell needs to stretch the field vertically with a lot more 15+ yard routes than we are currently seeing. I realize the pass blocking has be mediocre, but there are ways to scheme around that. Max protect by keeping a TE or RB or both to provide pass protection. Also roll Zeb out to move the pocket. Right now we are an easy team to blitz because Zeb WILL be standing on a spot.
The staff should break tendency - we are close to 100% reliant on the QB zone read runs by Montgomery. For it to be effective, Zeb has to run some. Not a lot but maybe 4-5x per game to keep defenses honest. As Jay mentioned we need to attack with perimeter runs. Great spread teams use jet sweeps and reverses as a staple of their run game. I would also think Montgomery would be a great screen RB.
Also we had great success with the Lanning run package the last few years. Not sure why we wouldn't use Mitchell at QB or even Montgomery. Wasn't Montgomery a QB in HS?
Our defense has been solid, but teams are adjusting and learning to attack with off tackle/perimeter runs. I think we will need to use 4-2-5 alignments to stop the run and also get more pressure on opposing QB's.
Zeb has a strong (although not accurate) arm. Campbell needs to stretch the field vertically with a lot more 15+ yard routes than we are currently seeing. I realize the pass blocking has be mediocre, but there are ways to scheme around that. Max protect by keeping a TE or RB or both to provide pass protection. Also roll Zeb out to move the pocket. Right now we are an easy team to blitz because Zeb WILL be standing on a spot.
The staff should break tendency - we are close to 100% reliant on the QB zone read runs by Montgomery. For it to be effective, Zeb has to run some. Not a lot but maybe 4-5x per game to keep defenses honest. As Jay mentioned we need to attack with perimeter runs. Great spread teams use jet sweeps and reverses as a staple of their run game. I would also think Montgomery would be a great screen RB.
Also we had great success with the Lanning run package the last few years. Not sure why we wouldn't use Mitchell at QB or even Montgomery. Wasn't Montgomery a QB in HS?
Our defense has been solid, but teams are adjusting and learning to attack with off tackle/perimeter runs. I think we will need to use 4-2-5 alignments to stop the run and also get more pressure on opposing QB's.
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I wish this were true. This run used the sideline as a protector. I do not believe Noland can safely run the ball.
He’s not great, but he’s not Kempt bad either.
He’s good enough to run when it’s there, but maybe they don’t want him to given true freshmen are behind him.
Noland is in his 3rd year. He simply does not have the it factor, and the sooner we come to that realization the better.
