What’s wrong with the offense?

[MartyFine]

I'm fairly certain Noel (and I think Carson Brown with what he has demonstrated in limited time) are way underutilized in pre-snap motion on short yardage plays (basically Andy Reid stuff).

 

[Stormin]

Illegal procedure penalties. Ineligible receiver penalties. Those stopped our drives. Rocco was off a bit. Even so, we had the win f we stopped Tech on that last drive. This was a total team loss.

 

[MartyFine]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but Tech was ahead 17-16 in the 4th when they decided to go for it 4th and 6 at midfield.

And Matt called for a squib kick ahead 22-17 with just over 2 minutes left.

One is playing to win. The other is playing not to lose.

Sort of frustrating to think that might be a default position.

Kicking in to what was a pretty good wind at that point. That is why the play calling (especially on 3rd down) that resulted in the missed FG (also into the wind) was so perplexing. But I will also again point out that it looked like Tech knew exactly what was coming on almost every play, which I find interesting given the events of last week.

 

[AuH2O]

When I can predict run v pass( I did most of the time) that pathetic

That really doesn’t mean much. Most people that have a reasonable knowledge of football can predict something as simple as pass vs run most of the time for most teams based on personnel and down and distance.

I don’t think run vs pass predictability is necessarily a problem on its own.

 

[flynnhicks03]

#13 and #9 come out. Run. When they come back in on 2nd down? Pass.

Ha, my 13 year old son said the exact same thing last night.

 

[Iluvteak]

We just aren't a top 10 team. We just aren't. That's ok. I think we're a top 25 team though. Offensive line stinks and we get picked apart in the passing game while dropping 8 guys into coverage. Every game left on the schedule is a toss up IMO. I don't think we're a playoff caliber team, but it would be cool to get 10 wins this year.

And that's where I don't understand where we went from earlier in the season... cause we had that.

Heck, Eli Green looked great - yes, against North Dakota - but the passing game was fluid. You need a 3rd guy. And since Brahmer has been banged up most the year - we've struggled there.

Because its that 3rd guy that really occupies the safeties and LB's. AN offensive line's biggest advantage is that in most pass pro's, they are playing 6 on 4. Sometimes 6 or 5 on 3.

That 3rd receiver, be it a RB, TE, or actual WR - is responsible for pulling the safety and LB out of the pressure package. Or, if you have a QB whose crazy athletic, then has to become a spy, although in theory, can still rush.

Cause the corners, whether they actually can cover Noel and Higgins are already on them. So now it becomes 9 on 3 (Discounting the 5 OL and QB). Even if you take off say, 3 DL its still 6 on 3. Or 5 on 3, and 6 on 2 or 5 vs. 2 if you have RB in to block.

So its incredibly hard for Rocco or any QB to look super great with those closed windows. Or for any OL to look great.

Because if you say double cover Noel and Higgins, its still 3 vs. 2 presuming the back is blocking or 4 vs. 2. That's where pressure comes from.

That 3rd receiver as a threat, whoever it is, makes it 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3, etc. It opens everything up a lot more.

Mouser is 100x smarter than me. But against Kansas, what I'd do is design a couple plays early to Brown, Burkle, Brahmer, Green. Not crazy like but a little curl, arrow into the flat, whatever. Just enough to make Kansas think - huh.


Right now, we're simply beating ourselves by making everything so hard.

We're making it hard for Jaylin and Jayden, Rocco and the OL and the RB's.

Earlier in the season we were making it easier with some of the motions, the checks and counters. But it seems like we've slowly become more and more conservative.

And I don't mean conservative in terms of running the ball. I just mean, it seems like we've gotten away from utilizing some of those motions and checks that allowed us to punish Iowa in the 2nd half, or even Baylor and West Virginia at times. We've got back into trying to play everything in a phone booth and man, that's hard to do consistently week in , week out.



Sorry, I know it’s another long one. It’s just.. like I said, trying to provide context to what my analysis is is all.

My guess is that as the season progressed and the pressure mounted to keep winning — Good old CMC decided to control the offensive scheme. Early in season he let our OC run the show. Saturday had CMC’s fingerprints all over it.

 

[NetflixAndClone]

My father told me a stat, which was we ran 22 times in first down and passed only 10 times. On those 10 passes we averaged 9.1 yards.

 

[clonehome]

Brahmer being out had a huge impact in this game. He is so much more explosive than our other TEs.

The 3rd and 10 QB run call was unforgivable, but the 4th and 2 play where Rocco missed a well covered Higgins on the outside was also a head scratcher. So many ways to attack the middle of the field there.

Also, Hufford at center had two extremely costly ineligible man downfield penalties that erased big pass plays in the red zone. Watch the film and he’s just undisciplined. He snaps the ball and fires out to the 2nd level 4-5 yards downfield immediately.

 

[Iluvteak]

Scrambling when guys are open and throwing it at times when he could easily run for it.

I think the pressure is getting to him. And others on the team as well. UCF showed it before today. Now it’s a matter of whether or not the team uses this as a wake up call, or we limp through the rest of the season.

At the end of the day we could all prob stand to take a step back, and look how upset we are going into November at 7-1. Nothing like this has ever happened in my lifetime.

Sure it’s a great year. But I think a lot of us are just pissed that our offensive production sucks. And that we keep beating ourselves with mental errors and horrible play calling.

 

[madguy30]

I largely agree... the one thing he can do himself is find the short throw more. I get it, Higgins and Noel are big time. But finding the check downs will help him. Sometimes I think he has so much trust in those guys, for obvious reasons, he holds the ball trusting them to get open. Or make a play. Which again, I can appreciate cause most of the time they do.

But he can help himself a little by saying "okay, I'll take the 3-4 yard dump down cause you won't tackle that guy every time and we'll bleed you to death"

But that's also on the OC. He needs to build those little flares, short curls / hitches, arrow routes, into the offense more to help the QB as well. Heck, even a jet sweep can work because it slows the edge rusher and its super easy and you can run it with Noel if you want cause we have before.

That was what was frustrating yesterday. It was we've seen us use answers to what Tech was doing yet for some reason, we kept trying to run straight ahead . I don't mean literally with the ground game but we just never seemed to get off of Plan A.


Rocco's great. Don't get me wrong. The check down thing is part of growing as a QB, and experience. He'll get there, I have no doubt and he didn't play bad though didn't play great. He played an averagish game. Good enough to win with, but not quite good enough to over come all the mistakes we made. Like I said, a very reasonable but not special game.

If anything - yesterday I just felt like we never really adjusted well to what they were doing and that was the first time I had felt that way all season. Perhaps then its not a surprise, we also were on the short end of the score board for the first time all season

Agree with a lot here...in short, the check down has not been a strong suit with ISU for years.

 

[CyGuy5]

I also don’t understand what we have against getting the ball to Jackson/Noel/Sama etc in space. We rarely get the ball out quick to one of those guys and let them make something of it.

 

[bellzisu]

So seriously... Overreaction... The same people complaining that Rocco isn't the QB to lead us, are the same ones complaining about Brock Purdy. It gets old... I get emotions but can we have a ton of recruiters and coaches on this forum.

 

[acoustimac]

3 tight ends, shrinking the field. Not attacking the whole field.

Theyve gone back to the "we are afraid, we cant block anyone" style and pulled everyone into a phone booth.

Youre letting a bad Tech defense play in a hallway. Even they can do that.

Best example was that goal line play throw to Higgins that was incomplete. 2 TE right, one left, roll Rocco right, Higgins drags right. The 2 TE draw guys antake up space so Rocco cant run it in, and its so tight there its easy to bracket Higgins. Tech basically needed 5 guys to defend that and they had about 7. There was zero threat anywhere else. They compressed the field so much for Tech, it was easy to defend.

Excellent point. Now compare that to tech's last play for the td. When they sent four receivers to the edge I said, "they’re going to run." They effectively removed four of our defenders from the middle of the field and made it a cake walk to score. That’s after they had a false start. What a difference in play calling.

 

[Ctrans]

I also don’t understand what we have against getting the ball to Jackson/Noel/Sama etc in space. We rarely get the ball out quick to one of those guys and let them make something of it.

Exactly,get the ball to Sama in space and some down field blocking is probably a big gain most of the time.

 

[CascadeClone]

Lots of concerns about the offense.

To me the biggest concern was how easy Tech got pressure with only bringing 4 most of the game.

Thats the root cause.
But the response to that- bring in more TEs, ie the CMC response. Thats what killed them - again.

That made the entire offense super easy to defend. Tech just brought more guys to the box, so you still had pressure, but now you cant run it either.

CMC has done this for years, and its just never worked. How he hasnt seen that and come up with Plan B (screens? Spread out field and run? Draw plays?) Is absolutely beyond me.

 

[twojman]

Sama ran better yesterday, hitting holes and being a bit more patient. Overall though, ISUs run game has been hit/miss this season. Recently, Becht has been blitzed at a ton and we can't handle it very well consistently.

Boy, yes, there were some odd play calls though yesterday. Foe the most part I feel like Mouser has done a great job this season. Remember, this is his first year as an OC, he'll learn.

I'm frustrated with the play yesterday but it goes to show how hard it is to win games. Tech has been playing better. ISU still controls its own destiny, let's see how it plays out.

Also, no matter what, enjoy this season. Going to be one for the memory books.

 

[AuH2O]

I also don’t understand what we have against getting the ball to Jackson/Noel/Sama etc in space. We rarely get the ball out quick to one of those guys and let them make something of it.

When they do this it’s usually split Noel out wide with two TEs and throw a quick screen. But of course when the other wide guys are TEs not named Brahmer, the DBs get up on the LOS and whatever advantage you have by having better blockers you have more than traded by putting guys out there that aren’t threats to go over the top. They got a first down on like 3rd and 3, but Noel had to make a couple guys miss.

The “coaches don’t throw pick sixes” argument doesn’t hold water in the UCF game. The first one that safety jumped the quick throw was actually lined up over Moore. And there was no one over the top of him. You think he’s up there that tight to jump that route if Higgins or even Brown were out there?

And other non-pick 6. Sure that ball is off Noel’s hands but look at all that traffic, how mantle guys are around the ball and how tight the windows are. These are formation and personnel package problems making it very difficult to work underneath and with quick throws.

 

[Koala]

Do we script the first certain number of offensive plays? 8 games into the season, I think it's worth noting that the North Dakota game is the only time this season the team has scored a TD on its first offensive possession, and we've only managed a field goal two other times.

Contrast that with the defense. It's very hard to fault them for much at all, but they have allowed a touchdown on their first possession in every conference game aside from Houston. If that's the price to pay for the datapoints Heacock needs for his adjustments, I'm OK with that given what we've seen, but we then need to see more from the offense at the start of games.

 

[isucy86]

Last night felt like watching the Cyclone teams of 2021/2022 teams where we played to the level of our competition. And we were plagued by some of the chronic issues:

• Inconsistent Offensive Line Play
• Pre-snap penalties
• Sketchy Redzone play calls
• Defense plays solid, but gives up a late half or game score.

Feel there are some reoccurring themes when our offense struggles:

• Pass more on first down
• Get too cute with formations/play calls inside the 20
• When offensive line isn't dominating game. Inside the redzone, having 10 offensive players inside the hash marks cuts down on rushing and passing lanes.

That said, this was a team loss and not just because offense didn't light up the scoreboard. The defense was just as deficient in making plays when it counted. The 98 yard drive in 3rd quarter and allowing a late game 70 yard TD drive. Our defense has to put more pressure on the QB. In late game defense situations, it's more about creating negative yardage plays than bend-not-break. Even an OK college offense has no issue driving 75 yards in less than 2 minutes.

 

[isucy86]

Lots of concerns about the offense.

To me the biggest concern was how easy Tech got pressure with only bringing 4 most of the game.

Agree. It seems like our OL consistently struggles at time with opposing blitzes. And conversely, we struggle to get consistent pressure when we bring 5 or 6. Yesterday, we had a few possessions in the 2nd quarter when we got the 3 sacks on Morton. But in 2nd half, we didn't get the sacks/pressures.

I have a theory on why our OL struggles with pressure and that is the Cyclone defense uses a 3-3 front and our defenses forte isn't about being physical and disruptive along the line. IMO that has an impact in practice in prepping our OL against blitzes or strong defensive fronts.