Elephant in the room.. regarding Stanley.

ottoman89

ottoman89

Well-Known Member
What’s up with him? He made some awful decisions yesterday, missed Easley on a deep ball where if he tucks and runs it’s an easy 10-15 yards. His consistency and accuracy are way off and he just doesn’t look confident at all.

He’s got all the arm talent in the world, but he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn 75% of the time. Is it footwork? Mental?

How much of this do we see before we see Drew Tate, I mean Peyton Mansel?

Not particularly saying we need to bench Stanley obviously, but seems he’s struggling hard with confidence and consistency.
 


ottoman89 said:
What’s up with him? He made some awful decisions yesterday, missed Easley on a deep ball where if he tucks and runs it’s an easy 10-15 yards. His consistency and accuracy are way off and he just doesn’t look confident at all.

He’s got all the arm talent in the world, but he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn 75% of the time. Is it footwork? Mental?

How much of this do we see before we see Drew Tate, I mean Peyton Mansel?

Not particularly saying we need to bench Stanley obviously, but seems he’s struggling hard with confidence and consistency.
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The Elephant In the Room could throw better than Stanley has the past two weeks. But...that last throw to B Smith was a beauty. More of that, please!
 




hawkeyebob62 said:
The Elephant In the Room could throw better than Stanley has the past two weeks. But...that last throw to B Smith was a beauty. More of that, please!
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That pass was an absolute beauty! It pisses me off that he will throw a great ball and then an absolute awful pass.. and you wonder WHY CAN’T HE DO THAT EVERY DAMN TIME!?
 


It's either injury, lack of talent of wr lack of competition for the job, lack of variety in play calling, or an abusive coach that gets in the head of the qb. It could be any of a combination of the factors.

We've seen this so often There isca pattern.

With KF teams there is always a glaring weakness that is a crisis.
 


How many times when there is a game starting up with a struggling QB and you hear the former player in the booth who is the color analyst say 'the coaches need to get the QB some easy throws to get them in a rhythm". That is not happening with Iowa, and as you can all see there are not very many easy throws with this passing game.

But that is what needs dialed up, the coaches need to call plays where he throws to a guy 2 yards down field who is stationary whose defender is playing off him then the receiver catches and gets a few more yards. A 5 yard gain with good footwork then dialup another similar type pass.

Other than that Stanley is getting blitzed a lot and it could be his footwork, afraid of INTs but what little I have seen he is off target more than last year.

It can be hard to be accurate when the windows are very small with no separation.
 


It's the lack of separation of the receivers and the coverage. He is taught that turnovers are the worst thing that can happen to an Iowa team. If the receiver isn't open by three yards, you can't throw in front of him because the coverage is still in front of him. You must throw so that the receiver can protect the ball with their body. Add to that that you must throw or run in four seconds.

Since Iowa's receivers are slow, they don't have time to fully hit their breaks on deep routes. That's why Iowa only hits deep on pre-snap reads down the seams or fades with touch passes. It's also why the short flat route is used so much. Stanley, and other qbs, are taught to throw away from the defender, which means behind and low on that route. Basically hip pocket and sliding catch.

The first year, Iowa QBs make mistakes and throw like they always have. The second year they get coached up, and start throwing like this.

Iowa could fix it by running coverage off with a decoy and switching to 7 - 8 yard curl routes on the short side or quick slants against man press, or, against zone, teaching the receivers to sit down in the hole between the flat coverage and the deep help about 12 yards downfield. But that takes receivers that can read coverage as well as a qb, and a qb with good enough touch to hit the intermediate throw. Stanley can do it. The WRs can't. The TEs can, and so you see a lot more completions to them.

Iowa also needs to throw more jump balls to Brandon Smith and Fant. When they have man coverage, the read needs to be hot route jump ball towards the sideline, thrown high and outside so they can use their size to shield the defender and so that the defender can't intercept it. The last team that did this was '09 Iowa.
 


Stanley just hasn't looked comfortable in the pocket for some reason. He's antsy. The good thing is that usually, guys will find their groove as they play more. It's some of the decisions I just haven't understood...and that's what concerns me. We did a naked boot yesterday, and they bit inside hard with the outside backer...Stanley was out there with 30 yards of running room and he decided to make a horrible pass instead. Unless you have a receiver wide freaking open with no one around him. You take the 20 yard run...and move on.

That's the stuff that is bothering me. Decisions with the football.
 


i think he struggled mentally in the game, choked a bit under the pressure until he hit that nice pass to set up the TD run. Our o-line needs to improve, Nate was pressured and rushed on a lot of pass plays. Seemed like isu blitzed on the pass plays
 


Could be all of the above but, like many golfers, it could also be a case of the "yips". Even Tiger had the yips a couple years ago with his chipping. It happens.
 


He has a connection with Hockenson, but with everyone one else it has been brutal. It has been errant throws and dropped passes. Last week Easley gave Stanley one those “wtf” looks after one of those errant throws. If you ever play pick up basketball and you miss a layup, guys start looking at you sideways, it was one of those looks. Not a big deal I just thought it was funny.
 


WinOneThisCentury said:
Stanley just hasn't looked comfortable in the pocket for some reason. He's antsy. The good thing is that usually, guys will find their groove as they play more. It's some of the decisions I just haven't understood...and that's what concerns me. We did a naked boot yesterday, and they bit inside hard with the outside backer...Stanley was out there with 30 yards of running room and he decided to make a horrible pass instead. Unless you have a receiver wide freaking open with no one around him. You take the 20 yard run...and move on.

That's the stuff that is bothering me. Decisions with the football.
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Yeah he never really gets set on his drops, and his feet are not pivoting in the direction of his passes. I'd be doing footwork and hip swivel drills for 15 minutes a practice, and oblique work in the weight room with medicine balls for speed to get more core power so that switching hip alignment got easier.

His throwing shoulder or hand could be hurt too - if his fingers are sore he could be gripping the ball harder causing the release to be a little late. Could also explain the fumbles
 


I remember the video of his workouts during the offseason. He looked pretty bulked up in the chest and shoulders. Is getting bulked up like that good for a QB? I would think a QB would want more lean, elastic type muscle in the upper body.
 


hwk23 said:
I remember the video of his workouts during the offseason. He looked pretty bulked up in the chest and shoulders. Is getting bulked up like that good for a QB? I would think a QB would want more lean, elastic type muscle in the upper body.
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I think more bulk is good. It prevents injury, and strengthens the ligaments and improves flexibility if you are lifting using the full range of motion.
 


I am hoping the connection to Smith was the turning point for him this season. I think it might be.

His receivers still aren't doing him a whole lot of favors either. Needless to say, passing must improve.
 


cincyhawk said:
I think more bulk is good. It prevents injury, and strengthens the ligaments and improves flexibility if you are lifting using the full range of motion.
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Well I definitely think it’s possible to over do it at QB. Look at guys like Aaron Rodgers, Brady, Manning or practically anyone really good. Those guys don’t look bulked up in the chest. Yes they’re in great shape but not bulked up. Neither are pitchers in baseball.
 
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EstronHawkKing said:
i think he struggled mentally in the game, choked a bit under the pressure until he hit that nice pass to set up the TD run. Our o-line needs to improve, Nate was pressured and rushed on a lot of pass plays. Seemed like isu blitzed on the pass plays
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ISU followed the MSU, NW, Wisconsin, and Purdue defensive playbook from last year. You pressure the line of scrimmage with run and pass blitzes and force Iowa to beat single coverage on the outside...or throw the ball in typical tight windows to the TEs. Until we can beat that scheme...well, teams are going to keep executing the defensive strategy.

The good thing is that I think protections are much better this year already and will continue to improve. Stanley needs to be Nate Stanley and step up his game.

The one thing I noticed is that we essentially threw deep five times yesterday on what I would call go routes. Fant where he was totally interfered with that wasn't called in the end zone. ISM where he caught the post pattern. Smith where he beat single coverage late in the game. Then there were two patterns to I believe Easley, one on the sideline where he became a defender, then one deep that was way overthrown. So, five patterns where good things should have happened three out of five if the interference on Fant is called. We have to take those odds more often.

The bottom line, and I know others have called for it...is that we have to be able to throw teams out of the defensive looks ISU gave us much of the time yesterday...8-9 in the box. Winning games is great...don't get me wrong...but eventually you have to show your passing game can beat teams.
 


WinOneThisCentury said:
ISU followed the MSU, NW, Wisconsin, and Purdue defensive playbook from last year. You pressure the line of scrimmage with run and pass blitzes and force Iowa to beat single coverage on the outside...or throw the ball in typical tight windows to the TEs. Until we can beat that scheme...well, teams are going to keep executing the defensive strategy.

The good thing is that I think protections are much better this year already and will continue to improve. Stanley needs to be Nate Stanley and step up his game.

The one thing I noticed is that we essentially threw deep five times yesterday on what I would call go routes. Fant where he was totally interfered with that wasn't called in the end zone. ISM where he caught the post pattern. Smith where he beat single coverage late in the game. Then there were two patterns to I believe Easley, one on the sideline where he became a defender, then one deep that was way overthrown. So, five patterns where good things should have happened three out of five if the interference on Fant is called. We have to take those odds more often.

The bottom line, and I know others have called for it...is that we have to be able to throw teams out of the defensive looks ISU gave us much of the time yesterday...8-9 in the box. Winning games is great...don't get me wrong...but eventually you have to show your passing game can beat teams.
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Winning games? The goal is NFL player development (non skill positions), not embarrassing Iowa on social medial and execution. Winning comes when all of that is accomplished.
 




Again, I know Jon put up some good stats to dispel the myth IA Qbs regressive in their second year, but the eyeball test is showing this is the case yet again. Thank God for our defense.

In his Stanley's defense though, our WR thus far look poor and, as noted above by posters, our schemes suck against combating 8 and 9 man fronts. Until Iowa can figure this out and make teams pay for this by hitting receivers consistently down the field, then we are going to see more 3rd and 7, 8, or 9s. That is going to lead to several losses eventually.

As a side note. We love the North Endzone seats. Loud, fans into, and have plenty of leg room.
 
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