1 foot and or one Bullock catch away...... from victory.

Hawkfnntn

Well-Known Member
When breaking down this game it's easy to look at the big picture and see that in the first half Iowa won the TOP battle big time had been running the ball fairly well (not as well as I had hoped but not bad either) and had scored 24 points with a 7 point lead with momentum. I felt so good at halftime. I thought Daviss offense was going to put up 40 and all would be well in Hawkeye Nation... Well they should have anyway. The play calling as Jon alluded to was horrendous. With all of what happened if Rudocks bomb to Powell was just caught for a TD that's the ball game. And you can make that for any of the other 2 balls that were actually caught too. If those were in stride they both walk in. It wasn't much more then a foot off from being that. Weather it was Powell misjudging it and not running hard to it or whatever it was just that close. If that play is made and Iowa wins.... Holy cow Powell is being handed the Heisman and Greg Davis is being given a statue. Even though if that would have happened the play calling the rest of the 2nd half was still just that bad. There were multiple 3rd downs (convertable ones) where you just can't run the plays they were trying. Run the ball, wear them down, move the chains and win the game. It was set up for that to happen and they got greedy, cute, tried to out guess them whatever their reasoning was it was not what they should have done.

The TEs were pretty much invisible. CJF had what 2-3 targets? Other then his TD witch was huge btw. Did any of the others have one? BTN tape doesn't do a good job of showing the routes develop and if they were being taken out of the game daring the wrs to make plays. I thought Wrs played pretty well actually.

The one group I don't blame is the D. You can't put them in those situations in the 2nd half over and over and expect them to make a miracle. They deserved a W against that team. Other then the bomb where Lowery was out of position they played great.

That brings me to Rudock. He played good. Not great and I'm going to be hard on him here and say he could have helped not lose that game alot too. He did do what JVB didn't do last year and that was complete the deeper passes when they were there for the taking. That was great and all. Yet he did it in a ultra safe under throwing way to make sure receiver got hands on the ball. (I assume it was intentional he threw them that way since he did it twice out of 3 times) I was pleasantly surprised with how he played overall. He did more then I thought he would going into it and it's not even close. The first pick I give him a pass on I remember thinking as he dropped back I thought they should have run the ball on it. That said the last pick he threw was terrible. Can't make that throw. 1st q when it's 0-0 or 4th q just can't make it. 1st game as a starter or 4th yr in the system no qb should make that mistake. He will own up to that and learn. Alot of qbs will make that mistake with the pressure on. Not just kids starting their first game. I think KMM became his security blanket and that's where he was going no matter what. I say all this and yet if he doesn't make that throw say it's just incomplete it's no guarantee Iowa wins at that point by any means. But at least they wouldn't have lost the way they did... And there is my Monday after the storm rant.
 
Ruddock showed enough signs that he can be a player. The interception wasn't his worst play. His worst play was the procedure penalty on the hurry up sneak. He had literally 5 guys running around when he snapped the ball because they were in the process of flipping the formation. That is entirely on him to make sure people are set. I really feel like Iowa was on the march to go up 14 when that happend. They can take that hurry up sneak play and throw it down the freaking drain.
 
Ruddock showed enough signs that he can be a player. The interception wasn't his worst play. His worst play was the procedure penalty on the hurry up sneak. He had literally 5 guys running around when he snapped the ball because they were in the process of flipping the formation. That is entirely on him to make sure people are set. I really feel like Iowa was on the march to go up 14 when that happend. They can take that hurry up sneak play and throw it down the freaking drain.

I'll give you an Amen to that. I forgot to mention that. The last pick seemed just that much worse because of when it happened and field position. But that play was way bad. How many times had Iowa ran the ball for 2 or less yards in that game? There was no reason to get cute there. I felt that Iowa should have went for it on 4th down on a couple of those as well. Regardless of field position. That's where you separate the men from the boys and take away their momentum. 3rd and 1 you man up and if you can't get it in 2 running plays with this team then you tip your cap but that never happened. We did what they hoped we'd do but surely didn't think we would. Iowa did a good job in the 1st half of setting up the pounding they should have gave them in the 2nd in the running game. Davis was out thinking himself trying to get cute when it wasn't necessary. That was where dare I say KOK would have known how to win the game.....
 
Ruddock showed enough signs that he can be a player. The interception wasn't his worst play. His worst play was the procedure penalty on the hurry up sneak. He had literally 5 guys running around when he snapped the ball because they were in the process of flipping the formation. That is entirely on him to make sure people are set. I really feel like Iowa was on the march to go up 14 when that happend. They can take that hurry up sneak play and throw it down the freaking drain.

nick - this 'hurry up and snap' formation that has been run brutally the past couple years needs to be lost from the play book. I don't like it, and Iowa has failed to 'execute' on it pretty consistently. Line up and run it down their throat in that situation. Same on the 3rd and 1 play. I think, or thought, OL would be a unit of strength this year. well, if it is, then act like it is.
 
Could not agree more. Get rid of that hurry up sneak FOREVER! That is on the coaches! If you can't gain 1 yard on 2 plays(meaning they might actually go for it on 4th down!), then get out of the game! Our offensive line is supposed to be our strength. Act like it then!
 
Could not agree more. Get rid of that hurry up sneak FOREVER! That is on the coaches! If you can't gain 1 yard on 2 plays(meaning they might actually go for it on 4th down!), then get out of the game! Our offensive line is supposed to be our strength. Act like it then!

I agree with the throw out the hurry up sneak. If we cannot line up and get a yard then that says a lot.

I will say the offensive line is very over-rated. We got some yards but very few gaping holes and no big runs outside of a couple line surge and Weismann extra efforts. The was a bad defense returning 2-3 starters and playing defensive ends at 230 lbs. A quality offensive line like Wisconsin would have had 350 to 400 yards easy on these guys. Wait until we hit some legit defenses in the B1G! 200 yards will translate to 55-60 yds.

It is time this fan base started realizing that our o-line outside of a good tackle or two sucks and has sucked. You do not consistently finish in the bottom third of the B1G in yards gain rushing with a great o-line. Total fallacy that we have an o-line guru.
 
I agree with the throw out the hurry up sneak. If we cannot line up and get a yard then that says a lot.

I will say the offensive line is very over-rated. We got some yards but very few gaping holes and no big runs outside of a couple line surge and Weismann extra efforts. The was a bad defense returning 2-3 starters and playing defensive ends at 230 lbs. A quality offensive line like Wisconsin would have had 350 to 400 yards easy on these guys. Wait until we hit some legit defenses in the B1G! 200 yards will translate to 55-60 yds.

It is time this fan base started realizing that our o-line outside of a good tackle or two sucks and has sucked. You do not consistently finish in the bottom third of the B1G in yards gain rushing with a great o-line. Total fallacy that we have an o-line guru.

it typically takes the OL a few games to gel in the running game. typically coaches over run in the first few games to make this happen by the conference season. we should have run more yesterday, but that's in the past. if we would have run more, and not won the game, then people would have complained about that too.

what i wonder is if we have a RB that can take it to the house when that hole is there. or if the OL made the holes, but the RB wasn't either fast enough to hit the hole.

one thing about the OL that no one is talking about - we lost a pretty good center/leader from last years' squad.
 
Ruddock made some errors. But for a guy in his first collegiate game...I thought he looked pretty damn good.

I'm no longer worried about QB. Or really WR, we have guys that can make the plays.

It's all down to coaching...and more specifically, play calling.
 
The biggest problem with Jake is that he is noodle armed. Made mostly good decisions, good pocket presence, but he doesn't have much of an arm. He's lucky he didn't throw more interceptions, the combination of his weak arm and GDGD's outs, will lead to a few touchdowns going the other way.
 
Ruddock showed enough signs that he can be a player. The interception wasn't his worst play. His worst play was the procedure penalty on the hurry up sneak. He had literally 5 guys running around when he snapped the ball because they were in the process of flipping the formation. That is entirely on him to make sure people are set. I really feel like Iowa was on the march to go up 14 when that happend. They can take that hurry up sneak play and throw it down the freaking drain.

The fact that we can't recover from a 5yd penalty on 3 and 1 is a testament to how truly pathetic our offense has become. Meanwhile opponents routinely pick up 3rd and much longer than 6 against our defense.
 
The QB played fine but its obvious he can't throw deep, he doesn't have the arm for it. Which means teams can move up and feast on the short stuff.
 
Ruddock made some errors. But for a guy in his first collegiate game...I thought he looked pretty damn good.

I'm no longer worried about QB. Or really WR, we have guys that can make the plays.

It's all down to coaching...and more specifically, play calling.

This is ridiculous, he's cant throw deep. How are you fine with a QB who can't throw deep?
 
I agree with the throw out the hurry up sneak. If we cannot line up and get a yard then that says a lot.

I will say the offensive line is very over-rated. We got some yards but very few gaping holes and no big runs outside of a couple line surge and Weismann extra efforts. The was a bad defense returning 2-3 starters and playing defensive ends at 230 lbs. A quality offensive line like Wisconsin would have had 350 to 400 yards easy on these guys. Wait until we hit some legit defenses in the B1G! 200 yards will translate to 55-60 yds.

It is time this fan base started realizing that our o-line outside of a good tackle or two sucks and has sucked. You do not consistently finish in the bottom third of the B1G in yards gain rushing with a great o-line. Total fallacy that we have an o-line guru.

We rushed for just over 200 yards.
 
How in the world do you know that JR doesn't have the arm to throw a deep ball? Do you know there are other throws he made Saturday that take more arm strength than the deep ball? Better wait until you know how to evaluate beyond watching him play one game before you jump to this kind of conclusion...
 
I agree with the throw out the hurry up sneak. If we cannot line up and get a yard then that says a lot.

I will say the offensive line is very over-rated. We got some yards but very few gaping holes and no big runs outside of a couple line surge and Weismann extra efforts. The was a bad defense returning 2-3 starters and playing defensive ends at 230 lbs. A quality offensive line like Wisconsin would have had 350 to 400 yards easy on these guys. Wait until we hit some legit defenses in the B1G! 200 yards will translate to 55-60 yds.

It is time this fan base started realizing that our o-line outside of a good tackle or two sucks and has sucked. You do not consistently finish in the bottom third of the B1G in yards gain rushing with a great o-line. Total fallacy that we have an o-line guru.

Oh how quickly some people forget things. Throw away the hurry up sneak!?!? I've lost count how many times that play has gained us a first down or TD. It's a play that typically gets 1-3 yds.

Special, you need to stop comparing Iowa to Wiscy's line. We're a different running team, differently built line, and recruited differently. Furthermore, Wiscy runs the ball +65% of the time. We have a far more balanced offense, and that will show up in the overall rankings. If you cannot decipher these differences in offenses/personnel I'm gonna have to ask you to turn your keyboard in immediately.
 
When breaking down this game it's easy to look at the big picture and see that in the first half Iowa won the TOP battle big time had been running the ball fairly well (not as well as I had hoped but not bad either) and had scored 24 points with a 7 point lead with momentum. I felt so good at halftime. I thought Daviss offense was going to put up 40 and all would be well in Hawkeye Nation... Well they should have anyway. The play calling as Jon alluded to was horrendous. With all of what happened if Rudocks bomb to Powell was just caught for a TD that's the ball game. And you can make that for any of the other 2 balls that were actually caught too. If those were in stride they both walk in. It wasn't much more then a foot off from being that. Weather it was Powell misjudging it and not running hard to it or whatever it was just that close. If that play is made and Iowa wins.... Holy cow Powell is being handed the Heisman and Greg Davis is being given a statue. Even though if that would have happened the play calling the rest of the 2nd half was still just that bad. There were multiple 3rd downs (convertable ones) where you just can't run the plays they were trying. Run the ball, wear them down, move the chains and win the game. It was set up for that to happen and they got greedy, cute, tried to out guess them whatever their reasoning was it was not what they should have done.

The TEs were pretty much invisible. CJF had what 2-3 targets? Other then his TD witch was huge btw. Did any of the others have one? BTN tape doesn't do a good job of showing the routes develop and if they were being taken out of the game daring the wrs to make plays. I thought Wrs played pretty well actually.

The one group I don't blame is the D. You can't put them in those situations in the 2nd half over and over and expect them to make a miracle. They deserved a W against that team. Other then the bomb where Lowery was out of position they played great.

That brings me to Rudock. He played good. Not great and I'm going to be hard on him here and say he could have helped not lose that game alot too. He did do what JVB didn't do last year and that was complete the deeper passes when they were there for the taking. That was great and all. Yet he did it in a ultra safe under throwing way to make sure receiver got hands on the ball. (I assume it was intentional he threw them that way since he did it twice out of 3 times) I was pleasantly surprised with how he played overall. He did more then I thought he would going into it and it's not even close. The first pick I give him a pass on I remember thinking as he dropped back I thought they should have run the ball on it. That said the last pick he threw was terrible. Can't make that throw. 1st q when it's 0-0 or 4th q just can't make it. 1st game as a starter or 4th yr in the system no qb should make that mistake. He will own up to that and learn. Alot of qbs will make that mistake with the pressure on. Not just kids starting their first game. I think KMM became his security blanket and that's where he was going no matter what. I say all this and yet if he doesn't make that throw say it's just incomplete it's no guarantee Iowa wins at that point by any means. But at least they wouldn't have lost the way they did... And there is my Monday after the storm rant.

good post.

I think the game will "slow down" for Jake as the season moves on. He'll notice that the DB was set to jump that ball and he'll throw it away or check to another receiver. That wasn't so much a bad call as it was a bad decision with the ball. I'm also hoping that he'll throw the deep ball just a bit better to allow TD's. Like you said, people would be celebrating him all week if that small adjustment were in place yesterday.
 
This is ridiculous, he's cant throw deep. How are you fine with a QB who can't throw deep?

This. His deep game needs serious work, either way underthrows the receivers or overthrows by a mile.

Wait, which one is it? He can't throw it deep or he overthrows it?

Granted, his first throw to DP and Cotton weren't the best, but the second throw to DP would've been a thing of beauty if Powell keeps running.

All in all, he played well. And had there not been the battle thru the majority of camp, maybe he and the receivers have a better feel for each other on the deep throws.
 
If only ONE play had gone our way... HOGWASH! Seven games and counting for that ONE play that would turn the tide... BULLHOCKEY! 2-10 this year, and I would NOT be surprised if 1-11 was the best we could do...
 

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