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.
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.