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

[Seth53]

The third and a yard, then punt on 4th after a failed 50-year bomb, after we had been running the ball, at the end of the 3rd quarter, sealed it IMO.

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

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.

Agree to a degree, because it has worked it other instances, but another was right there with the 2nd and 1 "free play" (or 2 based on field position we could of gone on 4th too) that we run a belly dive on to secure the 1st down.

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

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.....

In a nutshell...this to me was the single most reason we didn't win. It seemed when we had momentum in Q3 and just needed that 14 point lead to secure the win (but then I'm use to them getting that lead and then letting off the gas) GD would just call some weird play, as if he was running a practice and left behind what was working because we had already successfully executed those plays. errgh.

 

[SpecialKHawk]

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.

I would be happy to look at many other successful programs and compare the metrics of their o-lines to ours. You want to make a bet they are not playing many if any undersized and small stature guys regardless of blocking scheme.

I would be happy to post for you as I have already our passing, rushing and scoring rankings in B1G play for the past 10-12 years with our defensive comparison. This way you can see how dominate we have been up front on the line and the one decent scoring margin year in 2008 when we had our highest rushing ranking since 2002.

The funny thing is the most dominate line KF has ever had was in 2002 and that line had a 6'4" center, 6'5" guard and the other three were between 6'6" to 6'8". Somehow over time it was determined that we need more 'athletic' lineman which was code for 'small' in the interior. It happened to coincide when the first coach's son came along and happened to be undersized. And the vast majority of our offenses have stunk ever since....

No correlation though.....

 

[DDThompson]

Every single game Iowa is just one play away from victory. It gets a little old after awhile.

THIS.

And THIS has been going on for too many seasons.

Players got to make plays.
Coaches got to call plays.

It's a symbiotic type thing. And it isn't happening at Iowa when it matters.

 

[SpecialKHawk]

Oh I forgot the other interesting tidbit about 2008 we replaced a small stature center who had been highly rated out of high school with a much bigger senior in Bruggerman. Toss in a great hammer back in Greene and walla things got rolling on the ground. Next season small stature center returns, hammer back leaves and rushing ranking drops considerably.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Oh I forgot the other interesting tidbit about 2008 we replaced a small stature center who had been highly rated out of high school with a much bigger senior in Bruggerman. Toss in a great hammer back in Greene and walla things got rolling on the ground. Next season small stature center returns, hammer back leaves and rushing ranking drops considerably.

True Weisman will be gone but...There is a young pup named Daniels that seemed to make a splash in August practice to keep an eye out for. They'll still have Bullock and Canzeri so that 3 headed type of monster will still be at their disposal if that plays out. I think Blythe did a good job and I think he'll be a great center with Brian coaching him. Unless he plays bad enough to be benched I don't see that being a factor.

Going back to the hurry up qb sneaks on 3rd and shorts. I know they've worked in the past with JVB and Stanzi. But I just don't like it. I'm surprised there hadn't been more false starts on them. I can understand the no huddle aspect of it but get your team lined up correctly before snapping the ball. That should be priority #1 not snapping the ball within 2 seconds of it being spotted to catch the D off guard. So as bad of a call as I feel that is it's as much on the QBs shoulder for that lack of execution. With a qb in his first game in a pressure situation and a big 3rd down they should have known better then to call that play to begin with. To grade out how this game went I'd give Davis a B for how he called the first half (17 offensive pts isn't bad for a half) and a F for how he called the 2nd.