9-3 season still alive!!

[HawkeyeDenis]

9-3 Is very much alive. Illinois at home and then a trip to Lincoln to give the Huskers their yearly beating.

 

[vork22]

Alive for what lmao?

 

[Northside Hawk]

One thing that nobody really mentions with this team is the injuries. Alaric going down early and wasn’t close to 100% against Michigan in that debacle. All the injuries on the interior Oline. Smith going down. No OJ yesterday. The biggest might have been Welch missing the Wisconsin game.

I know every team has injuries but it seems we’ve had our fair share and some untimely ones.

Dolphin reported that Smith was in uniform and warmed up but that the coaches were hoping to hold him back one more week.

If he has no practice setbacks I could see him being a go for Illlnois.

 

[hwk23]

Absolutely but the BT now has say in where teams go. If Minnesota can win one of their last 2 games they are still West Champs and I think they are Rose Bowl bound with or without a win over tOSU.

Minnesota will have to beat Wisconsin to be west champs, assuming both win next game.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Dolphin reported that Smith was in uniform and warmed up but that the coaches were hoping to hold him back one more week.

If he has no practice setbacks I could see him being a go for Illlnois.

Smith was actually in for a play yesterday. It will be interesting to see if he is a full go Saturday. Tracy has been awesome the last three weeks in his place.

 

[Grady]

Everyone here is way too confident that we're going to take down Illinois. They are on a 4 game winning streak and took down Wisconsin. They're finding ways to win and we've been looking for ways to lose. If we don't bury them in the first half, I'm concerned how we'll hold up in the second. The Spartans were up 31-10 going into the 4th quarter before giving up 27 points to lose 37-34. Add to that the fact that they've had an extra week to prepare for us and this has all the makings of a classic let down against a feisty bowl eligible team that we're supposed to beat.

Maybe, but Wisconsin was holding a 9 pt lead on Illinois and had just driven to the Ilini 24 yd line with 3-4 min left in the game. Think about the odds of Wisconsin losing that game in that situation: 1 in 100? 1 in 1,000? 1 in 1,000,000? KF will play the Illinois game completely different than the MN game where he knew he had to score points. Illinois has been winning with TOs; Iowa will play conservative on offense and figure if we win the TO battle or break even we should win the game.

 

[Stanzi]

Beat Illinois and Nebraska and win our bowl game and that's a 10-3 season and we'd be close to a top 10 ranking. That would be a pretty successful season in my opinion.

 

[BigD]

Happy birthday! Dawgs still have chance at sec championship. Doubt they'll be there but never know. I'm also a Georgia fan as of past years in the service when internet and watching hawkeye's was not available to follow back in the ice age like today.. Hawks 1st followed by close 2nd for the Dawgs.

Just catching up on some reading and saw your post. Thanks for the birthday wishes. My wife, three children and myself lived in an western suburb of Atlanta for over 15 years before moving out west. So we are very familiar with Geogia and the SEC.

 

[BigD]

Iowa playing Georgia would not end well.....it could possibly get ugly.

I am not so sure about that. The SEC”s defense seems more like what we are used seeing in the Big Twelve Conference.

 

[BigD]

If Iowa does stumble in one of these 2 final games (I hope they don’t) please let it be against Illinois and not Nebraska!

Lol. I know what you mean as there is something about Nebraska that brings out the hate in a person. I don’t see us losing either game at this point. There is no shame losing to the three teams we lost to thus far especially since two of the three were on the road. Still very unhappy with the offense.

 

[eyekwah]

What helped Illinois were transfers from other programs. The QB is ex-Michigan and at least one came from SO Cali.

 

[DBAHawkFan]

Maybe, but Wisconsin was holding a 9 pt lead on Illinois and had just driven to the Ilini 24 yd line with 3-4 min left in the game. Think about the odds of Wisconsin losing that game in that situation: 1 in 100? 1 in 1,000? 1 in 1,000,000? KF will play the Illinois game completely different than the MN game where he knew he had to score points. Illinois has been winning with TOs; Iowa will play conservative on offense and figure if we win the TO battle or break even we should win the game.

i love that we have a coach who decides a few games a year that the offense will need to score points to win.

While 9-3 isn’t a bad record, our signature win was against a good MN team at home with nothing on the line for Iowa besides San Diego

Imagine if we tried to score points against UM and PSU!!! Nah, let’s save it for it for the Pig Trophy

 

[ssckelley]

Minnesota will have to beat Wisconsin to be west champs, assuming both win next game.

I stand corrected, I thought Wisconsin had 3 losses. My bad

 

[uihawk82]

Hawkinn, has a point when you consider the hawks didnt score much and they only lost those 3 games by about 5 points each. Hell just somehow scratch out a TD in this day of high powered scoring and the hawks might be 9-1.

 

[uihawk82]

This is going to make some "fans" pretty upset. I mean they are still only 1-3 vs B1G conference teams that are .500 or better. Don't you know that is the only stat that matter.

It is not the only stat but it is telling when this is the measurable result that is keeping the team from winning the West the last 3 years.

 

[uihawk82]

I really don't see Iowa stumbling in the next two games. Welch was incredible yesterday. He is just a vital cog to that defense as it's clear Doyle and Campbell just aren't ready. If the defense is healthy, you are going to make both Illinois and Nebraska one dimensional and I just don't think Martinez and the Illinois QB are good enough to beat us.

Morgan may be the most accurate passer in the B10...and everything is on time and right on the numbers. He was really impressive yesterday. No way Martinez and the Illinois QB can make the throws he made consistently.

The big thing, and it's no secret...you have to put pressure on Nate Stanley...otherwise he's damn good at picking you apart. Minnesota was gambling the entire second half and Brian Ferentz wet the bed...or his QB did...I'm not sure which. Ever think about a screen or draw Brian? Minnesota was attacking the edges with extra people...the middle of the field was open for a draw or short slant to a slot or back...or a screen. Nothing. That was disappointing.

Yes really good OC Off coaches in the pros just eat up teams with screens, double screens with a fake, middle screens what ever. The draw isnt used as much anymore because the defensive players are just so fast and athletic they can recover better on it.

But the 49ers, Chiefs, Cowboys and others are just masterful at using the screen.

And their should be a quick route HOT receiver on every pass play for Nate to go to if he gets quick pressure.

 

[uihawk82]

Absolutely but the BT now has say in where teams go. If Minnesota can win one of their last 2 games they are still West Champs and I think they are Rose Bowl bound with or without a win over tOSU.

Are you sure? If Minny loses to Wisky yet they both win their other games they finished tied with 2 losses in the West and Wisky will win the tiebreaker. Iowa gave Wisky an early xmas present

 

[ssckelley]

Are you sure. If Minny loses to Wisky yet they both win their other games they finished tied with 2 losses in the West and Wisky will win the tiebreaker.

I've already been corrected on this. For some reason I thought Wisconsin had 3 losses.

 

[westender]

Beat Illinois and Nebraska and win our bowl game and that's a 10-3 season and we'd be close to a top 10 ranking. That would be a pretty successful season in my opinion.

No way, fire Kirk. We didn't beat anybody really. Weird year, we will have beaten everyone (fingers crossed) we should have beaten and lost to those we were expected to lose to. Rare year.

 

[deanvogs]

It is not the only stat but it is telling when this is the measurable result that is keeping the team from winning the West the last 3 years.

There is nothing earth shattering here, it is only common sense. I mean a 10 win team likely has 3 losses to winning teams. a 9 win team likely has 4 losses to winning teams and a 8 win team likely has 5 losses to winning teams.

I'm not sure why people all of a sudden think this is something new and earth shattering this has been the case for 4 decades now. Do people think teams lose 5 times to non winning teams, but beat 5 winning teams each year to get to 8 wins?