You want to know the difference between Iowa and Wisky. Wisky will let their offense go and that gives them more scoring drives,and keeps their defense off the field. They will run a two minute drill instead of sitting on it just in case. Games are your best practice but we constantly say thats enough lets run out the clock. We cant do anything when it counts because we are to scared to do it right before the half.
has anything changed?
Wisconsin has a one loss team and is heading most likely to the Rose Bowl. They are not an exact copy but play a brand of football extremely similar to ours.
Guess what? They run a very pridictable offense also and are trouncing teams.
I never buy scheme as the reason for wins and losses. A great football team can even tell the opponent at the line of scrimmage what they are going to run and then run it anyway to perfection.
Football is a man's sport. It's about who is bigger, faster, stronger and tougher PERIOD. That's who wins most games. Sure there a few cases on both sides of the bell curve but most winners are decided by these factors.
Want to have a better offense? Someone ask our offensive line guru KF why he does not put out a better offensive line personnel wise? Ask KF the hard question why he put in Jeff Koeppel at the right guard spot after injuries to Gettis & McMillan passing over other players more suitable for that position; Boeffelli, Orne, Van Sloten to name a few. This decision really took the wheels of this offense. Prior to that insertion there was not a lot of margin for error but the offense was moving the ball. This insertion gave Iowa one of the smallest interior set of lineman in the Big Ten. The effect was we lost consistent control of the line of scrimmage. Too many drives were stalled due to negative yardage plays/minimal gains, pocket pressure/collapses. Bingo.... offense dropped to 17 points per games after MSU. Games which included three of the five worst defensive teams in the conference.
Guess what... last time this same thing happened was when we were 6-6. We started out that season playing a vastly undersized guard(Meade) and a young undersized center in Eubanks. That season was a total disaster blocking wise also and we had issues moving the football.
Coincidence??? Not.
Most fans do not value the importance of blocking because they follow the ball and skilled players.
This is a solid post. We have been undersized on the OL compared to other teams for a while. Wisconsin has had great success for some time (from a scoring perspective) running the ball 65-70% of the time behind an oversized OL. We could do that. We are a similar program to Wisconsin, maybe not currently, but historically. I think this will be one of the bigger OLs we've had in a while.
Iowa can't recruit (so Iowa fans say), so the defense is also plain..vanilla. Why am I always the only one who says the same as in this thread about Iowa's offense about Iowa's defense?
I know this has a lot to to with our conservative coach, KF. Conservative offense and defense. Offense most conservative so mistakes aren't as prevalent. This is what I don't understand: KF relies on the defense to win games, yet his defense is ineffective against passing and spread offenses, it waits for mistakes.
Iowa can't recruit (so Iowa fans say), so the defense is also plain..vanilla. Why am I always the only one who says the same as in this thread about Iowa's offense about Iowa's defense?
I know this has a lot to to with our conservative coach, KF. Conservative offense and defense. Offense most conservative so mistakes aren't as prevalent. This is what I don't understand: KF relies on the defense to win games, yet his defense is ineffective against passing and spread offenses, it waits for mistakes.
has anything changed?
While I agree with some of this, I also think it goes deeper. KF's defenses are successful when the front 4 get pressure on the QB. That pressure is what leads to the mistakes. Unfortunately when you're not consistently getting pressure on the QB and the receivers have all the time in the world to get open they will generally do so. I may get criticized for saying this, but I have no issue with the "bend don't break mentality", IMO the problem isn't in the mentality, but the fact that we can't get the pressure needed to execute it. The years we've been able to succeed and penetrate also happen to be the years we've had the most success.
This is as accurate as it gets when discussing the Iowa defenses down years vs their up years. It all comes down to the defensive line. If the Hawks don't have a front four that can get pressure on the QB then KF has got to allow the DC to adjust the gameplan. Which means man up on the outside and blitz the QB more frequently. Let's just hope the front four can get pressure, because history tells us when they can get pressure Iowa has the most success. History also tells us KF isn't exactly open to playing less conservatively.
This is a solid post. We have been undersized on the OL compared to other teams for a while. Wisconsin has had great success for some time (from a scoring perspective) running the ball 65-70% of the time behind an oversized OL. We could do that. We are a similar program to Wisconsin, maybe not currently, but historically. I think this will be one of the bigger OLs we've had in a while.
Similar philosophies just different schemes if that makes sense. It does make me wonder if BB eventually takes over for KF will he stick with the stretch, zone blocking approach or will he go with the man on man power stuff that wisky ran.