Am I alone here

haydensly said:
I agree with most of your grades but D+ for BF? He has sucked at his job and we all know that but I have to give credit where credit it due. I thought the screen pass TD was a great call. He called another screen pass later that had about a mile of green grass in front of Leshun Williams that he took his eye off the ball and dropped. Another good call. In general, he stuck with the run for the most part of the game and why wouldn't he? It was working well.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on what you thought was a poor day for him.
Click to expand...

On 3rd and 3....on the opponents 40ish? And he goes for the pass?

When the run is working? And you know they'll blitz? Why not run it and see what you get? 4th and 1 near the 40...or better. I've seen enough missed conversions in the last 15 games either on the ground or in the air. And finally something is working at a high percentage? One result was Lachey's season. The other was a sack.

Granted, Taylor stuck at least one of those ensuing punts. Don't remember. This is in the first half. Either one extends the series with good probability of reaching FG range. I mean, in theory, it's a lot easier to score when you have the ball. Not always true with some of the Hawk defenses we've seen.

Also...this whole thread.
The fact that people are wondering if this score was run up to "save his job".
BTW...I don't believe that.

D+ is nearly passing grade.
Ok...so they won. And the run game showed life. And was used.
I'll change it to a C-.
Passing grade.
No bell curve from me. Let's see about next week.
 
Last edited:
dagdaj said:
I honestly think it was one part frustration, one part "practice".
My wife made us leave right before they kicked the last field goal, so I didn't see the last drive.

Had this been game 1, I think the 4th quarter would have looked different. I think the running backs were feeling it for the first time for the first time in over a year. McNamara either ain't that good or needs as much time as he can get on their field with these guys

Williams deserved a rest.

O-line: B-
Mcnamara: C
Defense: B-
Special teams: A (despite the missed FG). They scored 2 points and Taylor had some sticks.
Williams: A
Other backs: A-
Brain: D+

If they win next week, I'll come and change all these to As. Starting with Brain's

Edit: bumped defense up to a B-. They got torched more than they should have. But the fumble was big. Also the sack and fumblenout of bounds setup the 2 points for the special teams.
Click to expand...
Right you are. Parker did his usual 1/2 time adjustments and WMich totaled 39 yards in the second half.
 
HuckFinn said:
Right you are. Parker did his usual 1/2 time adjustments and WMich totaled 39 yards in the second half.
Click to expand...

I actually think he started making adjustments during the weather break. Yes...WMU continued to have some luck later in the second quarter. But by the end of the first quarter, I'd have had no problems going for it on 4th and short inside the 45 on a team like that with the Hawk defense. Odds are Williams woulda picked up the first. He had the wantto yesterday.

In fact...I'm gonna change the grade to a B for the defense. They got torched early. And got burned a few times...but only partway into the second quarter. And got super lucky. If that WMU lineman had stayed at home, they would have still connected for that second TD and it would have counted.

Probably could even make a case for an B+/A- if you wanted to.
 
Iceman said:
Is the way Iowa approached the last two minutes today in any way a reflection of......the contract
Click to expand...

No. I can't believe that such unpure thoughts exist within the fan base. If anything that level of run production will harm us because The Brain will think we have an actual running attack against teams with a pulse. Oh, sorry, Penn is the only remaining team we play with a pulse until we throttle Michigan in the conference title game en route to beating the piss out of Florida State in the first playoff game. Not sure who we'll draw in the second game but we'll lose that one, guaranteed.
 
The only play call I scratched my head at was the reverse they ran in the 4th q. That seemed odd and unnecessary. You run those for when it counts and you're trying to fool the D. You don't need to do that when you're up 20 something in the 4th q with backups in.

As far as White getting that last handoff I was totally fine with it. 5th or 6th string walk on rb getting what might be the only touches of his career...? Yeah I'm totally good with him playing and getting touches along with the rest of the backups that got in there. I'm not exactly cool with running trick plays with em as I just mentioned above but running regular running plays and play action seam routes for Hill to throw to Stillianos I'm totally good with. That's football let em play.

Oregon puts up 50-80 pts every game and I don't hear of any national outcry over that but Iowa puts up 41 and all of a sudden that should be a slam to KF/BFs character as coaches... Good grief the media just can't help themselves
 
I was thinking about it at the time, my thought was take it in.....

Deacon Hill was looking good, our young RBs were looking good, hen, the whole O was looking good, my thought was don't take that MO away from them, let them do it.................
 
Iceman said:
Is the way Iowa approached the last two minutes today in any way a reflection of......the contract
Click to expand...
Nope I don't think so. If they thought that way they woulda kicked a FG at the end of the first game we played and tried harder to score at the end of it.

To me this was just letting the backups get in there and play. And WM not being able to stop em. Outside just putting a knee down what is a team supposed to do in a situation like that with time left? As far as I'm concerned if there's time on the clock pay football. If you're feelings are going to get hurt over losing by a certain number of points what are you doing playing football anyway? They expect everyone involved with football to be mentally and physically tough but man don't hurt my feelings by beating me by too many points... Toughen up buttercups.
 
Zstatman said:
I was thinking about it at the time, my thought was take it in.....

Deacon Hill was looking good, our young RBs were looking good, hen, the whole O was looking good, my thought was don't take that MO away from them, let them do it.................
Click to expand...
What really made me happy was the obvious fun the backups were having.
 
I have no problem with Iowa letting its back ups actually run the offense. If you don't like it, stop them. Also, we pay these scrub teams like a million bucks to come here for these cupcake games, so they can take it like a man and shut the F up.

I think Iowa tries to score regardless of the contract, but this is the problem with this Barta clusterfuck contract provision. It makes BF a story every god damn week......
 
Who knew the contract would become such a lightning rod even just a few weeks ago.

I didn't do the math but with 41 points I do know BF is on the plus side after 3 games:)
 
Take a knee at the 15 in the opener? Haha, didn't get past 25 points.

A walk-on scores a TD with 30 seconds left? Haha, running it up to save Brian.

Iowa can't really win here either way they do it, one last parting PR gaf from ole summer teeth that's going to last all season.
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
More aggressive than historically. But reps with all backups, 3rd string TE, and a running play with 5th string walk on rb... not sure that's running it up.

Haven't we wanted meaningful reps for backups...since...forever.

Does it have a dual benefit for BF, sure. But personally, I want meaningful and real prep reps by backups. Seeing a couple good throws from Hill was nice to see...imo.
Click to expand...
I thought the same thing. If a contract is what it takes for our backups to get meaningful reps then I'm in favor of it. It's definitely needed and I'm 100% behind it whether it's done in the best interest of the players or BF himself, I don't care.
 
Anyone who has watched Iowa football for any period of time knows that final drive and TD is NOT Kirk's normal MO. He usually runs out the clock with a few runs up the middle or takes a knee.
If he wanted to get Hill some reps, why did he still have McNamara out there mid-fourth quarter, up 34 - 10?
 
Last edited:
HawkeyeWalker said:
I thought the thread was about the last few minutes of the game, when our 2nd, 3rd string was in and getting reps.

scored 10 points in the 4th qtr, a fg and a 1 yard run by a 5th string walkon.

The outrage is a bit overstated imo.
Click to expand...
Not really. Brian loves picking on the playground weaklings. But when cornered by the monkey bars by someone his own size, all of a sudden there emerges a giant wet spot
 
SCHawkeye2 said:
Anyone who has watched Iowa football for any period of time knows that final drive and score is NOT Kirk's normal MO. He usually runs out the clock with a few runs up the middle or takes a knee.
If he wanted to get Hill some reps, why did he still have McNamara our there mid-fourth quarter, up 34 - 10?
Click to expand...
Cause McNamara needs the reps too and Iowa needs him to have as many reps as possible? He hasn't really played football in 2 seasons and he missed all of camp. Cade needs a lot more work. Also with Jaziun Patterson and Kaleb Johnson not available for Penn State this week, I am really glad they got White and Moulton involved too.

Again, criticized when they take a knee, criticsized when score, there is no way for Iowa to win with this stupid thing that literally doesn't matter. Brian Ferentz is never going to be fired by the University of Iowa unless its 10 years from now when he's the HC and not getting it done.
 
If Iowa had thrown over the top, I could see some room for criticism. But, we were playing all backups and running our base run package to get reps to second and third stringers. I have seen KF do that before.

And, given the fragile nature of our QB, getting some snaps to his backup seems pretty darned important.

I don't see any controversy here except those that are trying to come up with a reason to stir the pot about BF for the 7,346th time on this site.
 
InGoodCo said:
Cause McNamara needs the reps too and Iowa needs him to have as many reps as possible? He hasn't really played football in 2 seasons and he missed all of camp. Cade needs a lot more work. Also with Jaziun Patterson and Kaleb Johnson not available for Penn State this week, I am really glad they got White and Moulton involved too.

Again, criticized when they take a knee, criticsized when score, there is no way for Iowa to win with this stupid thing that literally doesn't matter. Brian Ferentz is never going to be fired by the University of Iowa unless its 10 years from now when he's the HC and not getting it done.
Click to expand...
Not against what he did. Actually, for years I've been wanting him to give the backups more PT when we are comfortably ahead. My point is he has not done that for years. Nor has he gone for a cheap TD with the game in hand.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top