I
Ian Pike Hammer
Guest
as we were in years gone by?
I don't think so, but you can't be all things at all times. The evolution of the game has moved away from physical dominance and toward speed and agility, so Iowa needs to follow. In particular on D, you can't build your team to stop smash-mouth football when everyone is going spread.
Now on offense you get the chance to dictate. So I think Iowa can take advantage of a "market inefficiency" if they retain the ability to line up and pummel defenses that are designed to stop spread passing games. But they have to be able to counter the NWs of the world that run-blitz the shit out of them while manning-up (i.e. holding) our receivers. You need to find ways to get the ball outside and downfield in that scenario, so you can't be one-dimensional.
Wisconsin is taking advantage of this same inefficiency...a little worried that they slowly grind us into dust. Hopefully big growth by the DL before that game comes around.
Now on offense you get the chance to dictate. So I think Iowa can take advantage of a "market inefficiency" if they retain the ability to line up and pummel defenses that are designed to stop spread passing games. But they have to be able to counter the NWs of the world that run-blitz the shit out of them while manning-up (i.e. holding) our receivers. You need to find ways to get the ball outside and downfield in that scenario, so you can't be one-dimensional.
Wisconsin is taking advantage of this same inefficiency...a little worried that they slowly grind us into dust. Hopefully big growth by the DL before that game comes around.
After reading the Subject Line of this thread, I thought you were going to ask, "are we as physical as our fanbase thinks?"
And I was going to say - Yes. And I'm thinking back to the end of last season and our 5 game win streak... and how bummed I was when the Michigan and Missouri games were both cancelled. I think we would have absolutely whipped both of those teams and dominated with our physical play. But this will be a new season and a new team. We shall see.
And to play devil's advocate, at first glance, our OL depth chart does look a little bit "small" in weight. A lot of guys < 300lbs. Not necessarily a bad thing. But not "big" by any means.
And I was going to say - Yes. And I'm thinking back to the end of last season and our 5 game win streak... and how bummed I was when the Michigan and Missouri games were both cancelled. I think we would have absolutely whipped both of those teams and dominated with our physical play. But this will be a new season and a new team. We shall see.
And to play devil's advocate, at first glance, our OL depth chart does look a little bit "small" in weight. A lot of guys < 300lbs. Not necessarily a bad thing. But not "big" by any means.
Just based on the size of most of our guys positionally I think we've tried to evolve into being a faster team in the trenches. The LBs aren't real big either. Going for more speed and cover ability. It's not the 3 yards and a cloud of dust conference anymore it's really not.
Luftgekuehlt67
Well-Known Member
Ha, exactly! Hard to define, impossible to measure.
Jack Campbell is pretty big (IMHO)for a LB. I get your overall point, though.
Really Good Points ...A little bit about a lot of things: sad to see "shooter" go down at guard but Britt is 6ft 4 305 so good size and from what I read, a really good athlete and strong!
Our tackles are a bit light but they can move, which will help counter the "speed rush"
On D we have a really good mix of smash mouth old school hitters look at Bensons LB 44 ARMS !!! WOW!! and Campbell is gonna just flat run over folks! and Jacobs can run with any TE, and we always find D Linemen that no body knows about that just kick butt! so I think we maintain our kick ass vibe on D....
Honestly I read all the glowing reviews of OB 7 .. but I watched a few different clips of the Kids DAY scrimmage,, and I just dont see it.. I saw over throws ..miss reads ball in the dirt ....yes there was 1 long completion that the WR had to dive for... and there were a ton of check downs to the running back....but from the small sample size I saw, there were no over the middle routs, no slants, no come back routes,
no simple down and outs. To be fair I was not there.... but the placement of the passes I saw was just....off myabe they were just vanilla passes???....I really hope I'm wrong...
thoughts?
Go Hawks!
I agree. When you put all the QB clips back to back I didn't see anything that made me think Petras will be much different this year than last -- perhaps a little more accuracy on his check-down throws to the RBs. Suspect he'll have some very good games and some subpar games. Would love to be proven wrong.
