Backup QB And Interim HC
- Thread starter Hawkeye News
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PSU is perfectly capable of rolling Iowa Saturday. Their recent bumps are no more indicative of talent than our mauling of a W team that, frankly, rolled over and quit. Hopefully the players keep their heads screwed on as the good Captain strives to impress upon them the challenge ahead. Backup QB or not. Gronowski needs to be more mobile this week and a playmaker again. PSU isn't rolling over like Bucky and letting our running game dominate them.
HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
The one problem is Gronowski doesn't appear to have his legs under him. I don't think is close to 100%. He's a gamer. Wants to be out there and lead, but what I noticed on a couple of his scrambles, he looked about 1/2 to 3/4 speed of what he usually is.
I'm guessing either he or possibly the staff have cautioned him are keeping the reigns on his ability to scramble or run. I fear if they get pressure or on roll outs, it could affect his abilities. Guess we will see. But Iowa best be ready for a dogfight. This team will rally around their coaches and be highly motivated.
Iowa needs to at least weather their barrages, and execute. Potentially, after that, I could see PSU waving the white flag and folding, but if it remains a dogfight, they will continue to believe.
If we had a passing game. Iowa can't do to PSU what they just did to Wisky. I don't think we are running for north of 200 yards on them. If we do I'll eat my words. To put up 30 pts on them we'll have to be able to throw the ball more then we have. Maybe we can and will it's just a tough thing to predict. With MG playing hurt and looking how he did I'm just not sure what to think. The first to 20 pts will win though it won't take more then that to beat them. Hell 14-17 might do the trick. I think our D should be able to hold down their backup QB easy enough.
Fryowa
Administrator
This game I think is going to come down to who has the better defensive line. Low scoring affair that includes 5 total field goals and comes down to the last 5 minutes of the game.
HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
I really hope you are wrong. LOL. Seeing Iowa steamroll Wisky was nice. Would love them to keep rolling and building upon success. With your sage responses, I was hoping you would prognosticate a blow out and possibly Iowa shutting them out. Damn you, Fry! LOL.
Any possibility it looks like the 2020 PSU game? That was a super weird season with the COVID-delay, and then losing the 2 early one. We then kept gaining steam as the year went on. After thumping MSU and Minny, Iowa pushed around PSU pretty good (3x as many rushing yards, forced 4 TOs). It was PSU's 5th straight loss to start the year, they were in a weird place. But, might this be a similarly weird place?
I also think about the 2nd half of the 2021 game at Kinnick, where Clifford (QB1) got knocked out, and their 2nd string QB could barely get the ball snapped without a penalty. He went 7/21 for 34 yards and 2 INT in a little over a half of work. Iowa squeaked out just enough offense to pull off the win.
I could see us shutting down PSU similar to the 2nd half of 2021. Our offense looks a little like that 2020 team (very strong on the ground, very shaky through the air). I think PSU's D will be much better than the slop they put on the field in 2020, but I could see something like us in the 20s vs. them in the single-digits. If we can get a few TOs converted into scores, it could get even uglier than that.
