Comparing Iowa State to Iowa After 7 Games

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
Both teams are 5-2. We beat them head-to-head in a one point game.

Here are the Massey Ratings detailed breakdowns for the offense and defense of each team through 7 games:

Iowa State:
OFFENSE 15TH IN THE NATION
DEFENSE 27TH IN THE NATION

Iowa:

OFFENSE 86TH IN THE NATION!!!!
DEFENSE: 4TH IN THE NATION

As far as I can tell, there is no team in the nation with a wider disparity between offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency than Iowa. We are not far away from having the BEST defense in college football, and the WORST offense. It is truly unbelievable.


Here is my question: Why can't we have Iowa state's offensive production? Is it really that hard? They certainly don't have better players, other than a mobile QB. What is the reason??

And don't tell me that Iowa has played a more difficult schedule than Iowa State. Exactly the opposite is true. According to the Sagarin College Football Ratings, ISU has played the 21st toughest schedule through 7 games; Iowa has played the 42nd toughest schedule. Iowa's failure to produce offense becomes more and more perplexing.
 
Big XII defenses are garbage, see Kansas and Texas.

Using your eyes, who has ISU played comparable to PSU and Michigan? Baylor can be one of those that's fine, TCU? WVU? TECH???? UNI??????

Iowa's O has not been good these last 4 weeks at all, I don't think anyone is arguing that. But you also have to have some perspective and use deductive reasoning in comparing some things.
 
Last edited:
Big XII defenses are garbage, see Kansas and Texas.

Using your eyes, who has ISU played comparable to PSU and Michigan? Baylor can be one of those that's fine, TCU? WVU? TECH???? UNI??????

Exactly, ISU's offense had two big plays against Iowa and then nothing but they explode against almost every team the play not named Baylor. The Big 12 should be nicknamed Arm Tackle Conference which leads some bad defense.

Why Iowa has such a poorly rated offense is not a mystery and not a surprise. This year both the run blocking and pass blocking are shaky. We have an above avg QB, running backs and receivers, TEnds are only serviceable right now but would be better if Nate had more time.
 
I would say that the 2 biggest factors are

1)ISU does play against defenses that help inflate production compared to Iowa
2) ISU also recruits and/or develops better WRs than Iowa does, this is the first time since 2011 where I thought Iowa's WRs were on par with ISU's. In today's college football, WRs are paramount in importance
 
Let's compare the competition.

Iowa Schedule, Total Def Rank, Scoring Def Rank

Miami (OH), 77 118

Rutgers 107 123

Iowa State 30 34

MTSU 128 107

Michigan 14 21

Penn State 12 3

Purdue 101 81

AVG 67 69



ISU Schedule, Total Def Rank, Scoring Def Rank

UNI (*FCS), 25* 30*

Iowa 10 5

ULM 126 124

Baylor 47 22

TCU 12 53

WVU 82 109

Texas Tech 109 75

AVG 64* 73

So while ISU's defensive schedule seems comparable, the stats are thrown off by the exclusion of an FCS team (who cannot be compared to a FBS defense). They also have the aberration of scoring 72 points against one of the absolute worst D's in the country.

One difference is that Iowa's schedule has seen a ridiculous uptick in defensive strength as they hit conference play, whereas ISU's has remained steadily mediocre to subpar. Both teams have struggled against competent defenses, with Iowa scoring 18, 10, and 12 respectively against the #34, #21, and #3 scoring D's, while ISU has gone 17 and 20 against the #5 and #22 scoring D's.

And finally, I would argue IMO that ISU is very much a boom or bust offense, whereas Iowa is more steady in their output. Like uihawk82 said, they scored both of their TD's off of 2 long plays with busted coverages, a trend that has held firm through the start of conference play for them.
 
Both teams are 5-2. We beat them head-to-head in a one point game.

Here are the Massey Ratings detailed breakdowns for the offense and defense of each team through 7 games:

Iowa State:
OFFENSE 15TH IN THE NATION
DEFENSE 27TH IN THE NATION

Iowa:

OFFENSE 86TH IN THE NATION!!!!
DEFENSE: 4TH IN THE NATION

As far as I can tell, there is no team in the nation with a wider disparity between offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency than Iowa. We are not far away from having the BEST defense in college football, and the WORST offense. It is truly unbelievable.


Here is my question: Why can't we have Iowa state's offensive production? Is it really that hard? They certainly don't have better players, other than a mobile QB. What is the reason??

And don't tell me that Iowa has played a more difficult schedule than Iowa State. Exactly the opposite is true. According to the Sagarin College Football Ratings, ISU has played the 21st toughest schedule through 7 games; Iowa has played the 42nd toughest schedule. Iowa's failure to produce offense becomes more and more perplexing.

Matt Campbell has NEVER beat Iowa. Bye.
 
Both teams are 5-2. We beat them head-to-head in a one point game.

Here are the Massey Ratings detailed breakdowns for the offense and defense of each team through 7 games:

Iowa State:
OFFENSE 15TH IN THE NATION
DEFENSE 27TH IN THE NATION

Iowa:

OFFENSE 86TH IN THE NATION!!!!
DEFENSE: 4TH IN THE NATION

As far as I can tell, there is no team in the nation with a wider disparity between offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency than Iowa. We are not far away from having the BEST defense in college football, and the WORST offense. It is truly unbelievable.

This is not unbelievable. There is 20 years' of history to clearly demonstrate that Kirk has a high tolerance for inept offense.

Year in and year out Iowa's offense sucks. And they win 8 games.

Teams with very good offenses but weak defenses win 6 games per year.

sigh. you know Krik, you CAN have both if you insist upon it.
 
One wrong number. Still, Iowa has faced vastly superior defenses than Iowa State.

Not to say we've been good, but I'm not exactly clamoring for their scheme either.

Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing w/ your point.

@ChosenChildren is just having a "mid-life fan crisis"- Clones are the shiny sportscar.

Actually it's kinda strange- there are several posters "changing their stripes" lately ( @HawkPrdatr40 & @WinOneThisCentury also ) because of weak offense.

But, the offensive issues aren't new, and this is the first time since 2010 the Hawks have been ranked the entire first half of the year. So their timing seems odd.
 
Both teams are 5-2. We beat them head-to-head in a one point game.

Here are the Massey Ratings detailed breakdowns for the offense and defense of each team through 7 games:

Iowa State:
OFFENSE 15TH IN THE NATION
DEFENSE 27TH IN THE NATION

Iowa:

OFFENSE 86TH IN THE NATION!!!!
DEFENSE: 4TH IN THE NATION

As far as I can tell, there is no team in the nation with a wider disparity between offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency than Iowa. We are not far away from having the BEST defense in college football, and the WORST offense. It is truly unbelievable.


Here is my question: Why can't we have Iowa state's offensive production? Is it really that hard? They certainly don't have better players, other than a mobile QB. What is the reason??

And don't tell me that Iowa has played a more difficult schedule than Iowa State. Exactly the opposite is true. According to the Sagarin College Football Ratings, ISU has played the 21st toughest schedule through 7 games; Iowa has played the 42nd toughest schedule. Iowa's failure to produce offense becomes more and more perplexing.

They have a mobile QB, we do not. They use more deception than we do. Their receivers are more athletic than ours. They just have a more modern offensive system than we do. I hope that answered your question.
 
Exactly, ISU's offense had two big plays against Iowa and then nothing but they explode against almost every team the play not named Baylor. The Big 12 should be nicknamed Arm Tackle Conference which leads some bad defense.

Why Iowa has such a poorly rated offense is not a mystery and not a surprise. This year both the run blocking and pass blocking are shaky. We have an above avg QB, running backs and receivers, TEnds are only serviceable right now but would be better if Nate had more time.
There's better defense in the NBA all-star game than there is in the Big 12.
 
Essentially the Clowns had three weeks to prepare for Iowa, two broken plays against 2nd/3rd team Iowa DBs', plenty of weather breaks, traditionally Iowa has worn them down by the 4th Qtr, I think ISU was very, very lucky to be that close.
 
Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing w/ your point.

@ChosenChildren is just having a "mid-life fan crisis"- Clones are the shiny sportscar.

Actually it's kinda strange- there are several posters "changing their stripes" lately ( @HawkPrdatr40 & @WinOneThisCentury also ) because of weak offense.

But, the offensive issues aren't new, and this is the first time since 2010 the Hawks have been ranked the entire first half of the year. So their timing seems odd.


No they aren’t new I’m well aware of them, but the Purdue game was about as frustrating to watch for me as when Greg Davis was the OC. It was very disturbing to me and the fact that Goodson still is way underutilized and almost appeared used less last week especially in the 1st half, you have that dynamic of a player at RB who can change a game and don’t get him on the field more! That’s whack
 
They have a mobile QB, we do not. They use more deception than we do. Their receivers are more athletic than ours. They just have a more modern offensive system than we do. I hope that answered your question.

Yet it couldn't beat our ancient defense.
 
Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing w/ your point.

@ChosenChildren is just having a "mid-life fan crisis"- Clones are the shiny sportscar.

Actually it's kinda strange- there are several posters "changing their stripes" lately ( @HawkPrdatr40 & @WinOneThisCentury also ) because of weak offense.

But, the offensive issues aren't new, and this is the first time since 2010 the Hawks have been ranked the entire first half of the year. So their timing seems odd.

Damn, I hope this season doesn't end like that shit show.
 

Latest posts

Top