MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Instead of relying on the stellar D and Tory Taylor to flip the field vs Rutgers, Iowa's offense managed to move the ball and chains, sustaining drives and letting the D rest more. Iowa gained 402 yrds of offense (223 passing yrds by Deacon Hill) and outgained Taylor's punting yards (143) which hasn't been the case most games. Hill completed 65% of his passes which is really good in college football. That's winning football folks.
I realize Hill has had some growing pains mostly this season but played a legit game last Saturday. I'm a fan of his and really impressed with his ability to block out all the distraction and focus on the plan. When interviewed he said he absolutely loves being in this program and loves this team. I tell you what, he seems to be a good cat and a great teammate, and now it seems to be coming together for him. I believe the coaches and his teammates have seen something in practice and believing in him is huge. They were right, he just didn't have a lot of live game action under his belt.
The call to the freshman TE Ortwerth was a great call, thing of beauty, and Hill put it on the money and hit him in stride on the fly pattern. That was a great cross up call as Ostrenga was in motion on the other side and attracting two defenders.
Ya gotta give Brian Ferentz and the other coaches credit for the way they game planned and he called the game on Saturday. It was a great move to empty the backfield on a lot of the plays and let Deacon have some quick one read hits, which much of the time served as a proxy run game, per se. They spread the field out to empty the box of defenders and found ways to gain some yards and had confidence in Hill to make the plays. That was enough change to go against tendency and to be effective. Forcing Rutgers to not load the box up to stop the run was the key call of the game, IMO.
I realize Hill has had some growing pains mostly this season but played a legit game last Saturday. I'm a fan of his and really impressed with his ability to block out all the distraction and focus on the plan. When interviewed he said he absolutely loves being in this program and loves this team. I tell you what, he seems to be a good cat and a great teammate, and now it seems to be coming together for him. I believe the coaches and his teammates have seen something in practice and believing in him is huge. They were right, he just didn't have a lot of live game action under his belt.
The call to the freshman TE Ortwerth was a great call, thing of beauty, and Hill put it on the money and hit him in stride on the fly pattern. That was a great cross up call as Ostrenga was in motion on the other side and attracting two defenders.
Ya gotta give Brian Ferentz and the other coaches credit for the way they game planned and he called the game on Saturday. It was a great move to empty the backfield on a lot of the plays and let Deacon have some quick one read hits, which much of the time served as a proxy run game, per se. They spread the field out to empty the box of defenders and found ways to gain some yards and had confidence in Hill to make the plays. That was enough change to go against tendency and to be effective. Forcing Rutgers to not load the box up to stop the run was the key call of the game, IMO.
