Excellent play calling Greg Davis

[HomerChampless]

Greg Davis. I tip my cap to you for your excellent play calling.

The offensive line was patchwork. Illinois' blitzes were disrupting Iowa's offense.
Then Davis called some screens, called some slants, and pitched the ball to avoid the rush. From my TV I didn't notice if a lineman helped Daniels on double teams when he was right tackle. For sure, I didn't hear any more from Illinois' #91 after the start of the 4th quarter.

That over 6 minute drive in the 4th quarter that was almost all runs was beautiful. Wish Iowa could do more of that. Tip my cap to James Ferentz as well.
The offensive line (whole offense) seemed to be in better condition than Illinois' defense at the end.

So, I also tip my cap to the conditioning coach.

 

[guffus]

Greg Davis. I tip my cap to you for your excellent play calling.

The offensive line was patchwork. Illinois' blitzes were disrupting Iowa's offense.
Then Davis called some screens, called some slants, and pitched the ball to avoid the rush. From my TV I didn't notice if a lineman helped Daniels on double teams when he was right tackle. For sure, I didn't hear any more from Illinois' #91 after the start of the 4th quarter.

That over 6 minute drive in the 4th quarter that was almost all runs was beautiful. Wish Iowa could do more of that. Tip my cap to James Ferentz as well.
The offensive line (whole offense) seemed to be in better condition than Illinois' defense at the end.

So, I also tip my cap to the conditioning coach.

James Ferentz?

 

[hawkeyebob62]

James Ferentz?

Let him go, he's rolling...

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Greg Davis. I tip my cap to you for your excellent play calling.

The offensive line was patchwork. Illinois' blitzes were disrupting Iowa's offense.
Then Davis called some screens, called some slants, and pitched the ball to avoid the rush. From my TV I didn't notice if a lineman helped Daniels on double teams when he was right tackle. For sure, I didn't hear any more from Illinois' #91 after the start of the 4th quarter.

That over 6 minute drive in the 4th quarter that was almost all runs was beautiful. Wish Iowa could do more of that. Tip my cap to James Ferentz as well.
The offensive line (whole offense) seemed to be in better condition than Illinois' defense at the end.

So, I also tip my cap to the conditioning coach.

<<From my TV, I didn't notice...>>

Of course you didn't. Because, like a lot of us, you wondered why we were still running that backside-cut, counter-trap to Canzeri after the first half. Watch it again. Over and over. You'll get it sooner or later.

(First clue: they'd be going after that back-cut counter-trap most of the game)
(Second clue: Smoot was getting success pushing straight upfield)
(Final clue: Oops! Looks like a couple guys, Mr. Smoot included, got a little overconfident and over-pursued straight upfield)

And yes, although I was starting to wonder just how many plays they could pull it off, that drive was lights-out crazy-good. But how good would it have been if J Smith holds onto that 3rd-down ball?

For a team still showing some mis-fires, Hawks are getting it done.

 

[tweeterhawk]

Hats off to the OC!

 

[INTIMIDATORHawk]

Not sure what's happening. I never thought I would see a thread with the title of this one.

Crazy twilight zone stuff.

 

[bitmap]

Not sure what's happening. I never thought I would see a thread with the title of this one.

Crazy twilight zone stuff.

This team and the coaching staff all seemed to be at the same game and on the same page. GD, and to a lesser extent even KOK, sometimes looked like they just stuck w/ the game plan no matter what was happening on the field. The reality is its better to be productive and not creative out there. And talk about unpredictability - giving the ball to Canzeri 11 times in row probably threw the Illinois defense for a bit of a loop. They all had to keep thinking "play action" and maybe that added a slight hesitation allowing the little seams and holes to open.

I watched some of the later games and saw nothing that looked like Iowa's determination to win that game. Kudos to everyone.

 

[bucksnducks]

Hawkeyebob62 nailed it - those of us there couldn't believe he was running that same play up the middle - the slant was good, but didn't break it. the 2 0r 3 screens to canzeri were good - Smith needs to catch those passes across the middle and endzone - even if they are behind him. NOrthwestern is going to blitz and blitz a lot - they better figure out some quick hits or roll outs

 

[NCHawker]

toss sweep is a rare thing for Iowa. I like it. Sometimes it makes sense and it worked. I'll chalk it up to having a run game coordinator.

 

[Hawk90]

Ok, I will go negative, even though I liked the end result. How many times were we 2nd and 7, 2nd and 8....everyone in that stadium knew we were going straight ahead on first down. Did we pass on 1st down once.....we may have and I missed it, if we did it was out in the flat. No imagination at all.
The new Kirk looked alot like the old Kirk and by extension.....so did Davis. This game had no business being that close, playing not to lose again.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Hawkeyebob62 nailed it - those of us there couldn't believe he was running that same play up the middle - the slant was good, but didn't break it. the 2 0r 3 screens to canzeri were good - Smith needs to catch those passes across the middle and endzone - even if they are behind him. NOrthwestern is going to blitz and blitz a lot - they better figure out some quick hits or roll outs

The pass in the end zone that was slightly behind J Smith was actually not CJs fault, though. He had the official in the sight line and had to adjust. Smith will start making those adjustments, and let's face it, he was lights-out on the two long balls. That's what will force some of the blitzing, and hence, open up some of those backside counter-trap plays.

What made that JC run even more brilliant is that NObody saw that play coming at that particular time(or at least nobody I was messaging with did). The collective thought seemed to be, "Alas, Daniels is getting killed and we're still throwing the ball?!" Brilliant.

Gotta give GD the credit, especially given the OL "shortage". He flat-out (along with staff) all but reasoned, "Sure, we may not blow them out, but we CAN run well enough to burn a ton of clock, or make them use time-outs, and keep Lunt off the field."

 

[HawgEyeState]

toss sweep is a rare thing for Iowa. I like it. Sometimes it makes sense and it worked. I'll chalk it up to having a run game coordinator.

Agree with NCHawker; the last time IOWA used a toss sweep was maybe
Ed Podolak! Worked well with CJ to Jordan Canzeri......GO

 

[CP87]

Ok, I will go negative, even though I liked the end result. How many times were we 2nd and 7, 2nd and 8....everyone in that stadium knew we were going straight ahead on first down. Did we pass on 1st down once.....we may have and I missed it, if we did it was out in the flat. No imagination at all.
The new Kirk looked alot like the old Kirk and by extension.....so did Davis. This game had no business being that close, playing not to lose again.

In the first half, they had 19 first down plays. Of those, they ran on 11, and they passed on 8 of them. Those 8 passes yielded a completion of 3 yards, a completion of 9 yards, and the long TD to Kittle (the other 5 were incomplete).

The second half was obviously unique because we were playing a true freshman guard at right tackle and he was struggling mightily in 1-on-1 pass pro. That, and Iowa was protecting a lead. They had 13 first down plays in the 2nd half (not counting the kneel down), and amazingly they ran on all 13 of them. However, they had good success on first down. They averaged 9.9 yds per carry on those plays, although that is obviously helped greatly by the 75 yd home run. Take that out, and they averaged 4.5 yds on their 2nd half 1st down rushes, keeping the offense on track and protecting their inexperienced tackles from obvious passing situations.

So I think you make a good point about their predictability, but we should also acknowledge the success they had in predictable situations, as well as the extenuating circumstances that forced some of that predictability.