Fake punt

H

HawkeyeBA

Well-Known Member
Not sure if this has been posted but just watch this video and at the end they talk about the fake punt by Wisky. He says he figured something was up or had a feeling because if Iowa strung 2 first downs up game would be over because the badgers only had 1 TO and Iowa has been moving the ball pretty well this game.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znpHSXYg2Ns&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Wisconsin postgame -- WR Colin Sandeman[/ame]
 
I just hope that we learn from this and from now on we play safe coverage for special teams, because its obvious were not gonna get any kind of return.
 
Fake punt was huge...obviously. Another play not getting enough notice is the off-sides call on the kickoff after IA took the lead in the 4th. I think they were at the 15-16 yd-line. Re-kick and Wisky starts at the 50.
 
KF has never had a game breaking punt returner. He seems to put guys back there that will play it safe which is fine with me. With that being said there should have not been a return called but a safe, watch everything kind of a play. With that weird punt formation, Iowa turning their backs as soon as the ball was snapped a lot of people could see it coming with the game being where it was as far as time and score. Regualr defense could have been left on the field with no returner becuase all we needed was the damn ball and the ability to pick up first downs' which we had been doing all day. All that being said........a missed extra point and a missed field goal would have gone a long way to win the game. Iowa killed themselves with self inflicted mistakes.
 
I think this is the biggest issue I have with the fake punt:

“It was something we had seen on film,â€￾ Bielema said. “Once I saw them put the punt return unit there … we gave them the call.â€￾

LINK


So with 6:30 min and 1 TO left in the game BB was going to punt the ball back to us until he saw he had the return called. Two first down and we win the game.

I still don't get why when we have run punt safe so many times in the past the coaches wouldn't use it at clearly one of the times that you should?

It really makes no sense.

Hats off to Wisc and their coaches for putting together a great game plan together I just really think that our coaches blew the game and need to get things figured out in a hurry.
 
THIS. Since I have had kids and gotten a little older I have found it is easier for me to flush Iowa losses. However I can't remember the last time I have had a game linger like this one and it is primarily this one play.

What is so frustrating is that Iowa's approach to punt returns is conservative to begin with but at that point in the game what does setting up a punt return when you don't have a game breaking option to begin with do for you?

Couple that with the fact that Eastern Illinois ran an almost identical fake from the same formation in almost the same part of the field less than 2 months ago and this coaching staff did not adjust to that obvious exploitation of our punt team weakness. I have a hard time accepting that from a staff that is known for it's attention to detail. I think this may be a case where they are so set in the way they do things that they were/are unwilling to change an obvious exposed weakness. That is very disappointing.

Yesterday was one of the worst special team performances (if not the worst) in Kirk Ferentz's tenure as head coach. Physical, mental and coaching lapses were aplenty and it cost Iowa the game.

iahawk72

hoffahawk said:
I think this is the biggest issue I have with the fake punt:

“It was something we had seen on film,â€￾ Bielema said. “Once I saw them put the punt return unit there … we gave them the call.â€￾

LINK


So with 6:30 min and 1 TO left in the game BB was going to punt the ball back to us until he saw he had the return called. Two first down and we win the game.

I still don't get why when we have run punt safe so many times in the past the coaches wouldn't use it at clearly one of the times that you should?

It really makes no sense.

Hats off to Wisc and their coaches for putting together a great game plan together I just really think that our coaches blew the game and need to get things figured out in a hurry.
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When I think back to this game I will always lament the fake punt. Had we played it safe like we should've and seen the play through, we'd have taken over in FG range and won the game. All we had to do was add: Wisconsin's losing, under 7 minutes left, they have one timeout, into the wind, Bielema gambles. 2+2+2+2+2=10
 
This is the kind of loss that lingers with a team and can alter the course of the season, good or bad. It may light a fire under the players and coaches ***** and they go on to do great things, or it could demoralize and frustrate the team leading to further losses.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
This is the kind of loss that lingers with a team and can alter the course of the season, good or bad. It may light a fire under the players and coaches ***** and they go on to do great things, or it could demoralize and frustrate the team leading to further losses.
Click to expand...


Agreed, the one thing I think helps is MSU is up next. It shouldn't be tough for the coaches to get the team to focus on what they have in front of them this week.

This coaching staff has done a pretty good job in the past getting teams to refocus after a tough loss I don't think that changes but there are quite a few things that need to get fixed in a hurry.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
This is the kind of loss that lingers with a team and can alter the course of the season, good or bad. It may light a fire under the players and coaches ***** and they go on to do great things, or it could demoralize and frustrate the team leading to further losses.
Click to expand...

And the team's response to this game is going to be what defines their character. Are they going to rally like they did after the 2008 Illinois game? Or will they fold like in 2005? Only time will tell, and I'll support them 100% either way. But I hope to God it's the former.
 
If a player has a feeling and the coaches don't then there is a problem with the coaches.


Could someone tell me which coach is responsible for that situation (besides the head coach)? Is it the D Coordinator, Special Teams Coordinator???? I don't know who takes control on 4th down in that situation.
 
I can't prove this but I believe that if Norm Parker had been on the sideline yesterday Iowa would have been in the safe punt or even base defense formation. When he is on the sidelines he is often times immediately waving his arms back and forth at waist level signaling the defense to stay on the field when they run base defense against punt teams which they have don't often enough in the past.

iahawk72

hawkeye12345 said:
If a player has a feeling and the coaches don't then there is a problem with the coaches.


Could someone tell me which coach is responsible for that situation (besides the head coach)? Is it the D Coordinator, Special Teams Coordinator???? I don't know who takes control on 4th down in that situation.
Click to expand...
 
This wont make people feel better, but it is a possibility. Even if Wisky had punted and we would have got the ball at Say our own 35. We would have played it safe, not trying to lose and would have given them back the ball again in 3 plays anyway. With that said the fake punt was unexcusable.
 
StatelineHawk said:
This wont make people feel better, but it is a possibility. Even if Wisky had punted and we would have got the ball at Say our own 35. We would have played it safe, not trying to lose and would have given them back the ball again in 3 plays anyway. With that said the fake punt was unexcusable.
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Wisky had the wind in their face on the punt. They would have punted from their own 26 yard line. Their punter averaged 48 yrds per punt but I'm not sure if both of those were with or into the wind so I'm just going to say he would have kicked it 48 yards to be safe with no return. That would have given us the ball at our 36 yard line with the wind at our back and 6 minutes +/- left on the clock.

Even if we go 3 and out, we are going to run somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes off the clock. Wisky had one timeout remaining so I would guestimate that we are running 3 times but then again we do have KOK as our OCoordinator so he make try 3 bombs for all I know.

We then punt the ball and with the wind we are kicking it 45+ yards putting them back inside the 20 yard line with 3 to 3:30 remaining and no Timeouts.

Stupid, stupid coaching in this game.
 
If Sandeman is just going to fair catch every punt, fine, but you damn well better be able to challenge any fake punt & solidy that aspect of the play. About 1 in 5 punts is returned by Iowa it seems.
 
tm3308 said:
And the team's response to this game is going to be what defines their character. Are they going to rally like they did after the 2008 Illinois game? Or will they fold like in 2005? Only time will tell, and I'll support them 100% either way. But I hope to God it's the former.
Click to expand...


This feels like the '97 loss to Michigan, same sort of expectations, that team never recovered and played an uninspired/flat game against ASU in the Sun bowl. Probably the beginning of the end of Hayden Fry era.
 
That play bothers me more than any other play yesterday by far. We all make mistakes but somebody on the staff was really asleep at the wheel on that play. Thats just elementary to watch for the fake in that situation. As far as the formation itself, I can tell you for a fact that the Wisconson staff isn't the only one that has seen all year how vunerable and exposed Iowa is in that situation.

That being said I wouldn't trade The Captain for another Coach in America. I'm sure the staff is looking back in hindsight and realizing some things it would have liked to have done differently.
 
It was the biggest play of the game, no doubt. But like another poster mentioned we would have played it safe anyway and gave the ball right back and we couldn't stop them, yeah they would have only had 3 minutes left instead of 6 but they would wouldn't have run much off the play clock and just scored in the 3 minutes instead of 6.

Physical mistakes will happen like an overthrow, fumble, missed PAT but mental mistakes like offsides on a kickoff that ends up giving them about 35 extra yards on a re-kick and not being ready for a fake punt are what lost the game.
 
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