Final reflection on the OSU Game

NCHawker

NCHawker

Well-Known Member
Ok, season is over now and we're heading to the bowl game with a 7-5 mark. teams with this kind of record are by nature inconsistent. And so it is. Iowa plays a team, for the first time in years that does not have an overwelming talent advantage. That's a good thing.

I'm just as baffled at that OSU game as anyone. How did this happen?

Was this Iowa's A+ game - was OSU overdosed on Melatonin ? How in the world did this happen?

I don't think there was 1 single factor in this game, rather many factors.

1) 4 interceptions
2) Key penalties by OSU that allowed drives to continue
3) OSUs Defensive approach up front?
4) Not sure but are the OSU linebackers not well skilled at covering tight ends?
5) Home field advantage
6) OSU's over reliance on running of TJ Barett?
7) Mindset

and still I can't get it to add up.

This Iowa offense just could not get out of its own way for most of the season.

give your 2 cents
 
my observations, just one of those games where one team has everything clicking and one team comes out completely flat.
 
After the two OSU linemen get injured, the offense for OSU just didn't have any rhythm. From that moment on every single bounce of the ball or 50/50 play goes the Hawks way.
 
OSU played their base defense, didn't load the box, and thought they would be good enough to play that way. Didn't rush extra guys, so our OL actually looked good in pass pro.

Also, our receivers caught everything and we didn't have key penalties/fumbles to kill drives.
 
Iowa was better on talent this year than the record showed. The plays seemed different. Iowa generally does well with dual threat quarterbacks.
 
Youth, making plays, being ready to play, limit mistakes, play your best game.....losses a whole lot of something we don't wanna be...northwestern, we needed people to step up and make a play....Penn state was a way better football team than us and we battled HARD....SO you had Iowa State, Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska where we stepped up.....Wisconsin was youth personified at big game atmosphere, tough physical team, no chance.....Purdue we were a young team that expected to show up and win and the coaches have to be blamed equally to the players.

When anyone predicted 7-5 to 5-7 it was because of the receiving game and all of the young guys on the two deep without a lot of experience. This season went by the book. The surprises, well, they fit perfectly into the reason we were 7-5 so as a book, no surprise at all sitting 7-5.
 
Two words: Nick Bosa

That bonehead penalty extended the drive, but also, Stanley looked off the receivers on that side of the field, which left Fant one-on-one for the TD on the play following Bosa's ejection. It completely changed the tone for the rest of the game.
 
Don't underestimate what home field advantage can mean in some matchups. Iowa started off the game with a pick 6 and from that point on, there was never a point where the crowd wasn't into the game. Tangibly, this gives your OL and DL big time advantages and intangibly it can give the team an energy boost. It's also worth considering that Ohio State just came off that comeback win against Penn State the week before. It may have been hard to give Iowa the proper respect a week later after that game. And as mentioned earlier, Iowa played close to as clean of a game as they could. Like the OP said, it wasn't one factor, it was a combination of many factors. The amount of variables that went Iowa's game for this game is tough to replicate week in and week out.
 
The tOSU game is no more of a head-scratcher than the next two games against Wisky and Purdue. Play lights out against a near playoff team and shit the bed for two weeks after that. I get that Bucky had a good year again but Iowa's offense should've been ready. No way with an actual offensive gameplan do we get beat like that. Someone was sleeping at the switch.
 
The OSU game represents what Iowa is capable of doing. It's out there now for all of us to reflect on, and doesn't allow the coaching staff, particularly the offensive staff, to fall back on we're just a grind it out, keep it close type of team. We know they can do better than that. We've seen it. It doesn't mean they have to drop 50+ on teams each week, we get that's not going to happen, but they've set the bar, they've established that Iowa can be a dynamic team on offense, the gig is up.
 
mrolympia said:
my observations, just one of those games where one team has everything clicking and one team comes out completely flat.
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I would agree with this except for the completely flat part. Ohio St scored the first 3 times they had the ball. 200 yards of offense in the first quarter. After that they were pretty much flat.

But yes it was just one of those games. We could watch Iowa football for 100 years and not see a perfect storm like that. It did help that this wasn't a great Ohio St team by their standards. It has weaknesses and Iowa attack them with their strength.
 
You saw glimpses against Iowa State (we went off for 500 yards against what turned out to be a very good team) and Nebraska (over 500 yards against a very average team, but on their home field on senior day). You also saw a very dynamic offense in the second half against Penn State, a game we really should have won.

Iowa did a lot of passing on first down against Ohio St., Nebraska and Iowa State and late in the game against PSU. That is something I noticed; we just didn't seem as predictable on offense, particularly on first down.

If our wide receivers could just get a little bit better next year (I think they will), we could be a very dangerous team in 2018.
 
we actually game planned for OSU and broke tendancies. then went back to the script for WU and PU games. it proves to me that my criticisms of kirk, in general, are correct. he's way, way too conservative and it costs us wins. i mean, WUs is the only game that we should have lost, in my opinion. if we'd had the same type game plan against PSU, then that game ends differently, in my opinion.
 
I rewatched the Penn State game last night. Iowa did not execute in the passing game very well at all. And if they did, I have to believe it would have been a much different game. The LB's would not be crashing down as much and we would have had a running threat.

Iowa gave up about the same points OSU and PSU. Just radically different offensive production numbers.
 
Nate Stanley had time to throw...and when he did throw, his receivers made the play and caught the ball...even the tough ones. There were several throws that were simply great catches that make a huge difference in a game like this. Fant's touchdown where he was wide open and Stanley made a bad throw...and he went down and got it. Vandenburg and Easley made a few great catches too.

The key to the game was that we protected the QB and OSU didn't bring pressure (blitzes) early in the game...they thought they could get pressure with the front four. It didn't happen.
 
westender said:
Josh Jackson's Heisman game! It went from 17 - 17 to 31 - 17 so fast right before half time.
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Ahhhhhh The Hat Trick. Will never forget that or this game. It was a proud day in Hawkeye history. OSU didn't believe about the Kinnick curse for top ranked teams. Making believers out of everybody. It most definitely was a perfect storm. IMO if OSU would of got off their ass and blitzed ( because the Hawks can't handle a blitzing team ) we wouldn't of fared to well. I still can see Duzey streaking down the sideline in the Horseshoe with 2 DB's chasing him. Lol Guess OSU doesn't learn to good.
 
NCHawker said:
I rewatched the Penn State game last night. Iowa did not execute in the passing game very well at all. And if they did, I have to believe it would have been a much different game. The LB's would not be crashing down as much and we would have had a running threat.

Iowa gave up about the same points OSU and PSU. Just radically different offensive production numbers.
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I rewatch a lot of the games and draw out a lot of the plays/take notes when I do. I'm a nerd for this sort of thing. What I come away with isn't that the offensive coaching staff is completely inept. Are there times where I disagree with a call or wish they broke tendencies more? I sure do. But what I really notice is the when they don't execute. Whether it's a bad block, a bad throw/read by the QB, a RB not running to the right spot, an intended receiver dropping a catchable ball, these are the things that hurt Iowa more than poor play calling in the majority of cases. There are plenty of posts I'll see where someone will say something like "Why don't we try to get Wadley in space in passing situations" or "why don't we try to attack downfield?" and what you'll see is that there are a 3-6 times in a game where the play call did get Wadley matched up on a linebacker or where there was a downfield passing concept. Contrary to popular belief, Wadley doesn't always 100% win that matchup against the linebacker and we all have seen the number of downfield throws that we missed either because of a bad throw or a drop.
 
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