That was pretty bad. Stanley has got to get better. All around better. He has to take a little bit off is fastball on some of those throws. He's also got to be more accurate. That said Easley and Fants drops were demoralizing. I thought I was watching a GD offense again with all the short passes. I mean seriously they tried playing the game within 8 yards of the line of scrimmage with only like 3-4 passes downfield at all. That won't work. I couldn't feel worse for Wadley that guy couldn't get to the LOS without getting hit most of the time. Nobody can be more frustrated then him. The D played well enough to win (just not down the stretch) so for that reason I place this L on the offense. They had plenty of chances and for one reason or another be it miscues, penalties etc they couldn't put points on the board. It'll take quite the rebounding job by BF to improve enough of what is ailing this group to turn it around with the schedule they have down the stretch.... Again if it wasn't for them coming off a bye and against Northwestern who doesn't exactly have a big time D I wouldn't be as down as I am but good luck cheering me up..
For coming off a bye week...
- Thread starter Hawkfnntn
- Start date
HawkeyeWalker
Well-Known Member
The chances are zero, unless he gets hurt. It's pretty clear at this point we should be a 60/40 pass/run team or even heavier on pass. Teams are run blitzing a lot.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
The QB is always easy fodder for criticism, but, as a 1st year starter, objectively, I honestly don't think Stanley is the problem. The dropped passes were not on him today, and the INT may or may not have been the fault of the WR. He's not perfect, but all told, I think he has been fine.
If I had to rank the issues, I would start with the trenches. Much has been made about the injuries on the O-line, but it's too far into the season, especially coming off a bye week, to use that as a crutch. First of all, keeping it real, Myers was/is a fairly average lineman so it's not like we lost an All-American, and Boettger actually was playing poorly before he got hurt. Yes, he could have rounded into form, but who knows. We actually have more athleticism and a higher ceiling with Jackson and Wirfs at OT anyway.
The better question is whether Polacek is a good fit for our scheme. The entire line has gone backwards under his direction. Even, Daniels, who seems to get a pass from the fans, has played borderline terrible. He's lunging and not getting any movement on his blocks. Welsh as regressed as well, and Render simply hasn't progressed.
Even when the holes are there, Wadley isn't necessarily taking advantage of them. Too often, he tries to make more out of the run and gets a little too cute. The zone blocking scheme is designed for the one-cut downhill runner, and frequently this season, Wadley's freelancing has hurt us.
On the D-line, the talent level at tackle simply isn't there. It's a sad two-deep, but it is what it is. We also lack explosion at end. Let's face it, the majority of our sacks and QB pressures have been coverage driven. Epenesa definitely will be a bonus moving forward, but the lack of a pass rush puts tremendous pressure on the LBs and DBs.
If I had to rank the issues, I would start with the trenches. Much has been made about the injuries on the O-line, but it's too far into the season, especially coming off a bye week, to use that as a crutch. First of all, keeping it real, Myers was/is a fairly average lineman so it's not like we lost an All-American, and Boettger actually was playing poorly before he got hurt. Yes, he could have rounded into form, but who knows. We actually have more athleticism and a higher ceiling with Jackson and Wirfs at OT anyway.
The better question is whether Polacek is a good fit for our scheme. The entire line has gone backwards under his direction. Even, Daniels, who seems to get a pass from the fans, has played borderline terrible. He's lunging and not getting any movement on his blocks. Welsh as regressed as well, and Render simply hasn't progressed.
Even when the holes are there, Wadley isn't necessarily taking advantage of them. Too often, he tries to make more out of the run and gets a little too cute. The zone blocking scheme is designed for the one-cut downhill runner, and frequently this season, Wadley's freelancing has hurt us.
On the D-line, the talent level at tackle simply isn't there. It's a sad two-deep, but it is what it is. We also lack explosion at end. Let's face it, the majority of our sacks and QB pressures have been coverage driven. Epenesa definitely will be a bonus moving forward, but the lack of a pass rush puts tremendous pressure on the LBs and DBs.
DBAHawkFan
Well-Known Member
And we came out and passed the ball. We hit one over the top, which was a great pass (maybe the wind helped??) and Wadley had some space once it was established we weren't going to run run pass.
After those first two drives, it's like KF said "OK, you had your chance to do your thing and we didn't score. Now it's time to go back to my offense and let's shoot for a 3-0 win"
I was ready to eat my words about Iowa coming out and looking like they didn't practice during the bye week, and sure enough we were back to Wadley up the middle into damn near 11 man front.
It doesn't make any sense. Not that we'd get an answer, but I wish we could find out the reasoning behind our running into clear run blitz/defenses?
And the passing game today was back to GDGD. Quick outs to the sideline, drops didn't help....but I wonder if those passes are just harder to catch than curls, slants, and crosses across the middle? Wouldn't know cause we don't try
HawkeyeWalker
Well-Known Member
That "stick" play that we scored on and later that was dropped. Love that play. Need to use it more.
ArvadaHawk
Well-Known Member
Stanley was 19-33 / 223 1/1. Easley dropped 3 passes right in his hands and Fant dropped 1. He should have been 23-33 (again 4 drops right in their hands) and who knows how many more yards. Lets say 240 yds. But on the season he has 16 td passes and 3 picks. you want to bench a qb that has 16 td passes and only 3 picks?
GrandpaHawk
Well-Known Member
Doesn't matter if were 12-2,8-4,7-5 or 6-6 we don't change what we do,we're a boring team for a fan to watch.Teams with speed will beat most of the BIG teams.Were to slow at LB to blitz and rarely have corners rush,usually 5 guy's blocking our front four=no pass rush.
I never said bench. Not once. I said play better. Yes he's done really good about not throwing for a ton of INTs which is great and has kept us in games. But to win these games he has to be more accurate. There hasn't been a game yet where he hasn't missed makeable throws. For example That throw he missed to TJ Hockenson up the seem would have been huge. But he lead him too far and threw it a 100 mph. Take something off of it and put it on him and he'd have had 20 plus yards on it. Coming off the bye week I expected better execution of the offense and better play calling. I'm not placing full blame on Stanley but he's got to get better. I don't think for one second that Weigers is the answer and have never suggested that just to be clear.
ArvadaHawk
Well-Known Member
Alright. Sounds like a drew a conclusion from what you wrote. My apologies. I do feel that what you describe as the mistakes NS made yesterday; while valid, are part of what you put up with in a 1st year starter that is only a SO and has so much upside. Running a 190lb rb into 8+ man fronts has nothing to do with learning curves.
