Game Plan

[SamsonHawk515]

Not that any of this would have mattered #5 is a complete freak and clearly the best player in the country, but...

From an outsiders perspective the game plan baffeled me through out yesterday. With a banged up Oline we reverted back to the stretch zone against an opponent who clearly has speed.

I'm not sure why a screen wasn't called at some stage or possibly a bootleg based on the aggressive nature of Stanford's defense.

The trips formation that caused havoc to other teams through out the year was used once maybe twice the entire game.

On top of all this when IOWA got behind in the game there was never any urgency or tempo to the offense. It was as if the game was a one possession game yet IOWA was down 21, then 28, then 35 and nothign from an offensive perspective changed.

As I stated not sure any of this would have changed the outcome, but it seemed as the season went on the playbook seemed to shrink.

With that being said, great season Hawks, thanks for the memories, Indy was an unreal experience

 

[franstheman]

CJ looked really banged up. Don't know if that's why but who knows

 

[hwks1]

CJ looked really banged up. Don't know if that's why but who knows

You mean CJ got really banged up. He was fine to start the game but he was mauled. The OLine was physically out matched... and not even close. Both lines were XBox vs Atari

OP your right. We aren't very imaginative..period.

Bowl games you have to break tendencies. Stanford had a month to prepare for our unimaginative offense. When it became obvious on the first possession that the men were going to beat up on the boys.. it was over.

To start the game, would have liked to see Canzeri in the backfield and Wadley in the slot.

 

[Chips28]

There was no game plan, it was just show up and play old Kirk football. How about take mccaffery out of the game and make someone else beat you. It's not like they are multidimensional

 

[83Hawk]

Iowa should have been running screens and rolling CJ out from the get-go. Instead, he was in the pocket getting killed all day because the line couldn't block anybody. The game plan was fine.....if they were playing Wisconsin or Northwestern....but they weren't. Coaches blew this....big time. It didn't look like they watched a minute of film on Stanford.

 

[marbill69]

i fully agree. All of the pundits had it figutred out weeks ago. Iowa's defense and offense were not ready.

 

[HawkeyeMHA]

Huh? Game plan? You can do that? Prolly wasn't enough time with the quick turnaround between games.

 

[hawkeyewx]

Something definitely needs to change regarding Iowa's approach to bowl games. If opponents have a month to prepare, Iowa gets slaughtered. Each of the last four bowl opponents were better than Iowa, but there's no excuse for being totally uncompetitive. I have no doubt Wisconsin, Nebraska, or even Minnesota would have given Stanford a much better game than Iowa did.

 

[SpecialKHawk]

Agree that it looked like we did zero game prep. Just rolled out a plan that would be used against Purdue, IL, etc. No thoughts of trying to make someone other than McCaffrey beat us. Heck we even punted to him repeatedly.

Bottom line take away is learning what we have to do on the big stages. First step is getting there which we did but now it's what are we going to do to beat someone with better players that might actually be motivated? We have to be the aggressor always for starters.

The first thing programmatically that has to be addressed is the O-Line. How on earth a Midwestern based team like Iowa with a tradition of power football can field a line that cannot block anyone or move the LOS at the point of attack is beyond me. We could not pass protect all year so we knew that going in but the running game has been on a steady decline the past 4-5 games outside of a few long runs by Canzeri, Daniels, Wadley to pad the stats. That's what lost this game.

As much as everyone thought the game was over at 21-0 there was still plenty of time to slowly get back into the game but we needed a slow methodical move the chains drive to put a score on the board and change momentum. Our line failed to give our backs a crease. Stanford was 63rd nationally against the run. The OLine needs to get bigger, stronger and nastier by next year.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

Something definitely needs to change regarding Iowa's approach to bowl games. If opponents have a month to prepare, Iowa gets slaughtered. Each of the last four bowl opponents were better than Iowa, but there's no excuse for being totally uncompetitive. I have no doubt Wisconsin, Nebraska, or even Minnesota would have given Stanford a much better game than Iowa did.

Even NW would have, and did.

There was a game plan...that got blown to bits after the pick 6.

 

[SamsonHawk515]

Even NW would have, and did.

There was a game plan...that got blown to bits after the pick 6.

And that right there is what I struggle to grasp at some stage in a game you have to abandon the original plan and go with plan B, C, or D.

We went 12-0 you can't take thay away from this staff, but in the two most important games of the season we reverted to cautious football. That is Kirk's philosophy and I accept that, but when we really don't have anything to lose why not throw every play imaginable at them...

Instead of coming out and running stretch zone right stretch zone left why not a flea flicker or play action to start the game, even if it doesn't work its in the back of the DCs mind.

Again, great season, but like anything when you win everything is great when you lose, well....

 

[Knight78]

There was no game plan, it was just show up and play old Kirk football. How about take mccaffery out of the game and make someone else beat you. It's not like they are multidimensional

While the result of the game was bad, do you think they didn't know about McCaffery or his skill set? Do you think that no one in the Pac-12 knew about him? After all, he amassed those statistics mainly against the Pac-12 teams. How many other teams tried to "take McCaffery out of the game"? My "uneducated" guess is every single one of them... and he still did so well he was the runner-up for the Heisman... as a true sophomore.

As a former coach, I know you can scheme to stop one or two players and those schemes can fall apart simply because the one or two players are so good that your athletes can't carry out your schemes to the level needed. That's what happened in the Rose Bowl with McCaffery, as well as about 10 other games Stanford played.

 

[SamsonHawk515]

Agree, #5 was better then anyone IOWA had in black and gold.

Sometimes you don't know how good a guy really is until he lights you up on the grass.

Film can be deceiving in multiple ways.

Heisman!

 

[Knight78]

And that right there is what I struggle to grasp at some stage in a game you have to abandon the original plan and go with plan B, C, or D.

We went 12-0 you can't take thay away from this staff, but in the two most important games of the season we reverted to cautious football. That is Kirk's philosophy and I accept that, but when we really don't have anything to lose why not throw every play imaginable at them...

Instead of coming out and running stretch zone right stretch zone left why not a flea flicker or play action to start the game, even if it doesn't work its in the back of the DCs mind.

Again, great season, but like anything when you win everything is great when you lose, well....

I get it.... you've worked on a game plan for a month and just toss it out the window like yesterday's garbage. Obviously you've never coached at a high level. You simply can't work up multiple game plans. You want them to do something they have not done since Kirk has been at Iowa. That's simply not going to happen. Period.

Iowa's game plan has been the same all year (dare I say decade?):
1. Control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
2. Run the ball mostly using zone blocking schemes.
3. Use the run to set up play-action.
4. Throw mostly short and intermediate passes with a couple of shot downfield per game.
5. Tackle effectively.
6. Make the opponent's offense run a lot of plays for each scoring drive (bend don't break). Most teams will make some type of error that will stop those long drives.
7. Use mainly a Tampa-Two style zone defense against the pass without blitzing.

This is a good game plan no matter what level you play. You simply have to execute on every play without even one mental breakdown of any of your eleven players on the field.

 

[SamsonHawk515]

Incorrect, there are usually other options in your bag of tools when situations go south.

The thought that having only one idea on how to win a game with a month to prepare is a falshood.

In Iowa's case their predictability is both good and bad, thanks for the football thesis though lots of big words to digest...

 

[ClintonIAfan]

I heard that they had the wrong cleats. The rose bowl changed grass late from rye to blue grass. The grass length and thickness changed so Iowa had the cleats more suited for rye. There was a communication breakdown between the rose bowl grounds crew and the Iowa equipment managers. With the other team being more local they wanted to favor that team by putting in a grass that is more favorable to west coast offenses.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

I heard that they had the wrong cleats. The rose bowl changed grass late from rye to blue grass. The grass length and thickness changed so Iowa had the cleats more suited for rye. There was a communication breakdown between the rose bowl grounds crew and the Iowa equipment managers. With the other team being more local they wanted to favor that team by putting in a grass that is more favorable to west coast offenses.

^^^^made me chuckle.