Hawkfromnorwalk
Well-Known Member
Five games left and we need two wins to go bowling. Only one of them I think we have a punchers chance at.
I dont think this is a team that makes a bowl
- Thread starter hawkfarmer
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Five games left and we need two wins to go bowling. Only one of them I think we have a punchers chance at.
hawkforlife9
Well-Known Member
Debbie Downer.
Hawkfromnorwalk
Well-Known Member
My argument is weak? I'm sorry, but weren't people saying that MSU was going to load the box against us? How well did that work out for them? None of the teams save Michigan and maybe Nebraska are near as good as the defenses we saw against MSU and PSU, so the idea that JUST loading the box will solve their problems is naive. Do you really think that those teams haven't been loading the box against other schools knowing what they know about their own deficiencies? They are still giving up loads of yards on the ground.
1977Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Not sure how many games you expect us to win the rest of the way, but 6-6 didn't get us a bowl in 2007, and I'm not sold we even reach that record, looking at the remaining schedule. This team has to improve a LOT to be assured a bowl game.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
You say this as if that plan completely blew up in Sparty's face. It didn't.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
6-6 failed in 2007 because there were so many 7-5 teams in the B10. With OSU and PSU out of the bowl picture this year, Iowa at 6-6 would be a very attractive candidate.
Hawkfromnorwalk
Well-Known Member
Yep, 6-6 is an easy pick to go bowling this year. Getting to 6-6, there lies the issue...
I am not saying that we will get to 6-6 because I think it is doubtful but 6-6 gets us a bowl for sure this year. PSU and OSU ineligible. Ill and Ind won't qualify. That leaves 8 right there. Minn will be very doubtful to get to 6-6 and even if they do we crushed them head to head and travel better. Big Ten has 7 bowl tie ins.
I think looking at this team as a whole we have a chance winning if the other teams QB is highly inaccurate (NIU, MSU, ISU, Minn) or there defense is terrible (Minn, UNI, CMU) and we can gash them on the ground.
Looking at the schedule
Northwestern- relatively poor defense but not terrible and Qb has playmakers-equals very poor chance at a win
Indiana-terrible defense but great passing game-at best toss up
Purd- Inconsistent QB play and mediocre defense-we might be slight favorite
Mich-Bad passer but great playmaker with a good defense-very little chance
Neb-OK passer but great playmaker with a decent defense-very little chance
Of course the big unknown is at this point can we even run the ball against bad defenses. Schreff loss may completely cripple this offense even with Weisman back. He was destroying people and allowing us to run despite the other team knowing the play and having no respect for the passing game.
BLKNGOLD48
Well-Known Member
MSU offense is horrible, look at our remaining schedule and tell me what team we are going to outscore? You act like we're going to hang 40 on each of the teams we are playing by running the ball, let me be the first to tell you that isn't going to happen. Our OL is banged up, Weisman is hurting, and our passing game is horrible. Our defense can't keep us in every game like they have so far, minus Penn St. Naive huh? I hope you are right.
The score and the stat line say different. We won and Weisman had over 100 yards at 4.5 per. MSU may have been the best defense we will see all year and they shouldn't have had to load the box. If it was as simple as loading up the box and daring weak QBs to beat you, every team would do it and it would work 100% of the time regardless of personnel.
With Penn State and Ohio State inelieble for the posrseason I think a 6-6 Iowa team would be in a shoe in for a bowl game
I'm not acting like we are going to hang 40 on them because we probably won't. I'm also not going to act like we will lose every remaining game on our schedule by 4 TDs. You're acting like those offenses will hang 40 on what is still a pretty decent defense and completely shut down our run game. Weisman should be 100% by Saturday as he said he was not far off last Saturday night and there's no reason to automatically assume that McMillan and Blythe will play poorly.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Losing 19-16 in OT, when your offense is just about as inept as your opponent's, is not what I'd call having that plan blow up in your face.
Over a third of Weisman's total came on the final drive. He'd be contained as well as you could expect for almost the entire game (70 yards on 20 carries before the GT drive). Iowa had fewer first downs (a miserable total of 12), was outgained (328 MSU, 257 Iowa), and had more penalties.
Tell me again how Vandy made MSU look foolish for loading the box?
You also aren't taking into account that while MSU has arguably the best defense Iowa will see, they also have arguably the worst offense. Northwestern and Indiana may not have great defenses, but for whatever reason, Iowa has struggled to score points on them recently. And they have very good offenses.
BLKNGOLD48
Well-Known Member
I'm done going back and forth on it, we'll just agree to disagree. I witnessed the worst game I've ever seen on Saturday night in the 17 years I've had season tickets. I think all our weaknesses were exploited against Penn St., most importantly how to move the ball up and down the field on our defense. I seriously hope you are right and we get this figured out, but after what I saw, I just don't see it happening. As far as your comment about McMillian and Blythe, I'm sure they will do a fine job but Schreff was playing at a very high level, tough to replace.
LG210
Well-Known Member
Both the MSU defense and the Iowa defense deserved to win the game, because an offense should score more than 13 points in regulation. Iowa was lucky that MSU's offense is awful.
PSU's defense was better than MSU's, but the real difference between the PSU game and MSU game was that PSU's offense didn't suck.
LG210
Well-Known Member
I think we get 2 out of 3 from NW, Indiana, and Purdue.
