I don't want to ever hear fans gripe about Iowa CONSERVATIVE play calling

W

Win5002

Well-Known Member
I don't even mind conservative play calling if you call our offensive balance conservative, or the fact that we don't blitz and make teams go the length of the field with the bend don't break philosophy. What I don't like is not giving your chance a very good chance to win at the end of the game. This brings me to the point.

I started a thread that made the point it was the QB sneak on 4th & 1 when you only had time for 2 plays and you waste one of your downs getting 3 yards and still leaving you out of field goal position and only give yourself one more play to try to get in field goal range with a SHAKY kicking game.

Almost every fan agreed with the sneak. Talk about playing it CONSERVATIVE, at least if they passed then the pass defense was possibly having to consider the run. Iowa had good success all day in the passing game. I realize you need the first down, but also a first down and not in field goal range doesn't do anything for you either with that limited amount of time. DJK,McNutt & Reisner are better weapons than Meyer, but the majority of the fan base on this board wants to really make sure we get that first down and waste one of our two plays left. Thus forcing Iowa into a must-passing down requiring even more than the 1 yard to get us in field goal range.

Even if Iowa had spiked the ball and we had the timeout we saw the result of the next play. It sets a fr. up for a 53 yard field goal who gets extra points blocked? Or even worse the play could have had a false start, hold or sack. Our kicker gets extra points blocked, 50+ yard field goals have a lot lower trajectory.

For all the Iowa fans that gripe about Iowa's conservative nature, the majority are defending a play that I think represented worse than being conservative because it didn't put your team in a position to win.

The typical Iowa fan on here loves the QB sneak in the two minute drill, WOW! And I'm not talking early in the drive, I'm talking about the 2nd to last play before kicking a field goal when your still not in field goal position. IS this not ironic from the same people that gripe about conservative play calling.

 
If I remember right, the QB sneak took 2 seconds off the clock. That's the reason I don't mind that call. It didn't take 4-8 seconds like a normal play in that situation does. We still had time for two more plays to the sideline after the sneak. Didn't execute them...
 
mehawk it doesn't matter that it was a short period of time. its our 2nd to last play before trying a field goal and we are out of range at the time. The kicking unit gets extra points blocked lets get him in decent range not a hail mary.

Ferentz has said this is the best set of skill players he has had and we want to rely on the kicker making a very hard field goal.
 
If we spike the ball after the sneak there was most likely time for 2 plays plus a field goal with the time out in our pocket. 12 seconds left on the clock. The sneak was the right call. The timeout was the wrong one.
 
So win5002 you would have been happy if Stanzi threw the ball on 4th down and it was incomplete? HAD to get a 1st down no matter what. Get a 1st down, spike the ball and Iowa can run a play anywhere on the field and have a TO to call to get the field goal unit on the field. Don't know why it's so hard to understand.
 
Your saying he can't throw on 4th & 1 and be good enough to at least if nothing is open dump it to a safe route, but were sure the 10+ yard route on the next play(and you are down to one play) is going to be open when the defense knows we have to pass is going to be open?

yes if it means a 80% chance of getting the first to try and get an optimal kick for Meyers I will forego the "safe" first down still putting us out of field goal position.

Ferentz has said this is his best set of skill players ever and OL dominated, this is kicker at this stage in his career(and the entire unit with him factors in) is one of the "shakiest" years at field goal & extra point kicks ever. Who do you want to rely to make plays McNutt, DJK, Reisner & Stanzi or Meyers on a long field goal.
 
I think they could have had time for 4 more plays after the sneak:

1 - Spike the ball - 10 or 11 seconds left
2 - Three step drop - throw to the sideline - 7 seconds left
3 - Three step drop - throw to the sideline or anywhere quickly and get down (call timeout if not out of bounds)
4 - Kick the FG

In plays 2 and 3, Stanzi has to know that the ball has to leave his hands after the three step drop ASAP. If his man is covered, throw it in the stands...

I've seen many teams able to get the 5-7 yard pass plays to the sideline off in 3-4 seconds in those situations. It DOES matter that the sneak only took 2 seconds. When ARob went down there were 6 seconds left. If he had made it out of bounds there would be time for a quick play and then kick the FG.

My biggest issue was that Stanzi wasn't told what the plan was after the sneak. Iowa had just called a TO and there should have been a plan in place for what to do after the sneak. Either have a set play called or spike the ball.

I have heard people say that Stanzi was under center and the coaches saw Wisconsin wasn't ready but you HAVE to have a plan in that situation and stick to it. You can't deviate from the plan after the sneak...it only caused confusion and Iowa had to burn the TO.
 
Win5002 said:
I don't even mind conservative play calling if you call our offensive balance conservative, or the fact that we don't blitz and make teams go the length of the field with the bend don't break philosophy. What I don't like is not giving your chance a very good chance to win at the end of the game. This brings me to the point.

I started a thread that made the point it was the QB sneak on 4th & 1 when you only had time for 2 plays and you waste one of your downs getting 3 yards and still leaving you out of field goal position and only give yourself one more play to try to get in field goal range with a SHAKY kicking game.

Almost every fan agreed with the sneak. Talk about playing it CONSERVATIVE, at least if they passed then the pass defense was possibly having to consider the run. Iowa had good success all day in the passing game. I realize you need the first down, but also a first down and not in field goal range doesn't do anything for you either with that limited amount of time. DJK,McNutt & Reisner are better weapons than Meyer, but the majority of the fan base on this board wants to really make sure we get that first down and waste one of our two plays left. Thus forcing Iowa into a must-passing down requiring even more than the 1 yard to get us in field goal range.

Even if Iowa had spiked the ball and we had the timeout we saw the result of the next play. It sets a fr. up for a 53 yard field goal who gets extra points blocked? Or even worse the play could have had a false start, hold or sack. Our kicker gets extra points blocked, 50+ yard field goals have a lot lower trajectory.

For all the Iowa fans that gripe about Iowa's conservative nature, the majority are defending a play that I think represented worse than being conservative because it didn't put your team in a position to win.

The typical Iowa fan on here loves the QB sneak in the two minute drill, WOW! And I'm not talking early in the drive, I'm talking about the 2nd to last play before kicking a field goal when your still not in field goal position. IS this not ironic from the same people that gripe about conservative play calling.
Click to expand...


1. You are very wrong.
2. How many times and how many message boards are you going to post this on?
 
the sneak was the right call no matter what you say. Anyone who watches football knows that you run the sneak and spike it. Where Iowa went wrong was by calling the TO.

Iowa needed to spike the ball on 1st down.
2nd down run a quick out route or something across the middle 10yds downfield. If incomplete
3rd down, run the ball to the middle of the field and get down and call TO
4th down kick the FG

Meyer had kicked field goals over 55yds in high school. At LEAST give the kid a shot to win the game, by doing what we did, we did not give ourselves a chance to win the game! We folded in late stages of the game.

The PAT blocked was not his fault, watch our RG get mowed over by the wisky DLINE! Whoever that was got owned bad, seriously how can you get beat off the ball like that? How can our Special teams be so bad this year, are our Special Teams not getting enough practice?
 
the op was a big fail. I thought the sneak was genius after the T.O. because there is no way the defense would think that we would call a timeout, then run a simple play as a sneak? (in fact no one did) No they thought a pass, or zone run was coming. it was a symphony in one play, then followed by an all time bonehead play. Are we sure that KOK wasn't in the hospital beside Norm for the last drive? we were very lucky to get to that position anyways with McNutt's catch.
 
If they are playing run, play action works well. If they are playing off throw 5-7 yard slant and let the WR run with it.

yeah, Wisconsin isn't worried about that because it still leaves Iowa out of field goal range and one play besides a spike(if they manage the clock correctly).
 
Iowahawkeye1982 said:
the sneak was the right call no matter what you say. Anyone who watches football knows that you run the sneak and spike it. Where Iowa went wrong was by calling the TO.

?
Click to expand...

This is exactly right. The sneak WAS the right call when combined with the spike. You already have the team close to the line, you lose only a second or 2 on the spike. you have one mroe shot to get 10-20 yards and call a timeout.

I just don't understand how EVERY coach and EVERY player did not know what they were going to do on the 2nd play. You always call 2 plays in that scenario. I love Kirk as much as anyone, but it really concerns me that they not only caused that confusion at the end, but also tried to defend it. I really wish I would have heard "we made a mistake, we will move on" rather than what I heard.
 
The sneak is the correct call. If you spike it you can throw down the middle of the field. Being that we had to take our last time out, we the D could leave the middle wide open leaving stanzi with no options. The game was over when we called the time out.
 
of course you run a sneak there. we needed a first down. sneak was the sure way to get one.

shall i bring up arizona to go against your "throw the ball" argument?
 
I say we should have run the fumble rooski and had Adam Gettis pick it up and run for a TD. Guarantee Wisconsin wouldn't have expected it.
smiley-cool01.gif
 
I agree with most everyone else.. I was ok with the sneak, but not the timeout. It only takes a couple seconds to run a sneak. You get the quick first down, the clock stops to move the chains. In the meantime, you should be getting back to the line of scrimmage for a quick spike, which takes only 1-2 more seconds at most off the clock, but instead we burned our last timeout. Even the announcers didn't understand it.
 
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