If goal was Rose, better to lose to AZ???

MissouriHerk

Well-Known Member
Warning: Kind of a long post:
If before the season the gods of college fball said to you, you cannot go undefeated this year, but pick your loss, what team would you have picked to lose to? Then if the gods said to you, okay, pick how you lose? I would have said, we lose to Arizona before Big Ten play, in a close game because we do things that are uncharacteristic of our teams, making errors in fundamentals that are usually the mark of Ferentz teams, that are correctable. We lose but outside of blunders such as turnovers on punt blocks and kick returns, we still "beat" the other team when it was just our offense v. their defense, and their offense v. our defense, running plays. We make a big comeback but fall short. I would have said, I don't want to lose because we play a good solid game but just get beat. I would have said that I would prefer that we beat ourselves.

If you had been asked before the season started: Do you think the Hawks have a better chance of winning the Big Ten and playing in the Rose Bowl, if they go undefeated in nonconference play, or if they have one tough loss in non-conference play that they can learn from?

Think of all of those wins last year where the Hawks came out flat and had to come from behind to win. Maybe if had an early loss in nonconference play we wouldn't have come out so "non chalant" vs. teams like Indiana, and carry over to this season, Arizona (the loss to AZ was largely mental). Just a thought.

We know, based on last year and the number of good experienced starters, that this team is capable, talent-wise, to win the Big Ten. (yes some guys to replace on OL and LB and one DB but on the whole compared with other teams, alot coming back). The only question mark coming into the season, for me, was their mental approach. It helps to learn the areas we need to improve on before conference play. But mostly it helps with our mental toughness and attitude from here out. 2002 is a perfect example, and Kirk referenced that season today in his press conference. If there was any problem with overconfidence or distraction from all of the NC talk, that's gone now. If what the team needed to go on a tear through their conference schedule was some new doubters and a deep desire to prove themselves, to prove that they weren't overrated going into the season, they surely have that now. Historically, under Ferentz, an early season stumble has been common, and so has a late season tear. The loss to Arizona will be the motivating factor that might just propel us to a Big Ten championship, and a Rose Bowl.
Bring on the negative.
 


Warning: Kind of a long post:
If before the season the gods of college fball said to you, you cannot go undefeated this year, but pick your loss, what team would you have picked to lose to?
Arizona?
Then if the gods said to you, okay, pick how you lose? I would have said, we lose to Arizona before Big Ten play, in a close game because we do things that are uncharacteristic of our teams, making errors in fundamentals that are usually the mark of Ferentz teams, that are correctable.
yes, nailed it!
We lose but outside of blunders such as turnovers on punt blocks and kick returns, we still "beat" the other team when it was just our offense v. their defense, and their offense v. our defense, running plays. We make a big comeback but fall short. I would have said, I don't want to lose because we play a good solid game but just get beat. I would have said that I would prefer that we beat ourselves.

If you had been asked before the season started: Do you think the Hawks have a better chance of winning the Big Ten and playing in the Rose Bowl, if they go undefeated in nonconference play, or if they have one tough loss in non-conference play that they can learn from?

Think of all of those wins last year where the Hawks came out flat and had to come from behind to win. Maybe if had an early loss in nonconference play we wouldn't have come out so "non chalant" vs. teams like Indiana, and carry over to this season, Arizona (the loss to AZ was largely mental). Just a thought.

We know, based on last year and the number of good experienced starters, that this team is capable, talent-wise, to win the Big Ten. (yes some guys to replace on OL and LB and one DB but on the whole compared with other teams, alot coming back). The only question mark coming into the season, for me, was their mental approach. It helps to learn the areas we need to improve on before conference play. But mostly it helps with our mental toughness and attitude from here out. 2002 is a perfect example, and Kirk referenced that season today in his press conference. If there was any problem with overconfidence or distraction from all of the NC talk, that's gone now. If what the team needed to go on a tear through their conference schedule was some new doubters and a deep desire to prove themselves, to prove that they weren't overrated going into the season, they surely have that now. Historically, under Ferentz, an early season stumble has been common, and so has a late season tear. The loss to Arizona will be the motivating factor that might just propel us to a Big Ten championship, and a Rose Bowl.
Bring on the negative.
I agree with your sentiment.

I add that I also said that AZ is the only game I didn't think we should be favored to win (I'm not talking about being favored by Vegas), i.e. our most dangerous game.

Also, don't discount the NC so quickly ... an 11-1 Iowa with wins over 9-3 PSU, 8-4 Michigan, 10-2 Wisc, 8-4 MSU, 9-3 NW, 10-2 OSU would be strongly considered
 




I agree entirely. I was telling my friends the same thing last week before we lost.

That said, there are some things exposed by this last game that have me worried:
1. Our o-line - I know they brought the house, but other teams can do that too
2. Our run game
3. Stanzi on the last drive - I really feel like he needed to throw at least one of those away to give us a chance
4. AC - he's going to be double-teamed, he still has to make something happen
 


Everyone is kind of overlooking the little OSU problem we have. By losing this early we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to go undefeated the rest of the way and end with one loss. If I had the choice to pick our one loss it would be OSU. For sure BCS bowl game, chance for 2 BCS bowl wins in a row, puts you in ELITE status if you win it. This is not the loss we needed.
 
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Everyone is kind of overlooking the little OSU problem we have. By losing this early we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to go undefeated the rest of the way and end with one loss. If I had the choice to pick our one loss it would be OSU. For sure BCS bowl game, chance for 2 BCS bowl wins in a row, puts you in ELITE status if you win it. This is not the loss we needed.

We went on the road with a freshman QB, no BW, and ARob making his return from the high ankle sprain and took them to OT last year. Could have won it in regulation but the coaches were overly cautious of a late turnover. I'd be surprised if we lost to OSU this season, and I mean that.

Look at the Miami game this year. Yes, they were able to pick off Jacory Harris 4 times, but 3 of those were in the red zone and OSU still only won by 12. If we can take care of the ball and capitalize on opportunities, we should win that game.
 


Missouriherk, you make a good argument.

Yes, Arizona would be the team to lose to as this is the highest rated non conference team the Hawks will play. I would not want to lose to an unranked non conference team as that would hurt Iowa's ranking much worse than losing to a ranked Arizona team. Running the table in the Big Ten would set things up nicely for Iowa to play in the Rose Bowl or for that matter for the NC. But, the Hawks will need help to land in the NC game as a one loss team.

To further help Iowa's cause let's hope Arizona wins the Pac Ten title. Then Iowa can have a rematch and then beat those guys. Who knows maybe the rematch would be in the NC game. It's possible assuming both teams keep winning.
 




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