If you would have told me before the season ....

DDHawkeye said:
I just got done arguing with my roommate about this very thing. I agree with you Homer that the players are more to blame for the loss, but my roommate is primarily placing the blame on the coaches. I also completely agree with you about measuring our reactions after painful defeats like this one. We as fans need to support the team in victory and defeat.
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I just feel for Ricky ... because you just know that throwing that pick will eat at him a bit. He'll be able to push forward ... however, HE KNOWS where a lot of the blame goes. Fortunately, he's a strong leader ... and he'll accept as much blame as he can (although Ferentz will try to deflect as much as he can).
 
okeefe4prez said:
Iowa won the toss and took the ball. NU obviously elected to take the ball in the second half. We thus had the choice of which goal line to defend in the third and fourth quarters. Now will the Ferentz apologists, who all have probably seen the same movie I have seen about Iowa's defense folding like origami at the end of A LOT of games in the past half decade or so, please explain to me whether you want to put the rested up defense out there with NU going with the wind in the 3rd quarter so that they would then have to go into the wind in the 4th quarter or if it would have been better to make sure NU had the wind in the 4th quarter when the line was all gassed. I always thought you wanted the wind in the 4th quarter if the game looked like it was going to be close and you were going up against a pass first team, but I don't get paid $3 million a year to decide things like that.
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Cry me a river. Either way we still get the wind through 2 quarters. It was still up to our O to execute during those 2 quarters. Our D was on the field WAY TOO LONG. Some of that is definitely on the D for not being able to get some of the stops on 3rd down ... however, another part of it was on the O for not helping to keep the D off the field.
 
The season is epitomized by our inability to get a play off 3 straight snaps against Indiana before the play clock ran out. For all the supposed discipline and precision of the KF era something seems off kilter to me.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I just feel for Ricky ... because you just know that throwing that pick will eat at him a bit. He'll be able to push forward ... however, HE KNOWS where a lot of the blame goes. Fortunately, he's a strong leader ... and he'll accept as much blame as he can (although Ferentz will try to deflect as much as he can).
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I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU AGAIN! I feel horrible for Ricky after that pick, and I hope you're right that he will be able to push forward. Question... when you say Ferentz will deflect the blame, do you mean Ferentz will deflect the blame away from the players & onto himself, or do you mean he will deflect the blame away from himself?
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
Cry me a river. Either way we still get the wind through 2 quarters. It was still up to our O to execute during those 2 quarters. Our D was on the field WAY TOO LONG. Some of that is definitely on the D for not being able to get some of the stops on 3rd down ... however, another part of it was on the O for not helping to keep the D off the field.
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No one scored going into the wind and it was clear leading up to the game whoever had that end was going to basically be facing 12 defenders. Good coaches understand the impact of the wind in the fourth quarter. If it were Ferentz's first game against NU and he didn't have a history of gagging games against spread teams with fourth quarter leads, I'd give the guy a pass, but not this time.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
Cry me a river. Either way we still get the wind through 2 quarters. It was still up to our O to execute during those 2 quarters. Our D was on the field WAY TOO LONG. Some of that is definitely on the D for not being able to get some of the stops on 3rd down ... however, another part of it was on the O for not helping to keep the D off the field.
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Every single point scored was scored with the wind. Not taking the wind (especially when they won the toss) was a mistake.
 
DDHawkeye said:
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU AGAIN! I feel horrible for Ricky after that pick, and I hope you're right that he will be able to push forward. Question... when you say Ferentz will deflect the blame, do you mean Ferentz will deflect the blame away from the players & onto himself, or do you mean he will deflect the blame away from himself?
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Ferentz will deflect the blame FROM the players. The players are still fighting hard. They still seem like they're playing with a great attitude.

Ferentz loves that ... and will do what he can to protect them.

The only time he'd "out them" is if they were acting like "fat cats." By how our guys have been fighting ... I don't see fat cats.
 
ShadasRevenge said:
Every single point scored was scored with the wind. Not taking the wind (especially when they won the toss) was a mistake.
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You still only get the wind through 2 quarters ... it's still "even steven." If Iowa's O took care of business ... then it's a moot point. Hell ... if Stanzi doesn't throw the pick ... we're not having this convo.
 
okeefe4prez said:
No one scored going into the wind and it was clear leading up to the game whoever had that end was going to basically be facing 12 defenders. Good coaches understand the impact of the wind in the fourth quarter. If it were Ferentz's first game against NU and he didn't have a history of gagging games against spread teams with fourth quarter leads, I'd give the guy a pass, but not this time.
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Good coaches also understand momentum. Iowa seized momentum in the 3rd quarter. And, had it not been for a bad decision by Ricky to throw a pick AGAINST THE WIND ... Iowa wins.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
Good coaches also understand momentum. Iowa seized momentum in the 3rd quarter. And, had it not been for a bad decision by Ricky to throw a pick AGAINST THE WIND ... Iowa wins.
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No points were going to come out of that drive, Meyer couldn't have made a kick into that wind and O'Keefe was already in prevent offense at that point, but then to convince everyone that he wasn't, he decided to have Ricky air one out into a 20 mph wind. After the penalty on the return, that pick ended up being better than a punt would have been.
 
okeefe4prez said:
You don't see fat cats because their fat cat activity is what took place last spring and summer when they were too busy reading the press clippings about how awesome they were while Wisconsin's o-linemen were getting jacked.
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Iowa's DL has had to compensate for our "issues" at LB. I'm not saying that they weren't capable of playing better ... Clayborn said as much.
 
okeefe4prez said:
No points were going to come out of that drive, Meyer couldn't have made a kick into that wind and O'Keefe was already in prevent offense at that point, but then to convince everyone that he wasn't, he decided to have Ricky air one out into a 20 mph wind. After the penalty on the return, that pick ended up being better than a punt would have been.
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This is the point that is being overlooked. Points on that drive were in no way a given. With the penalty NW had to go the length of the field, and they did....twice

Thats whats so frustrating. Stanzi's pick was not the reason we lost
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
You still only get the wind through 2 quarters ... it's still "even steven." If Iowa's O took care of business ... then it's a moot point. Hell ... if Stanzi doesn't throw the pick ... we're not having this convo.
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Very true. Wouldn't you rather have it in the last one? Maybe then the ball that Stanzi never should have thrown sails out of bounds.
 
busabus114 said:
This is the point that is being overlooked. Points on that drive were in no way a given. With the penalty NW had to go the length of the field, and they did....twice

Thats whats so frustrating. Stanzi's pick was not the reason we lost
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It wasn't but you can't deny that it swung the momentum in NW's favor. That the interception came on a ball that never should have been thrown in the first place only makes it worse. That was 2009 Ricky all over again.
 
ShadasRevenge said:
It wasn't but you can't deny that it swung the momentum in NW's favor. That the interception came on a ball that never should have been thrown in the first place only makes it worse. That was 2009 Ricky all over again.
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Completely agree...terrible and unnecessary decision
 
If you would have told me before the season that our defense would have been dinked and dunked down the field at the end of 4 games, losing 3 and lucking out in another, I totally would have believed you, because any defensive scheme premised upon forcing the other team to execute is screwed when the competition does in fact execute.
 
Also, what if I would have told you that Norm would be gone for most of the season due to his foot amputation? How much has that impacted the development of the defense?
 
ThunderHawk said:
If you would have told me before the season that our defense would have been dinked and dunked down the field at the end of 4 games, losing 3 and lucking out in another, I totally would have believed you, because any defensive scheme premised upon forcing the other team to execute is screwed when the competition does in fact execute.
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ThunderHawk -

I understand your frustration .... HOWEVER, you're being completely disrespectful to Northwestern. Persa was being pressured for much of the day ... and his ability to make yards with his feet ... and then also continue to make good decisions downfield ... it was impressive as heck.

It was a pretty Herculean effort by Persa ... and without it, there's no question that Northwestern loses. Dinking and dunking is one thing ... it's quite another to do what he did.

I just feel sorry for Persa because of the unlucky injury that befell him at the end of the game. The kid not only played with a ton of heart ... but he also show-cased his athleticism and smarts. Really impressive performance. I'd take Persa ahead of Cam Newton anyday.
 
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