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

[hawkfarmer]

If you would have told me before the season that:

1. Our top 4 LBs went down to injury ... I would have immediately revised my expectations for the season.

2. One of our few veteran upperclassmen on the OL (Gettis) ... a unit that was a big unknown entering the season ... I would also have been very concerned.

3. TWO of our top THREE RBs entering the season either suffered a season ending injury or went AWOL ... I would have immediately revised my expectations for the season.

4. FOUR of our starters from the 2009 squad have already seen NFL starts (FYI ... that's pretty darn impressive) .... thus, many of us were probably underestimating what we lost from the '09 squad. BTW ... had Edds have been healthy, he possibly would have pushed for a starting gig too.

5. Bernstine was more injured than most of us originally knew ... therefore indicating that Hyde was really greener than many of us would have guessed (no knock on him ... he's been developing well).


So now, we're 10 games into the season and sitting on a 7-3 season. After all the close margins from the '09 season ... we really shouldn't be as surprised as many of us are. To the credit of our team, our 3 losses have been by a margin of only 12 points .... TWELVE FRACKIN' points!

Yes, we can be frustrated. However, with hindsight, what we're seeing really shouldn't be surprising. And, that is not to marginalize the 2010 squad. They ARE a pretty darn good squad. However, I would contend that injuries on D derailed the ability of the D to develop into as dominant of a unit as it could have become. All the same ... it's still pretty darn good.

3 losses in a season where we hoped for perfection .... tough to take. However, I don't think that it requires playing the "blame game" that many folks are doing. Let's just suck it up and support our team!

This is they key. We were a few plays away from being 8-4 last year, so we lose this amount of talent and now we expect to reload and go undefeated. This is slightly ridiculous to me. I predicted a 9-3 season at the beginning of the year because I thought we'd lose to AZ, NW, and OSU. But though I'm disappointed like the rest of you because we should've won some games that we have lost and at worst be 9-1, we are still a good team.

Now, what is concerning is the offense. The D gave up 21, that's not great, but you should be able to win with the offense that Iowa has. To score 18 and 17 against porous Indy and NW teams is tough to understand after being lights out against MSU. Our O-line is pretty good, Rick has plenty of time to throw and have some holes to run through, so what is the problem? I don't know.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

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?

Don't hit on the facts ... some fans here (but far from all) like having their collective heads in the sand.

 

[okeefe4prez]

It was a pretty Herculean effort by Persa ... and without it, there's no question that Northwestern loses.

homer - we should make a quote generator for you, every time Iowa loses, the generator will say "it was a pretty herculean effort by [INSERT NAME OF STARTING QB]."

Let me show you how it works:

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Basanez."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Persa."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kafka."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kellen Lewis."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Chappell." (we won that on a drop, but a Herculean nonetheless)

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Foles."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Tolzien."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Western Michigan's Quarterback."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Juice Williams."

When you've seen the same movie with virtually the same ending over and over, is there some point at which it will no longer be considered a Herculean effort? How many Herculean efforts has our offense put up versus how many has our defense given up since 2005?

 

[patmyne]

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.

I was sitting in the stands at the start of the second half confused as well. I couldn't understand why we would want to take the wind in the 3rd when they were starting with the ball first, hence likely limiting our time with it. While we did do well in the 3rd I still think you choose the wind in the 4th.

 

[hawkfarmer]

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.

I agree with this. In those weather conditions you don't have to take the ball. Play the factors

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.

They don't have the numbers of last year, but they don't have the LB corp they did last year either. They may not be as good as everyone thought, but Iowa plays as a defensive squad and the squad isn't as good as last years. Wisky got lots of praise for their o-line like Iowa's Dline did, so not sure if one got lazy and the other worked hard, or the Iowa D just isn't what it was last year and what it could have been (barring injury) this year.

 

[DrKnipe]

O'Keefe4prez gets the win. Seen enough Iowa games the last 10 years to know how that was going to play out. If Iowa's offense and defense were an ice cream flavor they would be "plain"

 

[SDK46]

All the other 119 D-1 teams have had similiar issues.......Wisky is on their 3rd runningback, NFL calibur tight end and starting wr miss significant time and they seem to be fine. I think it goes a little deeper than that. The Hawks are what their record says they are.

^^this^^

"The Hawks" = (a) coaching, (b) players, (c) execution.

(a) = disappointing. Cost us two games.
(b) = lots of talent on the field. No excuses about injuries. Every team has injuries this time of year. Everyone.
(c) = spotty. If talking about special teams = inept...cost us the AZ game.

 

[ThunderHawk]

homer - we should make a quote generator for you, every time Iowa loses, the generator will say "it was a pretty herculean effort by [INSERT NAME OF STARTING QB]."

Let me show you how it works:

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Basanez."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Persa."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kafka."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kellen Lewis."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Chappell." (we won that on a drop, but a Herculean nonetheless)

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Foles."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Tolzien."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Western Michigan's Quarterback."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Juice Williams."

When you've seen the same movie with virtually the same ending over and over, is there some point at which it will no longer be considered a Herculean effort? How many Herculean efforts has our offense put up versus how many has our defense given up since 2005?

FTW.

I knew exactly how this movie was going to end when NW got the ball back after our completely predictable FAIL on our penultimate possession. Really, if you didn't see that train coming down the tracks, then you're just in a state of epic denial.

OK4P and I are on the same page here, people. Arguments to the contrary are futile. Save yourselves the time and effort.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

homer - we should make a quote generator for you, every time Iowa loses, the generator will say "it was a pretty herculean effort by [INSERT NAME OF STARTING QB]."

Let me show you how it works:

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Basanez."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Persa."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kafka."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Kellen Lewis."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Chappell." (we won that on a drop, but a Herculean nonetheless)

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Foles."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Tolzien."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Western Michigan's Quarterback."

"It was a pretty Herculean effort by Juice Williams."

When you've seen the same movie with virtually the same ending over and over, is there some point at which it will no longer be considered a Herculean effort? How many Herculean efforts has our offense put up versus how many has our defense given up since 2005?

How clueless are you? Your spiteful knee-jerk reaction is sad.

Here's a better assessment:

vs. Hiller (Western Michigan): We simply couldn't cover Simmons ... he was too big and strong. Furthermore, they killed us with the screen pass. Back then, we simply didn't defend it well.

vs. Basanez: The guy was a dick ... however, he was also VERY impressive against pretty much EVERYBODY during his SR season. And yeah ... his finish against Iowa WAS impressive. All the same ... we recover the on-side kick and we win the game.

vs. Kafka: Not Herculean ... but still very gutsy. His mobility probably would have killed us had he not been injured.

vs. Tolzien: Not a Herculean effort ... however, that said, he did a MUCH BETTER job of passing to his WRs than I thought he could. He did enough in their passing game to help out their running game. The REAL story there was how their OL took it to our DL.

vs. Kellen Lewis: His mobility was irritating ... however, Hardy and the confident play of the IU OL were arguably the biggest reasons why he tore us up. And, Lewis's fumble recovery for TD was IU's analog to Sash's pinball INT for TD. Both plays were "game changers."

vs. Juice Williams: LOL! You just undermined yourself there. Turnovers absolutely killed us in that game. Furthermore, the one big play on O that they had was due to a blown coverage.

vs. Chappell: The dude is an impressive QB. Again, it takes a spiteful fan to not give the guy his due.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

FTW.

I knew exactly how this movie was going to end when NW got the ball back after our completely predictable FAIL on our penultimate possession. Really, if you didn't see that train coming down the tracks, then you're just in a state of epic denial.

OK4P and I are on the same page here, people. Arguments to the contrary are futile. Save yourselves the time and effort.

Hey genius ... so you think that it helped the Ds cause that they were gassed? Northwestern was running their O up-tempo against them the whole game. What do you think that is going to do to them?

The D needed the O to execute better throughout the game ... and, in particular, in the 1st half. That didn't happen.

If you watched the same game that I did ... then you saw Persa regularly running for his life. And, when you didn't ... you saw our D still doing a good job of playing contain. The problem is that even when we mixed it up ... to Northwestern's credit, they still made plays. I agree that it was infuriating ... however, so it goes sometimes.

Do you honestly believe that our D wouldn't have done better in the 4th quarter had the O given them more breaks in action?

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

LOL ... fans here are amusing.

It wasn't that long ago that fans were spouting that while Iowa's D could be "frustrating to watch" ... they couldn't argue with the end-product.

Now, we have 2 games in a row where the O puts up crappy performances ... and all of a sudden fans are bitchen' about the D. And, even sadder ... they're bitchen' about the D when the D is contending with adversity. Come on ... and use your damn brain!

The "end product" is that Iowa's D is still causing opposing Os to work VERY hard for their points. The result is very few points being scored by our opponents. The problem is that our O still has to score more.

Nothing like a few losses to start turning fans into idiots.

 

[ThunderHawk]

LOL ... fans here are amusing.

It wasn't that long ago that fans were spouting that while Iowa's D could be "frustrating to watch" ... they couldn't argue with the end-product.

Now, we have 2 games in a row where the O puts up crappy performances ... and all of a sudden fans are bitchen' about the D. And, even sadder ... they're bitchen' about the D when the D is contending with adversity. Come on ... and use your damn brain!

The "end product" is that Iowa's D is still causing opposing Os to work VERY hard for their points. The result is very few points being scored by our opponents. The problem is that our O still has to score more.

Nothing like a few losses to start turning fans into idiots.

Or pathetically transparent apologists for football FAIL.

 

[BLKNGOLD48]

LOL ... fans here are amusing.

It wasn't that long ago that fans were spouting that while Iowa's D could be "frustrating to watch" ... they couldn't argue with the end-product.

Now, we have 2 games in a row where the O puts up crappy performances ... and all of a sudden fans are bitchen' about the D. And, even sadder ... they're bitchen' about the D when the D is contending with adversity. Come on ... and use your damn brain!

The "end product" is that Iowa's D is still causing opposing Os to work VERY hard for their points. The result is very few points being scored by our opponents. The problem is that our O still has to score more.

Nothing like a few losses to start turning fans into idiots.

Couldn't agree more Homer.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Or pathetically transparent apologists for football FAIL.

And yet I can provide evidence to support my contentions. All you have is the fact that you're pisssed off and are apparently having difficulty thinking logically.

 

[tm3308]

For whatever reason, we don't score a lot against Northwestern. It just hasn't happened since 2005.

These offenses move the ball on us. I don't think it would take much to stop them. Just bring up the corners and take away the underneath stuff, giving the D-Line time to do what it does against pretty much everyone else.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Or pathetically transparent apologists for football FAIL.

If you like ... I think that you're ordinarily a fine poster. One who is even capable of being reasonable. Unfortunately, I think that you're marginalizing yourself by simply being illogical and relying too much on emotional arguments.

I'll be an apologist for your own FAIL too .... unfortunately, you won't appreciate that I have your back too.

You mistake me for a fan who isn't disappointed. I am ... however, my own emotional response has argued against the FACTS ... and lost.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

For whatever reason, we don't score a lot against Northwestern. It just hasn't happened since 2005.

These offenses move the ball on us. I don't think it would take much to stop them. Just bring up the corners and take away the underneath stuff, giving the D-Line time to do what it does against pretty much everyone else.

Very good observations. Their O has controlled the ball very well against our D ... effectively playing "keep away." Furthermore, Hankwitz has really helped them significantly improve their run D. Between that and the fact that they've had some success blitzing ... they've been able to force enough stalled drives to prevent us from scoring too much.

Of course, for whatever reason, the empirical evidence still points to Stanzi not being a very consistent cold-weather QB. Of course, that is par for the course, when your O relies upon the long ball to spread the field. On a windy day, that really undermines a lot of what we like to do (at least with Stanzi at the helm).

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Even if we beat OSU Saturday (which would still be great, don't get me wrong) this is still quickly becoming the "what could have been" season.

If only we hadn't had the pick-6, the missed PAT, the blocked punt, the big kickoff ruturn against AZ.

If only we would have made that PAT and not muffed that chip-shot FG, and been able to stop a fake punt deep in Wisconsin territory.

If only we would have been able to stop even one of those 85+ yard back-to-back drives NW had in the 4th, or if our offense could have put some points on the board in either quaters 1, 2 or 4. Or have at least strung together a few first downs to eat the remaining time off the clock while we were up by 3 late in the 4th..

This is a 9-1 or 10-0 team with a 7-3 record. THAT is what is frustrating.

And our record against Northwestern.. 1-5 in the last six games. That is not coincidence. It's not a "Well we just didn't execute today" type of thing. It's a TREND. They have our number. Are we going to adjust and figure out how to beat those guys, or is it going to become 1-6 the next time we play them because "we do what we do" and we aren't going to gameplan specifically for NORTHWESTERN?

 

[tm3308]

Very good observations. Their O has controlled the ball very well against our D ... effectively playing "keep away." Furthermore, Hankwitz has really helped them significantly improve their run D. Between that and the fact that they've had some success blitzing ... they've been able to force enough stalled drives to prevent us from scoring too much.

Of course, for whatever reason, the empirical evidence still points to Stanzi not being a very consistent cold-weather QB. Of course, that is par for the course, when your O relies upon the long ball to spread the field. On a windy day, that really undermines a lot of what we like to do (at least with Stanzi at the helm).

That last paragraph is actually maybe part of the problem over the past 6 years. I was only 14-16 years old when Tate was here, so I may be remembering things wrongly. But I seem to remember that we were a more vertical passing attack with Tate as well, and not so much with Christensen. And I don't remember the weather being great in the 2 games that Tate lost either, pretty overcast. And then with Stanzi, this is the first NW game played in bad weather. He was inexperienced and forced to play the critical part of the game without his safety net (Greene) in 2008, and then he got hurt last year (but was playing well before the injury).

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Even if we beat OSU Saturday (which would still be great, don't get me wrong) this is still quickly becoming the "what could have been" season.

If only we hadn't had the pick-6, the missed PAT, the blocked punt, the big kickoff ruturn against AZ.

If only we would have made that PAT and not muffed that chip-shot FG, and been able to stop a fake punt deep in Wisconsin territory.

If only we would have been able to stop even one of those 85+ yard back-to-back drives NW had in the 4th, or if our offense could have put some points on the board in either quaters 1, 2 or 4. Or have at least strung together a few first downs to eat the remaining time off the clock while we were up by 3 late in the 4th..

This is a 9-1 or 10-0 team with a 7-3 record. THAT is what is frustrating.

And our record against Northwestern.. 1-5 in the last six games. That is not coincidence. It's not a "Well we just didn't execute today" type of thing. It's a TREND. They have our number. Are we going to adjust and figure out how to beat those guys, or is it going to become 1-6 the next time we play them because "we do what we do" and we aren't going to gameplan specifically for NORTHWESTERN?

There were a lot of "what ifs" that went in Iowa's favor last year. This year, they're not going "our" way. It's football.