Instant Reaction: My Take on Iowa's Win vs Ball State

Total yards Iowa 455 yards 27 first downs, BSU 219 yards and 12 first downs! The score should not have been that close but for the team in white and red getting a lot of missed opportunities by Iowa and lucky bounces for BSU.
 
Jon, just listened to your Instant Reaction podcast. Your observations were certainly fair. I would say that, yes, JR threw for 300+ and for a very good percentage. But it is the short underneath dump passes that he throws that is causing the Iowa running game to struggle, so far. If you can play a defense that clogs the middle and still be able to A) stop the run and, B) defense a qb who is hesitant (at best) to throw downfield, why wouldn't you? Iowa needs to throw down field to open up the running lanes. Throwing to TE's and RB's within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage doesn't move the lb's out of the running lanes.
 
455 yds.
27 first downs
17 pts.

Sounds like the ISU offensive stats of 2 and 3 years ago. Dink-n-dunk offenses are awesome.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
Jon, just listened to your Instant Reaction podcast. Your observations were certainly fair. I would say that, yes, JR threw for 300+ and for a very good percentage. But it is the short underneath dump passes that he throws that is causing the Iowa running game to struggle, so far. If you can play a defense that clogs the middle and still be able to A) stop the run and, B) defense a qb who is hesitant (at best) to throw downfield, why wouldn't you? Iowa needs to throw down field to open up the running lanes. Throwing to TE's and RB's within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage doesn't move the lb's out of the running lanes.
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This certainly sounds reasonable to me. Nicely put.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
Jon, just listened to your Instant Reaction podcast. Your observations were certainly fair. I would say that, yes, JR threw for 300+ and for a very good percentage. But it is the short underneath dump passes that he throws that is causing the Iowa running game to struggle, so far. If you can play a defense that clogs the middle and still be able to A) stop the run and, B) defense a qb who is hesitant (at best) to throw downfield, why wouldn't you? Iowa needs to throw down field to open up the running lanes. Throwing to TE's and RB's within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage doesn't move the lb's out of the running lanes.
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This is exactly why the run game is failing right now. ^^^^
 
Hey at least when you can't kick a FG, you're forced to go for the win and not the tie.

#carefulkurttrolledbykickers
 
Post-radio game was a bunch of back-slapping, yukking it up.

Nope, doesn't feel like a win to me either.

Iowa almost beat itself, not BSU. Not sure the issues are fixable quite frankly.
 
I'm grateful for the win today but I get no satisfaction from the win. I have always supported KF and continue to do so. Unfortunately if he doesn't change this offensive strategy I see us winning 6, 7 games tops. Two games in a row against what should be inferior talent but we don't do the things that we have the talent to do. Jake had good stats as did the team for the most part but if you watched either game you know how close the games were. Jake is a good quarterback but playing him is looking like you want the team to be good but not great. I think KF is ok with being good while the fans want to be great. That being said, we have a lot of work to do if we're going to compete against Iowa State let alone the BIG. I hope this team and coaches do a whole lot of soul searching this week and decide what they want to be.
 
I feel like this season has started better than 2009 did. Kinda similar, but a little better. No indication yet that it will end anywhere close to that...
 
Not impressed with Coach Davis' offense at all. These dump passes and no running game? Iowa has a good offensive line. Great job by the defense.
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
Not impressed with Coach Davis' offense at all. These dump passes and no running game? Iowa has a good offensive line. Great job by the defense.
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It's not Davis. It's Rudock and his decision making. There is more than one option on the field at a time for him to throw to, problem is he always chooses the safe throw and it hardly pays off.
 
I would like to say that we are fortunate that we didn't play ISU this week, as they are normally our 2nd game of the season, and we have lost at times to them due to us laying an egg like this. However, for this team to play this bad, mainly the offense and special teams and o-coordinator (Davis), that we "should" be hungry with a point to prove next week. Hopefully Kirk tells GD that he will be calling the plays in practice this week and then in the game next Saturday so this **** doesn't happen again.

Too often Jake is taking 2 steps and slinging it. Let him survey the field. It's almost as if he has 1 read and if that 4 yard pass is open he has to throw it. Next week, we need to pound the ball and use some play-action to get separation. I would say that our playbook was more diverse against UNI compared to this one. Hopefully we have a few things in the passing game yet to show in case we can't run next week.
 
Jon in your podcast you said what you think Ferentz will do and Jake is his guy until poor play (I also assume injury) dethrones him. This performance (at the end of the game mostly) will only further cement Jake into the permanent starting role in Ferentz's mind.

If you were the coach, based off of what you have seen (granted you are not at the practices) would CJ see more game action or even be your guy? Or is Jake your field general? Do you think the skill position receivers benefit more from Jake being in there or CJ?
 
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