Interesting take from a Bison Fan

NEIChawk said:
PC read the whole thing again. Our play calling, our coaching.....conditioning....I understand the last 2nd FG, but we should've run the clock out.... period. ..I hear what your saying but I'm still thinking once they got the ball, we were done, however you wanna spin it
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Oh there was no doubt we were losing once we didn't get the first down. I just think 8 out of 10 times the game is out of reach in the 4th quarter. But we would probably lose the other 2 games because just like most games against terrible teams, if the game is in reach once the 4th quarter starts, we're toast.
 
I wonder what would be said if Iowa had blocked the final FG. Or if the opponent had been Ohio State. Would we still be saying that the team played so badly? I don't think so. I'm hearing lots of what sounds like the coping mechanism of talking about how bad we played rather than simply accepting the fact that the loss came to a really good team.
 
Hawknigh said:
I wonder what would be said if Iowa had blocked the final FG. Or if the opponent had been Ohio State. Would we still be saying that the team played so badly? I don't think so. I'm hearing lots of what sounds like the coping mechanism of talking about how bad we played rather than simply accepting the fact that the loss came to a really good team.
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negative rushing yards in the second half and 34 for the game is embarrassing. Throw in all of the dropped passes and they could've played anyone and lost.
 
NCHawker said:
Hope this gets posted on the wall in the locker room.

Hard work beat talent
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I have always said it's not the talent that win the game, it's the heart.Iowa doesn't have it. They rather flop over and play dead like possum, So yeah .The fan speak truth!
 
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PCHawk said:
I talked in another post about human nature. You're exactly right we gave them our C game and every other FBS school gave their C game. The energy before a game like that just can't compare to the energy FBS players feel every other week.
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Our C game gets an F. Or perhaps more like an Inomplete...
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
"Home now, and wanted to post some of my thoughts up about the trip and the game itself. None of this is meant as gloating, I'll try to be objective with this. This is going to be long, so if you don't want to read it all skip to the summary.

Hospitality: For the most part, you guys were absolutely awesome. There were a few near-fights that I saw with some of your younger fans, but they were broken up before anything began by other Iowa fans, so we will call that a wash.

Conditioning: I was not confident going into this game that we could win, and your strength and conditioning coach was a big part of that. NDSU wins games in the fourth quarter, we always have. Our strength and conditioning coach is someone I consider nearly peerless, and often we wear teams down and run all over them late in the game.

This seemed to happen to Iowa as well, and it caught me by surprise. Iowa is supposed to have one of the best (And most expensive) strength and conditioning coaches in college football, but NDSU was clearly the better conditioned team out there.Part of that has to do with the fact that we rotate backs, but even our linemen on both sides of the ball seemed to be in better shape by the end of the game than yours.


Talent: There was a clear difference in talent on the field between the two teams. Your defensive linemen were bigger and faster, putting consistent pressure on Stick, forcing him to scramble and roll-out often, to mixed results. VandeBerg was CLEARLY a cut above our DB's in terms of physical talent and route-running. I could go on and on, but at nearly every position you had more talented players.

Your offensive line was a surprise. I know we stacked the box and blitzed often, but your O-Line didn't hold up as well as I had thought they would. Your linebackers also did a poor job of covering our tight ends and half-backs on passing downs. They didn't do a great job of containing a mobile quarterback either. I'm not sure how much of that is on the coaching, and how much is on the players.


Coaching: Onto the most important part of the game.

Your coaching was awful. You found something that worked throughout the course of the game, and for some reason chose not to exploit it. Poor and uninspired play-calling throughout the entire game (Who run's the ball up the gut on 2nd and 12 when it hasn't worked all day and you need 2 first downs to put the game away?), no adjustments on protections, ect.

This uninspired playcalling continued right up to the end. It was ultra-conservative when it didn't need to be. It made me think your coach was scared to lose the game, rather than playing with a desire to win. It's the wrong mentality for a coach to have.

Motivation was another problem. I watched your sideline closely, and it seemed...kind of dead. When we sprung out to our only lead of the game, there wasn't any anger or fire, just a bit of dejection. When we got the ball back and were driving for the game-winning field goal, nobody was yelling, nobody was upset.There was no fire in your players or coaches.


To summarize: I think Iowa is clearly the more talented team.Your O-Line definitely needs work, but you were solid just about everywhere else. I thought the game was very winnable for you guys, but we had better coaching and conditioning, and in the end that's what won the game for us. I hope you guys find some fire and your team adjusts better to adversity in the future, as you clearly have the talent to be a special team."

https://iowa.forums.rivals.com/threads/honest-analysis-from-the-other-side.160618/
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Spot on. A very objective post. I couldn't really disagree with anything. I bolded the key points above and what I have always thought.
 
The basic problem was that the Iowa team had a poor week of practice and wasn't mentally prepared to play this game. Iowa was sky high for Iowa State and completely flat against ND State. Plus, our two All-American candidates in the offensive line DIDN'T PLAY ONE SNAP. This was the classic trap game for Iowa and they were burned. I blame Barta for very poor scheduling and Ferentz and Davis for a very unimaginative offensive game plan. ND State had a weak secondary and we failed to exploit that in any way.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
Agree with it all except this. If the two teams played 9 more times, NDSU would win 7 of them.
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Ahh.. I'm going to disagree with that. I don't think the Bison would win again. You wake up Iowa once and that's all it would take.
 
Welcome to Iowa football under Ferentz. This is the way it's been for the entire time that he's been here. I'll never forget the game against Minny a few years ago when minny stacked the box and blitzed the corners quite a bit. Did we exploit that and throw the ball? NO!!!! We ran up the middle time and time again. We won something like 13-10 when it could've easily been a 35-10 win. But it seems that when we win these games it in spite of Ferentz, not because of him. But, on the flip side, we have lost far more of these games because of him.
 
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ChosenChildren said:
The basic problem was that the Iowa team had a poor week of practice and wasn't mentally prepared to play this game. Iowa was sky high for Iowa State and completely flat against ND State. Plus, our two All-American candidates in the offensive line DIDN'T PLAY ONE SNAP. This was the classic trap game for Iowa and they were burned. I blame Barta for very poor scheduling and Ferentz and Davis for a very unimaginative offensive game plan. ND State had a weak secondary and we failed to exploit that in any way.
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No crap. I didn't get this. Iowa knew this going in and had a couple successful plays but never really stayed with it. They should have unleashed Beathard and let him fling it. Doesn't make sense. You know the game was scheduled, it's a lower division team that Iowa should have taken care of. I put this on the coaches and the crappy game plan, or moreso, the inability to make adjustments during the game.
 
I live in Tallahassee and what I find amazing is FSU played Charleston Southern last week. FSU beat them 52-8 (CSU has suspended players). If you follow football, which I am sure you do as you are on here, you know that CSU took NDSU to OT week 1.
I knew that Iowa would NOT blow out NDSU but this gave me some confidence that we could win by a couple scores.
We all know this did not happen. Amazingly it was right after KF got a contract extension through 2025.
My biggest fear is the impact this might have to a couple of awesome recruiting classes we have coming in.
However, I digress as it looks like we are back to the KF from 2 years ago.
And yes, this gentleman is saying exactly what all of us have been saying for quite some time, play not to lose, playing with limited inspiration, play (and continue to for the whole game) right into the opponents strengths.
But hey, on the bright side we have at least 10 more seasons of this.
 
I get the lower "division team" but I think we (past and present) underestimated NDSU. While we acknowledged that they're a FCS opponent I think we failed to, and continue to, think of them as 5 time champions. Whatever division they play, they know how to win and had the mindset to come into the game thinking they could beat us.

We lost the lost the two biggest games on our schedule last year, while they've won theirs the past 5 years. While the scholarships may not be equal; they were by far the best team we'd seen this year and knew how to respond in big games. We can come up with excuses as to it being a trap game against an inferior opponent, or playing without 2 starters on the Oline, but the bottom line is they on Saturday they went into the game and gave us everything they had. Mental toughness, and more importantly heart, played a major role in determining the outcome of the game and I thought NDSU had the better game plan, mindset, and more desire to walk away from Iowa City with the win.
 
I should also add that I think we're overlooking the skill of NDSU based on them being an FCS school. I think they did just as much to keep themselves in the game while giving themselves a chance to win it as we did to lose it.
 
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