Iowa WRs

One game folks... One game. We know Easley isn't that bad so any bagging on him is beyond unreasonable. Smith we just don't know about it was his first start. He's a true sophomore. What had guys like McNutt or Tevaun Smith had done by the time they'd played their first game of their true sophomore year... Not much of anything so let's try and have a little perspective before we go trashing the receivers just yet.

Stanley I think may deserve a little tougher critiquing however. He wasn't sharp. I don't think anyone would say otherwise. He was off on a bunch of his throws and will have to improve and get better. We all know he's capable but he's not their yet. Am I suggesting he get yanked? Oh hell no. He'll play through it. That's where I'm glad we didn't play an ISU or any other better offensive team than we did that would have required a shootout to keep up to start with. He got the first game rust out of the way. Hopefully like last yr he'll be ready to rock and roll now for next wk
 
I would agree regarding Stanley, my buddy and I were just were talking about it. He looks fairly inconsistent and off agains NIU. It’s worriseome, but it it keeps up for a few weeks it’ll be time to strongly consider Mansel.

Mansel just reminds me so much of Drew Tate.
 
Let's call it like we see it guys. Stanley played absolutely terrible yesterday. Holy crap...there is no other way to describe it. Awful. Someone mentioned the target to Hockenson where Smith Marsette was wide open and if targeted...and he caught it...it would have been six.

There was also another glaring miss. When he throws to Fant on the sideline...the play where Fant stepped out...then came back in and was the first to touch the ball...there was an Iowa receiver in the corner of the end zone wide open. First of all, he waited way too long to throw the ball to Fant...he took a couple of steps before he threw...but he missed a wide open touchdown.

Some of his short passes were ridiculously bad. The bubble screen to Cooper...it's a ten yard pass and he threw it at his feet. The first play of the game...big miss on a simple out....simple in pattern for Easley for a first down...low throw.

I'm sorry...but your experienced QB needs to play much, much better than that.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Let's call it like we see it guys. Stanley played absolutely terrible yesterday. Holy crap...there is no other way to describe it. Awful. Someone mentioned the target to Hockenson where Smith Marsette was wide open and if targeted...and he caught it...it would have been six.

There was also another glaring miss. When he throws to Fant on the sideline...the play where Fant stepped out...then came back in and was the first to touch the ball...there was an Iowa receiver in the corner of the end zone wide open. First of all, he waited way too long to throw the ball to Fant...he took a couple of steps before he threw...but he missed a wide open touchdown.

Some of his short passes were ridiculously bad. The bubble screen to Cooper...it's a ten yard pass and he threw it at his feet. The first play of the game...big miss on a simple out....simple in pattern for Easley for a first down...low throw.

I'm sorry...but your experienced QB needs to play much, much better than that.
Click to expand...
You can’t disagree with this!

The only problem is, we all know Kirk won’t put heat on Stanley if he repeats a bad game.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
...Stanley I think may deserve a little tougher critiquing however. He wasn't sharp. I don't think anyone would say otherwise. He was off on a bunch of his throws and will have to improve and get better.
Click to expand...
Being "off" on some throws in the first game isn't what has me worried. Making very poor decisions about who to target is much more concerning.

His stats last year were the result of him making good decisions. Also his inaccuracy last year was a tendency to overthrow the deep ball which, on third and long, would amount to a punt if there was anybody further down field in a position to intercept.

Under throwing is not good. Several of his throws were under thrown on Saturday. That was the "off". The problem was he should have been targeting other receivers. The combination of under throwing to receivers who have coverage on the play side leads to interceptions/pick 6s. He also didn't seem to know where his backfield was at times. Maybe that's not on him totally, but if there is guy standing next to you, you should at least know he is there.

Was it first game jitters? I hope so. I also hope we are in a position Saturday to see more Mansell. He looked sharp.
 
Too early to tell. Poor throws, dropped passes, there is enough blame to go around.
Rust? Anxious? Plenty of excuses if one chooses that route as well.
They are going to have to improve massively in all areas of the passing game to have a shot at the west. The good part? It was all pretty easy stuff to fix and they can/have played better. So it's not a talent issue, more of a deer in the headlights issue.
The bad? It's going to have to improve pretty fast and a pretty good amount before Wisconsin rolls into town.
We should get a little better idea how much of it is, capability and how much was rust/nerves this week.
It would be nice to see them come out and put the screws to ISU early and be dominant from play 1.
Getting the backups reps in the ISU game isn't all that common. In order to do so means that everything is clicking and the coaches know it and that our first team has put it all together.
 
Chuck Long commented more than once that Stanley was doing a good job of going through his progressions. I'd be much more worried if he was staring down his targets. I'm staying optimistic and thinking he'll perform much better in game 2.
 
bitmap said:
Being "off" on some throws in the first game isn't what has me worried. Making very poor decisions about who to target is much more concerning.

His stats last year were the result of him making good decisions. Also his inaccuracy last year was a tendency to overthrow the deep ball which, on third and long, would amount to a punt if there was anybody further down field in a position to intercept.

Under throwing is not good. Several of his throws were under thrown on Saturday. That was the "off". The problem was he should have been targeting other receivers. The combination of under throwing to receivers who have coverage on the play side leads to interceptions/pick 6s. He also didn't seem to know where his backfield was at times. Maybe that's not on him totally, but if there is guy standing next to you, you should at least know he is there.

Was it first game jitters? I hope so. I also hope we are in a position Saturday to see more Mansell. He looked sharp.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. He got lucky on a couple attempts to the left flat where he underthrew Easley. Both of those had potential to be pick 6s. I hope we can chalk it up to 1st game rust, jitters whatever. He'll need to play much better for us to beat ISU.
 
ATLHawkeye said:
Chuck Long commented more than once that Stanley was doing a good job of going through his progressions. I'd be much more worried if he was staring down his targets. I'm staying optimistic and thinking he'll perform much better in game 2.
Click to expand...

I'm not getting down on Stanley at all. I think he has a big year this year...because I think the protection is going to be much better. He was just off Saturday. Call it first game settling down or whatever. He just seemed rushed and it could be the team really worked on him getting the ball out and not taking sacks in camp. He just wasn't getting the ball where it needed to go.

My guess is that he will be much better this week.
 
Not trying to defend Stanley per se. I do think he was off somewhat Saturday, but, it's important for fans to remember that when timing routes don't connect, it's not always on the QB.

If the receiver rounds off a route or breaks at the wrong time, or doesn't diagnose the defensive formation correctly, the QB is the one that usually looks like the culprit. It's not always that "the ball is not where it was supposed to be." Sometimes it's the receiver "not being where he was supposed to be..." If you watch a replay of the game closely, the vast majority of the pass plays that were off were plays to the WRs. His throws to RBs and TEs generally were on the money, so it does make you wonder.
 
Cripes people, I'm going to give them a couple more games than just judge from the first game. The entire game plan for this first game might have been different than what might see as the year goes on. Also had two new tackles yesterday. Too early to jump off the cliff now, IMO.

Actually it was just the first half of the first game of the year. Put it into perspective.
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure the WR position will be much better but Iowa probably wasn't going to try and do anything fancy with 2 OT's that have never played and are not the starters for the season. Your not going to risk injuring Stanley with any pass protection that involves requiring too long of a pass play. Be interesting to see what happens after getting back the two OT's.
 
The pass to B Smith on the first play was slightly off. Looked as much like bad timing and/or communication as it did a bad throw or catch. The deep pass to Fant was beautiful. The result, i.e., Fant's drop, was something we've seen before (Fant didn't have HIS best game, either, let's face it). The deep ,pass to B Smith that resulted in an INT was on Stanley AND Smith. The throw was short AND Smith took too long to react and, at worst, could have "turned DB" to break up the play.

One positive nobody is mentioning: Stanley not taking a sack and actually getting a couple yards when protection broke down. Much better than what we typically saw last year.

But, yes, Stanley was off on numerous throws. It was the first game, with some first-time starts for some guys. It can get cleaned up.
 
Good grief people it was the first game. I remember last year his first several games were awful and you all wanted rid of him. Give Fant a bunch of crap for dropping a beautifully thrown ball. If Fant catches that the whole game changes. Mansell threw one pass and boy was he sharp! Come on people.
 
There is enough blame to go around on Saturday, but the WR were troubling. Brandon smith would have never seen the field at a top tier SEC school, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a serviceable WR at Iowa.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top