IowaLaw's Post Game Analysis: Northwestern

Sargent's once was...was once against Nebby's interior D. Fact is he never was a Big back.


I’ve never felt Sargent was or ever was the Back, he was serviceable last year and did the job well. I feel Sargent played with a chip on his shoulder last year and earned the reps he received. However it’s clear that Goodson is the guy and we need to scheme this offense around him.
 
I’ve never felt Sargent was or ever was the Back, he was serviceable last year and did the job well. I feel Sargent played with a chip on his shoulder last year and earned the reps he received. However it’s clear that Goodson is the guy and we need to scheme this offense around him.

It was kind of like little guy syndrome. Not there this year
 
What game were you watching? Stanley was 12-26 for 179. As you pointed out Ragaini had drops and LaPorta dropped that long pass (actually he didn't, but we got screwed on that overturn). Stanley should have been 16 of 26 for 255.

I counted 4 drops and three balls that were thrown away. So 16 of 26 with three throw aways. Efficient...and he was clearly told to be conservative with the ball. I can't think of any balls that NW even had a sniff of a play on the ball.
 
I get the game plan / opponent argument. That's exactly how it should be and how every team tries to do it.

I also understand that every team basically sticks to "their scheme" that, hopefully, they're pretty good at executing and has the right personnel to give you the best chance to win. From week to week, it comes down to minor tweaks that try to attack that opponent's weaknesses. At the same time, amidst the established game plan, you, hopefully, have also accounted for in-game "what-if" situations and have "plan B" that allows you to adapt to game flow.

The historical and perpetual issues that I've always bitched about with the Ferentz regime is that they are SO dogmatic to their scheme and SO committed to their personnel and SO reliant on precise execution that it often hinders the week-to-week variations and, especially, the in-game adaptations. The Ferentz regime takes it to such an immutable extreme that they often become inherent obstacles to Iowa's success on any given day.

You see this play out multiple times, every game, every year ...
- Over use of unsuccessful plays in predictable situations:
-- How many horizontal passes on 3rd and 5+?
-- How many short-side rushes to start a series?
-- How many rushes into (predictable) 8-man boxes?
-- How is it there is exactly 1 (predictable) audible?
We'll never know ... because the Ferentzes never stop trying and rarely vary from script.

- Unwillingness to substitute when guys aren't executing.
-- They're apprentices, not pros, and more prone to have off days.
-- There are so many teaching moments (and opportunities for others) missed at the concern of bruised confidence.

- Seniority trumps skill ... Once a starter ...

These are just the basic examples. It would take many hours and many beers to break these (and the many others) down and I'm already encroaching on TLDR territory for many of the myopians, here.

Back to your point about NwU game plan ... Are you saying, Goodson, much sooner, would've disrupted the conservative, risk-averse game plan? I don't see it ... He's not any more a liability to fumble. He's a reliable receiver with more speed and agility in space - which seems to be a big part of the scheme and strategy with the swing passes. He brings more explosiveness to hit the hole - which, as you alluded to, is crucial for the Hawk's success, given such a porous, sub-par OL. He's maximized his opportunities in terms of being equally productive as Sargent and Young, yet, he continues to be the 3rd option.

I'm cool with a conservative game plan - AFTER you establish control of the game. Goodson offers the better chance to do that because he brings a more explosive dynamic to the attack. For once, it would be nice to TRY to play from ahead of the 8-ball, rather than plodding along and falling behind it. Unfortunately, as always, that Ferentzian dogmatic adherence to the script (and personal philosophical paranoias) forces the tighter margin for error.

You make great points about what a successful game plan would be to win the most important game of the rest of the season. We all know who the starters - and rotations - will be at Wisconsin.:(:mad:

Count my vote as "no confidence" in the Ferentz regime making any sort of timely, competent adaptations. They'll stick to script and, in all their glorious futility, continue to ploddingly attack Wisconsin's teeth as they get run out of Madison. How the West was lost - like so many other opportunities over the years.

yeah as far as the gameplan issues I was defending the stuff like punting instead of going for it at midfield stuff. I'm one percent on the goodson band wagon, he's shown he needs more snaps, kirk has said as much each of the last three weeks. He clearly should be the guy getting 70% of the snaps or some percentage around there.
 
The Hawks spoiled 1-6 Northwestern's homecoming with a 20-0 victory. The defense pitched their 4th conference shutout in 2 years (the most in all of college football), but a competent offense probably should have put up more points (hell, Michigan State scored 31 against them).

1. DL Dominated - This was the best game all year for the DL. Nixon stood out with 5 tackles, 2 sacks, and a deflection. AJE stepped up against the run, for a change, and tallied 5 tackles (season high) and .5 sacks. Lattimore had 4 tackles and 1 sack, and Golston had an interception. The DL held NU to 35 rushes for 64 yards. That is an elite level defense. If they can play that well against Wisconsin's massive OL, the Hawks should be headed to Indianapolis this fall.

2. Questionable Personnel Decisions: Oliver/Goodson - Earlier this week, IowaLaw questioned how staff could continue keeping Oliver Martin, their top WR recruit in the past 20 years (136 yrds receiving and 1 td as a freshmen at Michigan last year) on the bench while playing Nico Ragaini almost every down. With Brandon Smith out, Martin was expected to finally get some reps. Wrong. He played just 2 snaps while Ragaini played the entire game, notching an impressive 4 drops. Similarly, Brian's brilliant game planning this week forgot that Tyler Goodson was on the roster, as he had just 1 carry in the entire first half. How is that possible? It's like watching Max Cooper play ahead of Noah Fant all over again.

3. Dillon Doyle Steps Up - I'll admit, I didn't think much of Doyle at first. He's a nepotism recruit who seemed outmatched in his first extended action last week. This week, however, he showed that he could hang with the big boys (or at least, Northwestern). He's just a freshmen, but racked up 7 tackles, a QB hurry, and some pretty big hits. Give the guy a few years in the program and he may turn some heads.

4. Stanley Underwhelms - Nate underperformed, even by his own standards. His 12-26 for 179 yards is an abysmal completion percentage (Ragaini didn't help), but more disappointing was the randying around on decision making. He dropped back to pass on 3rd down from Northwestern's 20 yard line, stood back there like a statue, and rather than throwing the ball away, clumsily took a huge sack that brought the ball beyond Duncan's comfortable range. Three points lost on a boneheaded play by a 3 year starter.

5. Sam LaPorta Debuts - Prior to this week, "tight end U" was averaging just one TE reception per game. With little buzz coming out of practice, LaPorta, a true freshmen with zero Power 5 scholarship offers, managed to jump ahead of some upper classmen on the depth chart (i.e. Cook) and showed glimpses of TJ Hockensen out there. 2 catches for 43 yards, and a 3rd deep ball catch that was taken away (in part because Stanley has no game sense and didn't hike the ball before the refs stopped play to review it) is a nice start to a career. Let's see more of this guy in the weeks to come.

6. Offensive Coordinator Is Offensive - We get it. When the head coach has been around for 21 years, he's entitled to hire his unqualified son and promote him on an annual basis. But is Brian getting the job done? The offense is now ranked 73-75th in the NCAA. Aside from the anemic stats, the continued clock management woes, and the generally boring style of unimaginative play, there are other reasons Brian might be better off in a less important role. At an "aw shucks," Iowa nice type of school where fans wave to sick kids in the hospital, it is inexplicable that a coach of his standing continues to throw expletive laden temper tantrums on the sidelines. Today's iteration resulted in a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Spot on, Stanley has no game sense. should have gotten to the line and gotten the snap off before there was a review (actually time out by NW). Or when it is 3rd and 1, get the offense to the line and run a play quickly. We take so damn long to get play in, change personal, infuriating!
 
Spot on, Stanley has no game sense. should have gotten to the line and gotten the snap off before there was a review (actually time out by NW). Or when it is 3rd and 1, get the offense to the line and run a play quickly. We take so damn long to get play in, change personal, infuriating!

Wow I didn’t know Stanley was responsible for personnel changes.
 
yeah as far as the gameplan issues I was defending the stuff like punting instead of going for it at midfield stuff. I'm one percent on the goodson band wagon, he's shown he needs more snaps, kirk has said as much each of the last three weeks. He clearly should be the guy getting 70% of the snaps or some percentage around there.
I agree Goodson deserves a majority, but Iowa needs to have multiple bodies play.

I do not want to see Goodson used like Eno ASU. Id honestly like to see IKM in Backfield same time as Goodson. Everyone on the field is a threat to catch or run the ball w Laporte at TE.
 
yeah and with that it wasn't like he didn't take a couple shots down field as part of that. The balls to laporta and tracy's 2nd one, were tough throws down field to make under pressure. Nate had a good day for what the game plan was.

Yep, that game plan was bland as all get out once Iowa had a 10-0 lead. Iowa wasn't going to do anything that could open the door for Northwestern after that. The only way Northwestern could have won the game once they were down 10 was if Iowa got stupid and gave them good field position or turned it over.

What I don't get is why this upsets people? I mean the goal is to WIN THE ****ING GAME. It isn't like beating Northwestern 30-0 instead of 20-0 changes anything at all. So once that game is at 10-0 with Northwestern's putrid offense, you just take the air out of the ball, run out the clock and go home with a win. That is called good coaching.
 
Yep, that game plan was bland as all get out once Iowa had a 10-0 lead. Iowa wasn't going to do anything that could open the door for Northwestern after that. The only way Northwestern could have won the game once they were down 10 was if Iowa got stupid and gave them good field position or turned it over.

What I don't get is why this upsets people? I mean the goal is to WIN THE ****ING GAME. It isn't like beating Northwestern 30-0 instead of 20-0 changes anything at all. So once that game is at 10-0 with Northwestern's putrid offense, you just take the air out of the ball, run out the clock and go home with a win. That is called good coaching.

That is exactly what led to Iowa losing to NW in the past. Small lead...drive the post in the ground. Fumbles and int s happen in the bland.

This O has shown little life. Hawks have a championship D. With a real even bland O we d be talking playoffs. M and PSu were quite beatable with a little less bland. Just a little. Not hard to understand.
 
Yep, that game plan was bland as all get out once Iowa had a 10-0 lead. Iowa wasn't going to do anything that could open the door for Northwestern after that. The only way Northwestern could have won the game once they were down 10 was if Iowa got stupid and gave them good field position or turned it over.

What I don't get is why this upsets people? I mean the goal is to WIN THE ****ING GAME. It isn't like beating Northwestern 30-0 instead of 20-0 changes anything at all. So once that game is at 10-0 with Northwestern's putrid offense, you just take the air out of the ball, run out the clock and go home with a win. That is called good coaching.

I'm guessing that fans are upset because Iowa had an opportunity to step on NW's throat late in the first half up 10-0 and were conservative and took that lead to the locker room.

Then NW was driving a bit on the opening possession of the 2nd half and Iowa stops them on 4th down. If that drive goes NW's way, its 10-7 or even 10-3 and its white knuckle time the rest of the game with how Iowa's offense is performing and how hard NW plays on D.

I can understand that people are upset about Iowa's offense. Its been pretty bad for 2 decades and it really hasn't been addressed by the coaching staff.

However I don't understand why people are expecting to see any different. Iowa is Iowa and that ain't changing regardless of who's under center or how much talent Iowa has on the field.

I was actually surprised at how aggressive Iowa's offense. At one point Iowa was inside their own 10 yard line and went with a deep ball to 84. 4 was literally standing in the end zone while he threw it. That never happens at Iowa. Then in the 4th quarter they hit another dep ball to 3.
 
I agree, except for the sack he took, this by far wasn't a bad game. Drops killed him.
Ragaini had an off day. Those balls were all catchable, not even hard catches for a P5 receiver. Can't have drops, they are drive killers, particularly for Iowa.

The sack was brutal, took Iowa out of reasonable FG position given the wind. Yes, he needs to get rid of that ball, but the DE went unblocked on a pretty simple stunt; I'm not sure what Paulsen was thinking on that play. The guards and center need to protect the middle. Jackson and Wirfs can take care of the edge.
 
The sack was brutal, took Iowa out of reasonable FG position given the wind. Yes, he needs to get rid of that ball, but the DE went unblocked on a pretty simple stunt; I'm not sure what Paulsen was thinking on that play. The guards and center need to protect the middle. Jackson and Wirfs can take care of the edge.
If somebody goes away from you, 8 or 9 times out of time there is going to be someone coming to you from a different direction. Defenses don't maintain gap integrity by leaving gaps undefended...Paulsen will get a hard lesson in the film room on not chasing blocks in pass pro.
 
Larrystation - Game plans do change based on the opponent. But there is no rational reason to give Tyler Goodson 1 carry in the first half vs. Northwestern. It's not like Sargent has some innate talent better suited to gash the Northwestern defense. The simple fact of the matter is, Brian pretty much forgot that Goodson was standing on the sidelines during the first half. Once Goodson got into the game (2nd half), he was electric.

Denis - "From what you see, Oliver Martin isn't ready?" And what was it, exactly, from his 2 snaps that led you to that conclusion? How, again, was he ready 13 months ago to get playing time at Michigan? Maybe Iowa's offense is way more complicated than Michigan's? ;)

Modeba - Saving your best RB until the 2nd half is "working so far?" In what way? Have you not noticed how bad Iowa's run game has been this year? Especially in first halfs? There is nothing working about having Sargent run up the middle on first down for 2 yards every series.

poot - What's wrong with the way ASU uses Eno Benjamin? He's got 700 yards rushing (4.4 yrds per carry) and is their 4th leading receiver. He's not overused. His backup, Jayden Daniels, already has 87 carries. By comparison, Iowa's #2, Toren Young, has 62 carries.

Dean - you wonder why people are bothered by such a conservative offense based solely on hindsight. A turnover here and a bad call there and you've got a 14 point swing. Iowa seems to avoid turnovers against inferior opponents and cough up the ball against the good ones. Both the Penn State and Michigan games were winnable if Iowa did the little things right (like clock management at the end of the first half). Against Northwestern, the ball bounced the right way. One unforeseen miscue and the small mistakes would have been much more obvious to you...just as one miscue against Iowa State and this is a 3 loss team.
 
Larrystation - Game plans do change based on the opponent. But there is no rational reason to give Tyler Goodson 1 carry in the first half vs. Northwestern. It's not like Sargent has some innate talent better suited to gash the Northwestern defense. The simple fact of the matter is, Brian pretty much forgot that Goodson was standing on the sidelines during the first half. Once Goodson got into the game (2nd half), he was electric.

Denis - "From what you see, Oliver Martin isn't ready?" And what was it, exactly, from his 2 snaps that led you to that conclusion? How, again, was he ready 13 months ago to get playing time at Michigan? Maybe Iowa's offense is way more complicated than Michigan's? ;)

Modeba - Saving your best RB until the 2nd half is "working so far?" In what way? Have you not noticed how bad Iowa's run game has been this year? Especially in first halfs? There is nothing working about having Sargent run up the middle on first down for 2 yards every series.

poot - What's wrong with the way ASU uses Eno Benjamin? He's got 700 yards rushing (4.4 yrds per carry) and is their 4th leading receiver. He's not overused. His backup, Jayden Daniels, already has 87 carries. By comparison, Iowa's #2, Toren Young, has 62 carries.

Dean - you wonder why people are bothered by such a conservative offense based solely on hindsight. A turnover here and a bad call there and you've got a 14 point swing. Iowa seems to avoid turnovers against inferior opponents and cough up the ball against the good ones. Both the Penn State and Michigan games were winnable if Iowa did the little things right (like clock management at the end of the first half). Against Northwestern, the ball bounced the right way. One unforeseen miscue and the small mistakes would have been much more obvious to you...just as one miscue against Iowa State and this is a 3 loss team.

dude i'm on record- goodson should be the starter and get 70% of the carries against wiscy. less than that in future weeks because of his current build, but this week, use him.
 

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