ISU looking Good

Hawkfromnorwalk said:
Count me in as worried about next week...seriously. They have an offense that will give us fits.
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I'm not worried at all. And honestly, no need to be worried about ISU until they can prove that they can score TD's against us. What I saw of ISU tonight showed that our D will completely manhandle the Clown line and Hampton/Arob will have a great night rushing, not to mention that I would expect our WR's and TE's take their LB's and CB's to the woodshed.

I see it more like a beating they are used to getting from us.

Their Oline didn't look all that awesome either and I don't really see them being able to move the ball very well consistently. Arnaud will get rattled when he feels Clayborn, klug, ballard and binns close to him and will turn into a Int machine.
 
My observations from the ISU game:

- Arnaud can be deadly when he's patient
- Arnaud still makes iffy decisions when he gets greedy and/or when pressured
- ISU's OL, for the most part, looked pretty decent
- ISU's RT, Burris, does appear to be susceptible to a strong rush.
- ISU's D is still susceptible to the pass. NIU simply couldn't give them a legit test through the air ... so they had to rely upon speed in the running game to get yardage.
- ISU's DL is better than expected ... however, they clearly can get ground down by the second half.
- As expected, ISU's LBs were good against the run ... however, a competent passing game could pick them alive in coverage.
- ISU's Franklin is good ... REALLY GOOD.
- ISU had MUCH more consistent play by their WRs. Sed Johnson, Darks, and Williams were all very solid. Reynolds and Lenz were solid too. ISU is definitely capable of distributing the ball.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
Count me in as worried about next week...seriously. They have an offense that will give us fits.
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I agree. ISU's O has a pretty high ceiling. They demonstrated flashes against NIU ... and they could be extremely dangerous as they become more consistent. Considering that teams usually make big strides from week one to week two ... I expect that ISU will iron out a number of their issues.
 
My impression of ISU is that they have a lot of work to do. Contrary to what the announcer was saying, I don't think ISU's O'line did that great a job.
Run blocking decent. Pass blocking poor. Robinson had 64 yds/10 c's in the first half. And 63 of those were on one play. NI has a decent defense, and they held ISU scoreless for more than 20 minutes. ISU; TE's good size and can catch but they are not particularly fast.

ISU's defense; Decent linebackers, Decent front four. Very poor secondary play. If NI had a decent QB they would have won the game. ISU gave up a lot of rushing yards to Spann (nearly as much as Rob got) and he didn't have any real big runs.
Bad news is that they have 10 days to get ready for Iowa. And they have a decent coach.

Keys for Iowa; Make Arnaut a pocket passer. Force Robinson outside. Their should be significant opportunities all around defensively.
If they try to blitz, Stanzi will find the open man. They will have trouble going Man to man. The passing game should open the running game.
 
NIU averaged 265 across the front four...about 10 pounds less than Iowa's...and they had the number one defense in the MAC last year (and return 9 starters this year)
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
ISU's defense; Decent linebackers, Decent front four. Very poor secondary play. If NI had a decent QB they would have won the game. ISU gave up a lot of rushing yards to Spann (nearly as much as Rob got) and he didn't have any real big runs.
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The secondary wasn't quite as bad as you're suggesting. You also have to remember that they were cheating up a lot because NIU was so one-dimensional. It's not like NIU's Grady was going to beat them with his arm.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I agree. ISU's O has a pretty high ceiling. They demonstrated flashes against NIU ... and they could be extremely dangerous as they become more consistent. Considering that teams usually make big strides from week one to week two ... I expect that ISU will iron out a number of their issues.
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ISU's offense also committed several penalties tonight; I think all of the penalties ISU amassed were on offense. 2 offensive PI, a holding, and an illegal formation.

If they can't get their **** straight in front of their own fans, how will the fare next week?
 
deadeye, when you write your post in the quote, no one can tell what the hell you're trying to say.

But yes, Iowa should name the score Saturday, and DJK is as wide open as the two NIU receivers that Grady missed, it's a touchdown.
 
Remember, ISU was playing without its best player, Safety David Sims, and without its starting Defensive Tackle...Bailey Johnson. So the D should be improved next week...especially the safety play.

But lets not overstate things, Iowa is still going to be a double digit favorite September 11th.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
The secondary wasn't quite as bad as you're suggesting. You also have to remember that they were cheating up a lot because NIU was so one-dimensional. It's not like NIU's Grady was going to beat them with his arm.
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NIU isn't a passing team, but ISU's secondary is going to have problems for most of the year.
 
Mesaclone said:
Remember, ISU was playing without its best player, Safety David Sims, and without its starting Defensive Tackle...Bailey Johnson. So the D should be improved next week...especially the safety play.

But lets not overstate things, Iowa is still going to be a double digit favorite September 11th.
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Remember, Iowa isn't going to have Prater, and is also going to be missing Binns. Gettis and Koeppel aren't going to play either.
 
Mesaclone said:
Remember, ISU was playing without its best player, Safety David Sims, and without its starting Defensive Tackle...Bailey Johnson. So the D should be improved next week...especially the safety play.

But lets not overstate things, Iowa is still going to be a double digit favorite September 11th.
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oh snap, forgot about that. i'm officially worried.....
 
Mesaclone said:
Remember, ISU was playing without its best player, Safety David Sims, and without its starting Defensive Tackle...Bailey Johnson. So the D should be improved next week...especially the safety play.

But lets not overstate things, Iowa is still going to be a double digit favorite September 11th.
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This. ISU had their best defensive guys out and still held firm. Were in for a scary game next week.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
This. ISU had their best defensive guys out and still held firm. Were in for a scary game next week.
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That defense also couldn't get off the field for the majority of the 2nd half, and was getting gashed by a team from the MAC. They got no pressure on Grady, couldn't stop Spann, and missed tackles all night.
 
ShadasRevenge said:
That defense also couldn't get off the field for the majority of the 2nd half, and was getting gashed by a team from the MAC. They got no pressure on Grady, couldn't stop Spann, and missed tackles all night.
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Ohio State nearly lost to Ohio early in the season not that long back. I wouldn't be dissing the MAC quite like that.

Methinks that you're a little blind when it comes to giving ISU any credit.
 
ShadasRevenge said:
ISU's offense also committed several penalties tonight; I think all of the penalties ISU amassed were on offense. 2 offensive PI, a holding, and an illegal formation.

If they can't get their **** straight in front of their own fans, how will the fare next week?
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Have you ever heard of first-game jitters? Furthermore, if you didn't already know, it's actually EASIER to lose focus for home games than it is for away games. That was likely a contributing factor as to why Iowa seemed to execute a bit more cleanly in away games as opposed to home games last year.
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
Ohio State nearly lost to Ohio early in the season not that long back. I wouldn't be dissing the MAC quite like that.

Methinks that you're a little blind when it comes to giving ISU any credit.
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I give them credit for sacking up and pulling out the win when previous versions would have folded under the pressure.

But I didn't see anything from them tonight that's going to make me lose any sleep between now and next Saturday.
 
Mesaclone said:
NIU averaged 265 across the front four...about 10 pounds less than Iowa's...and they had the number one defense in the MAC last year (and return 9 starters this year)
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They came out flat in the first half. Once they they settled in they played pretty good.
 
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