KEN O'KEEFE... Mailed IT IN!

[1977Hawkeye]

I was going to write a lengthy post, but I think you sum it up rather well.

Folks, the proof is in the final score. PSU didn't score a touchdown! Holy cow some people are whiners. If any of us were asked before the game if we'd be satisfied with a 24-3 score, who amongst us would say "ahh, that KOK?"

We did get super conservative, and it can be frustrating at times. However, we didn't open the door for PSU to win the game by fumbling or throwing an INT. I'd rather win 24-3 than 31-17...

Clearly it was a case of the coaches going conservative and letting the defense hold serve.. Playing the game in the hands of your team's strength is never a bad idea.

I'm happy with the 24-3 score, but the late INT made the final look more convincing.

What I worry about is that I think our coaches DO tend to go ultra-conservative, too early in the game, with too small of a lead. We did let PSU hang around a little more than I think we should have when it was obvious that our offense was more than capable of putting more points on the board. PSU had alot of trouble stopping our passing attack, minus the deep INT Stanzi threw early on.

It's not about points to me, it's simply about not putting an opponent away when you have them down.

All it would have taken was one PSU TD, and it would have been game on. Remember @Northwestern 2005? This game was close enough where I was never really comfortable until it got past mid-way fourth quarter, but maybe I'm in the minority there.

 

[HAWKEYESTATE4ever]

you guys will find anything to bitc h about. THIS IS AND HAS BEEN IOWA FOOTBALL FOR OVER A DECADE!!! If you STILL don'y get it, cheer for another team.

 

[silvanthalas]

It's not about points to me, it's simply about not putting an opponent away when you have them down.

Bump.

 

[CRhawkeye06]

Once again... EVERYONE seems to think that if you show your concern, you either A.) Don't understand IOWA FOOTBALL or B.) You want a 60 point victory....

Why are you so close minded?!?! All I am saying is that when you let a mediocre PSU team hang around like we did, all it takes is one play to turn the game around. And all you "HAWKEYE FANS" who say, there was no way PSU's offense was gonna score obviously didn't watch the game. They had some good plays that could've easily turned the game around had the go the other way... Someone said it earlier, "you can still put up points while being conservative...". Now it may not seem like a BIG DEAL to all you CONFIDENT IOWA FANS, but we've got MICHIGAN in two weeks and if we play them like we played last night, we're going to be 4-2 and in some serious trouble... It's not ALL KOK's fault, it's not all KF's fault, it's just the fact when you let a lesser opponent stick around, it can bite you in the butt later...

 

[cibula11]

Clearly the OP doesn't KNOW much about what Iowa does. Outside the fact that you'd be better blaming Kirk than O'Keefe, Iowa goes conservative when they have stellar defenses. While we'd all like to see them really hand it to someone, it's also not needed. Play to win.

 

[HawkeyeDenis]

I disagree with "Ken O'Keefe mailed it in". Iowa controlled the game from the first quarter on, so why show other teams in the Big Ten anything you don't have too?

They just worked the running game, safe passes and to keep future defenses guessing, a couple of reverses. Same old conservative game plan Kirk uses when Iowa has a lead.

 

[tm3308]

Once again... EVERYONE seems to think that if you show your concern, you either A.) Don't understand IOWA FOOTBALL or B.) You want a 60 point victory....

Why are you so close minded?!?! All I am saying is that when you let a mediocre PSU team hang around like we did, all it takes is one play to turn the game around. And all you "HAWKEYE FANS" who say, there was no way PSU's offense was gonna score obviously didn't watch the game. They had some good plays that could've easily turned the game around had the go the other way... Someone said it earlier, "you can still put up points while being conservative...". Now it may not seem like a BIG DEAL to all you CONFIDENT IOWA FANS, but we've got MICHIGAN in two weeks and if we play them like we played last night, we're going to be 4-2 and in some serious trouble... It's not ALL KOK's fault, it's not all KF's fault, it's just the fact when you let a lesser opponent stick around, it can bite you in the butt later...

This p*sses me off too. I'm not wanting us to put up 50+ points and run up the score. I just feel better with the game being a 3-possession game when we start sitting on our hands. Get up by 17-21, and I'm 100% fine with playing with a flat football. But less than that, it doesn't take much to get the momentum going the opponents way.

 

[cibula11]

This p*sses me off too. I'm not wanting us to put up 50+ points and run up the score. I just feel better with the game being a 3-possession game when we start sitting on our hands. Get up by 17-21, and I'm 100% fine with playing with a flat football. But less than that, it doesn't take much to get the momentum going the opponents way.

Our defense has given up only ONE ligit TD this year. 14 pts is alot to score on Iowa.

 

[tm3308]

Our defense has given up only ONE ligit TD this year. 14 pts is alot to score on Iowa.

Who says that the defense has to give it up? Our special teams have had plenty of issues this year, and with guys like Stephon Green and Chaz Powell returning kicks and punts, they can narrow the gap without the defense getting the opportunity to stop them. If that happens, who knows how PSU as a whole might play after that? We might still shut them down, but I'd rather avoid the question altogether.

 

[CraigTNelson]

Iowa's defense was dominating, particularly the DL. Donahue was pinning PSU inside their 1 yard line. The game was in the bag. Why show the Big Ten our playbook? Some of you who are complaining about the offense are too b*ttf*cking football stupid to even argue with.

 

[JonDMiller]

Once again... EVERYONE seems to think that if you show your concern, you either A.) Don't understand IOWA FOOTBALL or B.) You want a 60 point victory.....

I think it has more to do with HOW people are 'showing their concern'. There a any number of ways to express an opinion. Some of them are going to attract derisive blowback because of how they were presented. This thread, and the OP's comments are an example of that.

 

[DuffMan]

And all you "HAWKEYE FANS" who say, there was no way PSU's offense was gonna score obviously didn't watch the game. They had some good plays that could've easily turned the game around had the go the other way... ...

I watched the game, I was at the game, after the goal line stand it was obvious that Penn State was not going to score a touch down. They got down to the 3 on a busted coverage, and they got 4 plays to get it in. They didn't. It was game set match right there, and our game plan reflected it.

The 2nd half game plan was a direct result of field position and the game situation, and it was 100% the correct thing to do.

Have you actually read some of the criticisms here? I mean there are people railing on KoK because he had the audacity to run left when it obviously "wasn't working". What are we to do? Stop running left because a few get stopped for little to no gain? Also when is it OK to try and run left again?

 

[tm3308]

I watched the game, I was at the game, after the goal line stand it was obvious that Penn State was not going to score a touch down. They got down to the 3 on a busted coverage, and they got 4 plays to get it in. They didn't. It was game set match right there, and our game plan reflected it.

The 2nd half game plan was a direct result of field position and the game situation, and it was 100% the correct thing to do.

Have you actually read some of the criticisms here? I mean there are people railing on KoK because he had the audacity to run left when it obviously "wasn't working". What are we to do? Stop running left because a few get stopped for little to no gain? Also when is it OK to try and run left again?

Obviously people don't want to never go back to the left again. But we kept running basically the same play on 1st and 2nd down.

And it was obvious that PSU wouldn't score an OFFENSIVE TD after the goalline stand. But you can never say it's obvious they won't get a TD, because you never know when the big special teams play (which we struggle with right now) is going to happen.