Last Saturday - Who Won The Coin Toss?

[MelroseHawkins]

Beth Mowins never told us who won the coin toss against NDSU. If Iowa won and again deferred such as they did against Iowa State, this is a change from Kirk. In the past, Kirk always played it like an NFL team and took the ball unless there was inclement weather or a wind to deal with. Did Iowa win last weeks coin flip?

If they did and deferred, this is a change that I don't agree with. I'm always for taking the ball first and having first crack at controlling the line of scrimmage. It assures your team of one more offensive possession.

 

[ibahawkeye]

We won and deferred

 

[PCHawk]

All those years of taking the ball first with a good defense and a terrible offense. Then we finally have a good offense and a suspect defense and we defer. #kirklogic

 

[MelroseHawkins]

All those years of taking the ball first with a good defense and a terrible offense. Then we finally have a good offense and a suspect defense and we defer. #kirklogic

Yea, I don't think that was a change that really needed to be made. I liked that Iowa was one of a few college teams that took the ball first.

In addition, it adds consistency to the team and games as 85-90% of all other college teams defer the ball so Iowa would usually end up with the ball first every game. I remember Northwestern winning the toss against Iowa once and decided to take the ball first just to offset that from Iowa getting the ball first.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Look at last Saturday for example. Played against a lesser team and gave them the ball first. What did they do, took advantage of that and probably did a couple plays that haven't shown this year and drove it down the field and established field position. Iowa lucked out and the first drive stopped, but, Iowa then played catch up with trying to change fields the majority of the first half. Iowa got behind the ball when they could have taken the ball and controlled the field position.

At least when you take the ball first, you give your team the chance at dictating the field position.

 

[83Hawk]

I am of the mindset that you should always defer if you win the toss.

That being said....Iowa's defense played poorly in 2 out of 3 games....guess which game we lost the toss and started on defense?

 

[HaydenHawk56]

The Captain has to go with his gut. Jake over Stanzi, Iowa defense over Iowa offense, Coin tosses, etc. In Kirk we Trust

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

All those years of taking the ball first with a good defense and a terrible offense. Then we finally have a good offense and a suspect defense and we defer. #kirklogic

To be fair, our offense was not good on Saturday, at all. The offensive playcalling and subsequent 36 minutes it levied on a defense sans depth(who actually played well in the first half), was a big problem. The offense needs to pull it's weight on a team with an overall inexperienced and low depth defense.

 

[PCHawk]

True. But up until that point the offense had looked considerably better than the defense.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I am of the mindset that you should always defer if you win the toss.

That being said....Iowa's defense played poorly in 2 out of 3 games....guess which game we lost the toss and started on defense?

I suppose it kind of depends on what kind of team you have each year, stronger on D or offense. But, what is your personal reasoning for deferring first. I mean we always did in high school and I get that setting a defensive tone is important. Definitely important when dealing with weather and/or wind.

In the NFL, teams take it 95% of the time. College is in between that but most teams defer like in high school. I like the idea of ensuring my offense one more possession with the chance at dictating the field position first. That's just me, though.

 

[Robowe]

I suppose it kind of depends on what kind of team you have each year, stronger on D or offense. But, what is your personal reasoning for deferring first. I mean we always did in high school and I get that setting a defensive tone is important. Definitely important when dealing with weather and/or wind.

In the NFL, teams take it 95% of the time. College is in between that but most teams defer like in high school. I like the idea of ensuring my offense one more possession with the chance at dictating the field position first. That's just me, though.

In the NFL, that has changed now. This is a story from January 2016.

http://mmqb.si.com/2016/01/14/nfl-coin-toss-deferral-patriots-bill-belichick

It’s easy to forget just how new the rule allowing teams to defer their choice to kick or receive to the second half is. It wasn’t introduced until the 2008 season; that year, deferrals happened 7.8 percent of the time. Since, the number has steadily risen. A significant jump happened between 2011 and ’12, when the rate of deferrals went from 41.2 percent to 55.4, but the biggest leap ever actually took place this season. A staggering 82.5 percent of opening kickoffs were deferred, up from 65.6 a year ago. There were two weeks—including Week 17—during which not a single team that won the opening toss took the ball to start the game.