Miller: A Revealing Loss in Ames

I ask this question only because I don't have an answer and am trying to figure it out.

On offense, Iowa has been very balanced over the years. That seems to be changing now. Of the Hawks 72 plays, 43 or 60% were rushing attempts.

With ISU having 8 to 9 players in the box all day, I am not sure I get the logic of this. I am not trying to start anything, but please help me make sense of this.

I know the Hawks traditionally try to establish the run to open up the pass, but can it also work the other way around? Especially with the receivers Iowa has.

I guess common sense says you should take what they give you. Running the ball 6 out of every 10 plays with 8 or 9 guys near the line of scrimmage just doesn't seem right to me.
 
brhawks18 said:
I ask this question only because I don't have an answer and am trying to figure it out.

On offense, Iowa has been very balanced over the years. That seems to be changing now. Of the Hawks 72 plays, 43 or 60% were rushing attempts.

With ISU having 8 to 9 players in the box all day, I am not sure I get the logic of this. I am not trying to start anything, but please help me make sense of this.

I know the Hawks traditionally try to establish the run to open up the pass, but can it also work the other way around? Especially with the receivers Iowa has.

I guess common sense says you should take what they give you. Running the ball 6 out of every 10 plays with 8 or 9 guys near the line of scrimmage just doesn't seem right to me.
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I thought we did much better when we passed on first down, even on second. I think we will more more success with that formula then the other way around...
 
No team is the same as the year before. That's the nature of college football due to graduations. We are transitioning from the end of a 3 year run.... many more successes and some failures but by-in-large an excellent run.

Coaches definitely shape the program and can influence win/loss but players execute and make plays. We now start 3 players remaining from our 2010 defensive unit (just 2 seasons ago) -> I'm not certain why our fan base did not expect a drop-off ? Is football always a matter of just schemes? Experienced, gifted, physical players do not make much of a difference?

There is this notion that they next-guy-in is immediately going to pick up at the level the previous guy played at. I do not believe that is always the case.

The perplexing aspect to me in our program is the offense. As of late we seem to have decent skilled players in terms of QB's, WR's, TE's but we have difficulty scoring points. RB's are a mystery as we seem to lose a lot to injury(or other reasons). I wonder why we are simply not getting enough dominate performances by our O-Line up-front year-in, year-out [especially the teams would have an advantage in the trenches with; Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota, ISU, etc.] To me there is no other explanation for our in-efficiency/in-consistency on offense.

I forecasted 6-6 but that may be a real struggle as we are not winning the special teams battle, now losing on the defensive side and the one strength we should have this year in the offense is so inconsistent.

We'll see what kind of work our staff can do.....
 
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Our strategy has been the same for a long time now. The difference between last year and great years have been whether or not we can finish games. Recently our D cannot get off the field when they need to most

Coaching staff also has to take a chance once in a while
 
JonDMiller said:
On the whole, I think the secondary did a decent job. Micah Hyde made a big miscue on an Iowa State touchdown where he was playing zone and Christian Kirksey blitzed, so one of those two did the wrong thing.
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Had I been closer to my computer on this play, I was going to come post something regarding that play. If you go back to the NW game from last year, the TD that Persa through to pull them to within 3 points was the EXACT same play out of the exact same formation. Greenwood was in coverage last year and just got beat badly...interesting that they'd try to go after Hyde, but he jumped the short route and there was nobody home in the back of the end zone. That's completely on Hyde...we were basically C0 on that play (I think...I'd have to look again to make sure).
 
JonDMiller said:
The Iowa Hawkeyes fell to Iowa State on Saturday, 44-41 in three overtimes in one of the most dramatic games in the history of the CyHawk Series.

A loss is never a fun thing to experience, much less to your in state rivals...but this loss uncovered some areas that may prove to be a painful harbinger of sorts and alarming in other ways.

Before this season began, most level headed Hawkeye fans realized this year's defense was going to see a significant drop off at the point of attack. Iowa lost three players to the NFL from last year's defensive front. Early struggles were not going to be all that surprising.

Iowa was OK last week against Tennessee Tech, but there really wasn't much to take away from that experience due to the weather.

Today in Ames, that was not the case...Iowa's defense failed to get a pass rush on Iowa State at nearly every turn. When they did finally break free of the ISU offensive line, it was some four to five seconds after the ball had been snapped.

ISU QB Steele Jantz did do some running on Saturday, but he was not running for his life; he was making plays with his feet after Iowa's secondary had done more than a respectable job covering Iowa State's receivers.

Jantz turned in a performance that was on par with what Seneca Wallace did to Iowa in 2002. I can't believe I am typing that, because of how unreal Wallace was that day and due to how erratic Jantz looked last week at home against Northern Iowa. He was 24-36 for 271 yards and four scores. He was probably a mix of Wallace and former Iowa quarterback Drew Tate. He is no where near the runner Wallace was, but he has great feet, which makes him so elusive to that first would be pursuer.

Without Jantz, Iowa State doesn't win the game and it doesn't go to overtime. With him, they were the better football team on Saturday and Iowa's defensive line problems, at least how I see them, are not the kind of questions you find answers for in a few weeks...I am talking about another off season of strength and conditioning and another year old.

Lebron Daniel was a non-factor. Yes, he was going up against one of the best left tackles in the nation, but Kelechi Osemele was probably playing at 75 percent at best. Even Mike Daniels didn't get a great deal of consistent penetration and he was going across the line from a redshirt freshman center much of the day. Broderick Binns probably looked the best, but he didn't do anything to stand out and Dominic Alvis was barely heard from as well.

Iowa was sloppy again in the tackling game, something we saw last week in the slop. You can improve on that; I don't think you can improve on the pass rush with a four man front given what Iowa is working with this year. They ran a lot of stunts, as they don't have the horsepower across the front to apply presser man on man; those were not all that effective either.

On the whole, I think the secondary did a decent job. Micah Hyde made a big miscue on an Iowa State touchdown where he was playing zone and Christian Kirksey blitzed, so one of those two did the wrong thing. ISU picked on Greg Castillo a bit, and aside from a generous cushion I think Castillo did a decent job; back shoulder fades are tough to defend.

Kirksey had an amazing day and is going to be fun to watch. James Morris missed his share of tackles and Tyler Nielsen rolled an ankle early and was not 100 percent.

Given all of my concerns over Iowa's pass rush, a lot of it was expected. This was as year where the offense had to carry the team, at least in September while the defense gained chemistry and experience.

The offense did not do what it has to do, and that is score points and consistently move the chains.

James Vandenberg looked like a first year starting quarterback today. At times he showed us why we are all so excited about his career, and I still am. However, he was more erratic than I would have expected. I felt like he was feeling phantom pressure that was not there, which caused him to rush several throws.

Marvin McNutt only had four catches and maybe six targets. Keenan Davis made some big plays, but he also had one HUGE drop on Iowa's last possessions, where they had to settle for a field goal; had Davis caught the ball, it would have been a first down.

Iowa chose to pound Marcus Coker into a line of scrimmage that saw eight Cyclones overplaying the direction of Iowa's zone scheme flow. There were no counters called, possibly because Marcus Coker looks to be lacking a gear at this juncture of the season.

Coker went over 100 yards today (138 yards on 35 carries) but his average was 3.9 yards per carry. That is a LOT of work...he looked hesitant at times and he had another fumble, his third in three games.

The loss of Mika'il McCall was on display today, because McCall gets to the hole much faster than Coker does. Perhaps one of the worst things that could have happened to Coker was breaking that 64-yard run against Missouri last year, because people think that he is a mix of power and speed.

He isn't that. He is a great back to have in the program and leading the way, I am not saying he is not. However, he feet just aren't quick. Maybe it's just the fact that he was dinged up this fall and is still shaking off some rust. But he's not a home run hitter and the expectations that he is should be adjusted.

I also realize Kirk Ferentz doesn't want to throw freshmen running backs into road situation like that this early in their careers. But 38 carries won't happen each week, and the Hawks are going to need a little lightning to go with that thunder.

Iowa has some talent in the passing game. They have a good offensive line. They had several one one one opportunities today but they kept running the ball into eight man fronts. They will continue to see those eight man fronts this year, and aggressive defensive calls.

That will happen until they torch defenses through the air and make them pay for that approach, and even then it may not back off totally because teams are not going to fear Iowa's defense this year. For the first time in a long time, teams will see that they can score on Iowa, so if they take more chances on defense and get burnt occasionally, it's not going to hurt as much as it has in recent years against the Hawkeyes.

While the defense has a long way to go and may not ever get there this year, today's loss was mostly about a lack of execution on offense...a refrain we have been singing since after Iowa beat Michigan State last year.

Don't mistake this for some anti-Ken O'Keefe rant, because it's not. I 'hope' this leads to Iowa's coaching staff realizing certain philosophical notions may need some tweaking this season, given what it has to work with up front on defense.

Perhaps a reevaluation of attacking the clock late in a game where you aren't going up against the 2009 Ohio State defense could be in order, too. When you only force Iowa State to punt twice in a football game, it's time to go to the drawing board.

If not, if Iowa keeps 'playing it safe' this year, there are going to be more days like this. Days where Iowa is on the short end of the stick looking back at too many missed opportunities.
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Jon this is right on the coaching staffs failure to change for the better is not good. The defense is really poor and we have no pass rush at all. ISU QB did lots of running but after 5,6,7,8 or so seconds before he delivered the ball no secondary can cover that long.
 
jo12208 said:
Problem areas are QB, RB, DL, LB, DB and kickoff coverage. Other than that, we will be fine. Those that said Vandenberg is better than Stanzi are smoking lefty luckies.
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I was thinking the same thing about missing Stanzi, but I was not going to be the first one to say it. Vandy was 12 of 28? I will give him the benefit of the doubt and accept he has only played in a total of 4 full games but he did miss some open receivers badly yesterday. I also felt he looked to run to soon when the play broke down and wasn't looking down field. He missed Davis or McNutt streaking wide open across the middle right in front of him at least twice on plays that if he stepped up looking down field we could have had a few big plays.

He is still very inexperienced but has shown he can protect the ball with no picks yet this season, and that was something Ricky couldn't do early in his career. Take it for what it is, we are just inexperienced at some of our most critical positions this season. This should be a giant teaching experience and I believe on the offensive side of the ball we will improve as the year goes on....now the defensive side of the ball with the DL..I have my doubts.
 
Johnnyhawkeye said:
I was thinking the same thing about missing Stanzi, but I was not going to be the first one to say it. Vandy was 12 of 28?
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To be fair, the final stats on JVB were that he was 16/28 for 207, 2 TD's and 0 INT's. His career completion % coming into the game was hovering around 50%...but he did miss quite a few open receivers and even some of the completions our guys had to make nice plays on to catch the ball.
 
Write it down Hawk fans. If Janz is the QB for ISU next year, Iowa will lose again. Iowa will not adjust to the style of offenses that are prominent in the game today. (Are you kidding me Iowa coaches? You leave Castillo matched up alone?) ISU is better than Iowa. Iowa might go 6-6 this year. Don't hate fellow Hawk fans. Just telling it like I see it.
 
One reason they may not have done that is that Iowa has no TE this year. I can't even say that Iowa's TE's are average. Without the TE, there is no reason to defend the middle. If you don't have to defend the middle, it's going to be tougher to get McNutt and Davis open.
 
Iowa executed poorly in most phases of the game. Jantz played a excellent game yesterday. ISU is not near the quality of most of the B10 teams that Iowa will face this year and that is troubling.

We will have to see how much these guys improve this week. At this point they had one game that was hampered by weather and one game that showed them that they have a lot of work to do.
 
Our field goal kicking was excellent! I'll bet he wins one or two games for us this year. I think our offense will be fine....our O line is experienced and will only get better. Expect more RB's to see the field the next couple weeks at home. JVB will be fine....tough venue yesterday. Things are rarely as bad (or as good) as they seem.
 
Iowa will adjust on defensively because they have to. Wisconsin and Ohio State are gone from the schedule. The rest of the teams that we play this season run this style of offense at least 50% of the time. Pitt, Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan, Purdue, and Nebraska are dedicated spread formation teams with mobile QBs. MSU and Penn State feature spread concepts at least 50% of the time. Only Cousins is not a mobile QB and he is still fairly athletic.

I do think the defensive line will improve, but once again the rotation is a fallacy- Binns and Daniels played 90% of the snaps in this game and Bigach rarely subbed for Daniel. Iowa has to attack this position with rotation to get the most out of Binns and Daniels. Alvis cannot play DT on an every down basis and I can't stress this enough. Iowa has other options at DT including Bigach, Davis, Nardo and Mike Hardy all have better size.

Iowa's secondary played very well at times and did not benefit from a pass rush. However there were still a lot of poor tackling, angles and blown assignments. Hyde either has to improve dramatically (and he is capable, Tyler Sash was toasted often early in his career) or he has to move back to corner. Iowa's coaches say they want to play the best five offensive lineman and paid lip service to that concept in the secondary for this season. Castillo is not one of the best 4 defensive backs on the roster and may not be one of the top 8. I bet he works really hard in practice and I am sure he is very smart as a football player, but he had a poor tackling day, was picked on a lot and this is not new in his career. Iowa really missed Bernstine in this game.

Texas played 18 of 24 true freshman. Iowa had three very good athletes that were expected to play defensive back. One of those three deserved a chance to play in Castillo's spot. At some point experience and practice can't matter if you are in the business of winning games.
 
94HawkMA said:
Write it down Hawk fans. If Janz is the QB for ISU next year, Iowa will lose again. Iowa will not adjust to the style of offenses that are prominent in the game today. (Are you kidding me Iowa coaches? You leave Castillo matched up alone?) ISU is better than Iowa. Iowa might go 6-6 this year. Don't hate fellow Hawk fans. Just telling it like I see it.
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I'm already locking it in....
 
That's why last year was so tough to take. Iowa had a lot of experienced future pros on their roster, and went 8-5.
 
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