Miller: Are Hawkeye Offensive Problems Systemic?

hawkeyebob62 said:
Uh, Jon, I believe Thunder said he was "vindicated" in regard to Banks. Straight from the horse's as...er, "mouth".
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Well, I've chatted with the horse, and other horses in the race, as well as about five other players on that team. I feel comfortable in what I have been saying on this for 13 years ;)
 
JonDMiller said:
You're going to get into psychology now?

He's 10-5 as a starter. He has some road wins including at Nebraska. He's very smart and executes mostly what the coaches want. CJB is not doing those things consistently in practice. Things like this are a big waste of time and also mostly baseless. Jake has a large body of work and has had success. CJB has thrown 30 passes and has completed less than 38% of them. He's had an entire offseason to do the things and run the system to coaches want. But he isn't there.

So everyone can want the cannon. It's always something people want in the backup. But just like Banks wasn't ready in 2001, CJB is not ready in the eyes of the coaches.
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Seems a bit defensive to say that I'm getting into psychology now. You have referenced risk aversion both in regard to the coaching staff, but also in how Rudock is playing. I think Gamefilm used the word "confidence" in his analysis and seemed to hint that it was lacking, along with anticipation, in regards to the deep ball. I think you can see it more broadly as well as many of his passes are behind receivers and come on late reads. If psychology is the wrong word feel free to correct, but there is something in the head that is preventing him from getting the ball out on time with confidence.

And why are you making a point of the fact that he is very smart? In what I have read in this thread and other threads, no one is implying that Rudock is anything but smart - no one. If anyone had that impression they could listen to any Hawkeye game broadcast where they talk about his medical ambitions, his class load and his priorities. This is a non-issue. The point I'm making is that I don't see how, based on the information we have available that we can be confident in JR's capabilities to exploit defenses.

The cannon arm comment is a way of dismissing those who find short-comings in Rudock. I've been clear in my posts that I defer to the coaches on who should play, but a lot of the desire in the fan base for CJB to play has less to do with his arm strength and more to do with the lack of production the offense has had with Rudock. If you don't believe this, answer this question honestly: If the Hawkeyes were winning these first 2 games by 3-4 touchdowns and looked effective on offense doing so, do you think anyone is calling for Beathard? The arm is attractive because of the lack of production that has existed in that area with results we have available.
 
mrolympia said:
Ferentz/GD is as much the offenses biggest obstacle as the 11 guys across the field from them. Iowa has the horses this year, they can have a 450 ypg/ 35+ ppg offense if they want. Kirk/GD just has to quit playing it uber safe. That's what I've noticed from the first two games anyway. This is not a year where the defense HAS to carry the offense like in year's past.
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The defense isn't going to carry the team this year. And Ferentz doesn't want a high powered offense.
 
PCHawk said:
It's strange to combine an offense who's main goal is to win field position with a defense that is willing to give up field position with 12 play drives in hopes that the other team shoots itself in the foot.
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That defense was Norm's defense, and I agree with that. Phil's defense is different. Phil has corners that challenge receivers. Norm's pass defense came from the pass rush of the front four of the defensive line.
 
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Somebody's gotta ask ferentz why short passes are the best play so many times. And theoretically why short passes are a strategic advantage.... and hope you get an answer.
 
HomerChampless said:
That defense was Norm's defense, and I agree with that. Phil's defense is different. Phil has corners that challenge receivers. Norm's pass defense came from the pass rush of the front four of the defensive line.
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I agree. I think if Norm was as aggressive as Phil is, our defenses would have been some of the best in the nation. And by best I mean best at getting off the field quickly to get your offense back out there.
 
Some reason people around here don't think the coaches understand where players are at in their development. I think it is fairly obvious that the coaches see the upside of CJB, as they talked about wanting him in the game last spring (even though they had a successful returning starter). They then talked about getting him in games during fall camp (even though they said JR was distancing himself from CJB). Then in game two they got him in for a series.

To me it is obvious that the coaches want to see what he can do in a game, even though he hasn't overtaken JR in practice. I don't believe for one second that KF or GD would have this guy on the bench if he were overtaking JR in practice.....especially considering how they have gone out of the way to get him both in the conversation and the game when they say he has not even come close to unseating JR.
 
deanvogs said:
Some reason people around here don't think the coaches understand where players are at in their development. I think it is fairly obvious that the coaches see the upside of CJB, as they talked about wanting him in the game last spring (even though they had a successful returning starter). They then talked about getting him in games during fall camp (even though they said JR was distancing himself from CJB). Then in game two they got him in for a series.

To me it is obvious that the coaches want to see what he can do in a game, even though he hasn't overtaken JR in practice. I don't believe for one second that KF or GD would have this guy on the bench if he were overtaking JR in practice.....especially considering how they have gone out of the way to get him both in the conversation and the game when they say he has not even come close to unseating JR.
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I think the coaches understand where players are in there development. I just don't know how well they process that information. Some coaches might see the exact same thing and go with the other player. It's obviously pretty close since Beathard got in the game.
 
The most frustrating thing with the offense is that this is Iowa's most talented group of WR's in a long time and they continue to throw short passes. I understand going short now and then is OK and that YAC is important when you do that but it's not working. Iowa needs to get the ball downfield more and scrap the horizontal passing game because they are wasting quality WR's (and TE's for that matter) under the current scheme.
 
racerhawk said:
I was frustrated with Rudock at times last week, but you know what?

We had horrible FG kicking, two bad fumbles, a crappy run game, and YES, he did look tentative and miss receivers deep. Having said that, he engineered drives that scored two TDs in less than three minutes. Last year they beat Michigan in a close game, and he threw a nice TD pass in OT to beat NW last year. He looked good v. Nebby last year when he was in there.

The guy wins. If he keeps winning, I'm okay with him in there. It can be frustrating at times, but I bet his teammates have confidence in him. I sit right next to the field at Kinnick, and it's the players' confidence in him that matters. I bet they're just fine with him right now.
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That's true, when the chips were down Rudock came through big-time and that's been rare. I still would like to see Beathard get a couple series a game though. He throws a nice intermediate/deep pass and we seem to run the ball pretty well when he's in there.
 
JonDMiller said:
Well, I've chatted with the horse, and other horses in the race, as well as about five other players on that team. I feel comfortable in what I have been saying on this for 13 years ;)
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I feel comfortable with it, too! :)

He was too good to keep off the field, not good/ready enough to stay on it full-time.
 
hwk23 said:
That's true, when the chips were down Rudock came through big-time and that's been rare. I still would like to see Beathard get a couple series a game though. He throws a nice intermediate/deep pass and we seem to run the ball pretty well when he's in there.
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I would definitely like to see CJB get a few series each game. But, PART of me wonders whether it is unnecessary injury exposure. Not sure if Wiegers is "official" #3, but I guess if we HAD to take the redshirt off him, so be it. I just don't like the idea of a #1 QB having to be "extra cautious" because #2 isn't available. Then again, if #1 becomes unavailable, #2 doesn't face the same thing since he is (legitimately) trying to play well enough to STAY on the field if/when #1 becomes available again.

But that's football :)
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
I would definitely like to see CJB get a few series each game. But, PART of me wonders whether it is unnecessary injury exposure. Not sure if Wiegers is "official" #3, but I guess if we HAD to take the redshirt off him, so be it. I just don't like the idea of a #1 QB having to be "extra cautious" because #2 isn't available. Then again, if #1 becomes unavailable, #2 doesn't face the same thing since he is (legitimately) trying to play well enough to STAY on the field if/when #1 becomes available again.

But that's football :)
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Great take there Belichek, maybe you should pass your football "knowledge" on to the coaching staff, I'm sure they could really use a guy who can tell them hey playing someone gives them a higher chance of getting hurt than sitting on the bench.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
Nothing screams "expertise" like fast-forwarding through a replay on BTN2Go.
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Nothing screams "fool" more than someone making a smart*ss comment without researching what they are responding to, first. I'll help you out, Bob:

Qtr 1: 4:23 mark game clock.

Qtr 2: 11:33 mark game clock.
Qtr 2: 9:26 mark game clock.

Qtr 3: 00:13 mark game clock.

Qtr 4: 14:40 mark game clock.
Qtr 4: 7:47 mark game clock.
Qtr 4: 5:50 mark game clock.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
I just used btn2go to re-watch the game. I fast-forwarded through all of Iowa's offensive plays. I need to say that the body language of the receiving group (WR's & TE's) showed frustration for much of the game. JR missed badly on 4 deep balls (2 under and 2 over throws.)
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As I have said in other threads, Jake reminds me most of Jeff Garcia. I also said, if he doesn't watch it at least one certain receiver is likely to go T.O. on him.

Here is a quote from T.O. on Garcia.

On HBO's "Inside the NFL", Owens said he would have posted better statistics in San Francisco if he had played with a strong-armed quarterback like his new Philadelphia teammate, Donovan McNabb.
"He (Garcia) threw the ball behind me, out of bounds," Owens said. "I left a lot of touchdowns on the field throughout the last two or three years."

I saw the same body language emerging from the receivers over the last two games.
 
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