Miller: Little Things, Big Loss

"Where Iowa used to be the team to exploit special teams weaknesses, now Wisconsin notices “something on film” as Bielema told me regarding his call to go for the fake punt. That something came in Iowa’s season opening a game, a blowout win, where the Eastern Illinois Panthers went for it on fourth down on a fake punt."


I said the exact same thing to some wisky fans that I was talking to after the game, BB pulled that right out of the EIU game playbook. It was incredibly maddening to watch.
 
I'm almost afraid of going to the Rose Bowl. How many points could Oregon or Boise St. hang on us? 45? Hopefully we could be matched up with a beatable opponent like last year and GT.
 
albertyoungisgood said:
I'm almost afraid of going to the Rose Bowl. How many points could Oregon or Boise St. hang on us? 45? Hopefully we could be matched up with a beatable opponent like last year and GT.
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Oregon, Easily 60+. I just wish for once we could experience what they have out there here. How awesome would it be to have a team that does what oregon does and to have a coach that isnt a nice guy and goes for it on 4th and million while up 40 just because he can. It makes the games fun and it brings attention to your team.


*Note THIS IS NOT A POST REQUESTING THAT ANY COACHES BE FIRED*
 
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Michigan State has had 2 big fake punts this year too. I wonder if that will come into play next week.
 
we just need to execute, Kirk's teams get better as the year rolls along, it may not be what we wanted, but even big schools rarely live up to expectations. Would you trade places with a 3-loss Florida or 3-loss Texas team right now (virtually eliminated from their conference title). It is just one loss, and by one point! sickening i know, but we can still win the big ten, i say this every year, we are very fortunate that our team does not abandon ship like the fan base does so rapidly. This team is a 9 or 10 win team, just be patient our best is yet to come.

^Florida and Texas started the year ahead of us in the rankings too. Imagine that :rolleyes:
 
hawkfaninTX said:
we just need to execute, Kirk's teams get better as the year rolls along, it may not be what we wanted, but even big schools rarely live up to expectations. Would you trade places with a 3-loss Florida or 3-loss Texas team right now (virtually eliminated from their conference title). It is just one loss, and by one point! sickening i know, but we can still win the big ten, i say this every year, we are very fortunate that our team does not abandon ship like the fan base does so rapidly. This team is a 9 or 10 win team, just be patient our best is yet to come.
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I don't see it. Our D has gotten worse the last two games (gave up 59 combined points) and special teams continues to be the sore spot. I seem to recall teams like this that bottomed out the middle of the season...2005 and 2006.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
I don't see it. Our D has gotten worse the last two games (gave up 59 combined points) and special teams continues to be the sore spot. I seem to recall teams like this that bottomed out the middle of the season...2005 and 2006.
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we gave up less points, and only 11 more total yards (we also gave up 40 less rush yds) to Wisconsin than what tOSU did? (tOSU also had their own blunders on ST....opening kickoff ring a bell?)

We scored more, and had 60+ more total yards than tOSU. We had a 100 yd rusher, and did not commit any turnovers. I really hate saying it but it came down to schematics and matchups. Equally matched teams, both Brett and Kirk had the same chess pieces, Brett just out coached us. We should know our areas of opportunity before our opponents exploit them. we'll get better. this team is by far too good at flushing losses now. just look at last year (with a backup QB)

tOSU turns around and shuts out Purdue. they are in the same situation- are they going to fizzle out? Their only loss I can see/hope is the Iowa one. Just because they lost to Wisky does not mean their defense is horrible. We are who we are, and we're Iowa g--dam it. Suck it up and prepare for next week, because right now, that is all you can do.
 
Hawkfromnorwalk said:
I don't see it. Our D has gotten worse the last two games (gave up 59 combined points) and special teams continues to be the sore spot. I seem to recall teams like this that bottomed out the middle of the season...2005 and 2006.
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Our D has gotten worse because of LB play. Losing Tarp lost a lot of our toughness back there. LBs are a finesse group now.
 
Sorry, I do believe that one play does win/lose a game. The game is made up of individual plays. No team can run 20 plays at one time. You only run one play at a time. Unless you're Iowa with 12 seconds left.

Each individual play has, of course, varying degrees of effect on the ball game. But each play has a cumulative effect in the game so that an individual play at the end of the game has the perception of being more important.

A PAT is supposed to be a sure thing as an individual play in college football.

Score 31-31.

A 31 yd FG is a 90% chip shot as an individual play in college football. That's 34 before Wisconsin's last TD.

Iowa loves to make their opponent one-dimensional. With a two score lead in the 4th, Wisconsin becomes one-dimensional. That's when Iowa's defense brings the six seconds of hell. Didn't happen.

The devil is in the details and Iowa played like hell on several plays. Hats off to Wisconsin. They made more individual plays than Iowa.
 
Our D has gotten worse because the other teams are exploiting our D's inherent weakness: pass defense. Angerer and Edds "covered" a lot of holes in our pass D with their talent but the sucky Iowa pass cover schemes and secondary athleticism remains. If the line can't get a pass rush, like yesterday,..


Sidenote: is J. Hunter Okay?

Go Hawks! Fix the pass D once and for all.
 
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Over all I think Iowa's defense has been over rated. They are a good defense but not a great defense. In three games this year when they needed to dominate in the fourth quarter they have given up ground and teams have drove down for scores. Arizona, Michigan and now Wisconsin.

Iowa's special teams has been the achilles heal all year but the fouth down pickup on the punt was more the coaches fault than the players. Why did they think Wisconsin was spreading out the punt formation? The extra point kick, center/holder problems are ridiculus. It's basic football execution.
 
Iowa's defense lost the game plain and simple. Wisky did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Uiowa defense is one of the worst in the big ten just face that fact. They will lose 2-3 more games easily because of the worhtless defense.
 
Our defense got picked apart in the second half of Michigan and all day Saturday.

The special teams are lost out there.

Clock management was atrocious....again.

This, from a team laden with seniors and coaches with a lot of seniority. Never thought I'd see it like this this year.
 
Both losses are mostly on a special teams unit that doesn't execute the basics. At AZ it was staying in lanes on kick coverage. Vs Wisconsin it was staying on sides, blocking on PAT, getting the hold down, and defending against the fake punt. If we had our special teams down we would be undefeated this year.
 
Talks about Clayborn crying in the interview room. That loss hurt those guys, BAD. Hopefully they can get past this loss and win out. Hopefully they don't start pointing fingers and have a "F-it" attitude from here on out. I would guess that the character on this team is strong and will remain strong, I just hope we don't see an implosion....
 
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