From the glass half full side it took Iowa playing terribly for ISU to win by 3 with a last minute 54 yard FG.. So either Iowas D is pretty dang good again and or ISU isn't what they are all cracked up to be either.
So 2 full games in and offensively neither were any better then what we've seen the last handful of yrs going back to BFs last couple yrs. Neither MG or Lester impressed me at all. Lesters game plan has zero aggression to it. He doesn't try to stretch the field till it's too late. MG is a deer in the headlights out there. He holds the ball too long and doesn't seem to have full confidence in what he's doing. Combination of the stage being too big and it being his first yr in the system I suppose. It's what you run into when you go renting QBs for 1 yr especially from FCS level.
The first two possessions of the game Iowa went run, run, pass, punt. The 3rd possession they actually got a 1st down before taking a sack and punting. In the first Q Iowa ran 12 snaps 3 possessions with 3 punts and got down 6-0. To me it literally starts there. They played with zero aggression. Zero intention of trying to move the ball. They lined up to play in a phone booth and made themselves predictable and easy to defend like always.
Iowa had 2 out of 10 possessions that I'd describe as solid all game long that ended in 10 pts which doesn't cut it obviously. I don't see how an OC or HC can look at that and say that's succeeding any goals they may have had before the game. That wasn't any west coast offense that I watched. It was the same ole same ole double TE run right run left with a little QB option/slow mesh worked in the 2nd half.
There was so much talk about how good the WRs are and how many of them they have... Well I'm still looking. Wetjen was terrible. He shoulda been benched frankly. Yet I kept seeing him out there. Phillips is just so small he looks like a midget out there. Talk about a small target that they don't seem to know how to use. I'm fine with him playing but good grief you can't use him like you would RVZ and expect similar results. It looks to me like the WR room is a total shit show to me still and I'm sure it'll be blamed on RVZ and Buie being hurt but we know it goes beyond that.
The RBs didn't look good till the 2nd half once they had ISU softened up some and Patterson ran hard. I don't exactly blame Washington jr or Williams much for that they didn't have anywhere to go. I don't think Kaleb Johnson woulda done much better. Again you can't let a defense just play you in a phone booth like that for 2/3rds of the game and expect any kind of success. They put too much on the OL by doing that and it's not fair to them and it just doesn't work against decent teams.
So I'm not expecting any magical season the rest of the way based on what we've seen. We aren't going 10-2 or 9-3. The absolute ceiling is 8-4 and even that might be a pipe dream. I'll be happy to eat my words if I'm wrong. I don't think I'm a prophet if I'm right though it looks pretty obvious that 6-7 wins is what's likely. I wonder how the fans are going to digest this if the season continues like this.
So 2 full games in and offensively neither were any better then what we've seen the last handful of yrs going back to BFs last couple yrs. Neither MG or Lester impressed me at all. Lesters game plan has zero aggression to it. He doesn't try to stretch the field till it's too late. MG is a deer in the headlights out there. He holds the ball too long and doesn't seem to have full confidence in what he's doing. Combination of the stage being too big and it being his first yr in the system I suppose. It's what you run into when you go renting QBs for 1 yr especially from FCS level.
The first two possessions of the game Iowa went run, run, pass, punt. The 3rd possession they actually got a 1st down before taking a sack and punting. In the first Q Iowa ran 12 snaps 3 possessions with 3 punts and got down 6-0. To me it literally starts there. They played with zero aggression. Zero intention of trying to move the ball. They lined up to play in a phone booth and made themselves predictable and easy to defend like always.
Iowa had 2 out of 10 possessions that I'd describe as solid all game long that ended in 10 pts which doesn't cut it obviously. I don't see how an OC or HC can look at that and say that's succeeding any goals they may have had before the game. That wasn't any west coast offense that I watched. It was the same ole same ole double TE run right run left with a little QB option/slow mesh worked in the 2nd half.
There was so much talk about how good the WRs are and how many of them they have... Well I'm still looking. Wetjen was terrible. He shoulda been benched frankly. Yet I kept seeing him out there. Phillips is just so small he looks like a midget out there. Talk about a small target that they don't seem to know how to use. I'm fine with him playing but good grief you can't use him like you would RVZ and expect similar results. It looks to me like the WR room is a total shit show to me still and I'm sure it'll be blamed on RVZ and Buie being hurt but we know it goes beyond that.
The RBs didn't look good till the 2nd half once they had ISU softened up some and Patterson ran hard. I don't exactly blame Washington jr or Williams much for that they didn't have anywhere to go. I don't think Kaleb Johnson woulda done much better. Again you can't let a defense just play you in a phone booth like that for 2/3rds of the game and expect any kind of success. They put too much on the OL by doing that and it's not fair to them and it just doesn't work against decent teams.
So I'm not expecting any magical season the rest of the way based on what we've seen. We aren't going 10-2 or 9-3. The absolute ceiling is 8-4 and even that might be a pipe dream. I'll be happy to eat my words if I'm wrong. I don't think I'm a prophet if I'm right though it looks pretty obvious that 6-7 wins is what's likely. I wonder how the fans are going to digest this if the season continues like this.
