Northwestern: yikes

[Gibsonian]

Yeah yikes, the Wildcats are scary stuff for us, like a mouse is to an elephant. But sometimes in his haste to flee the elephant squashes the mouse and the fear is gone, if only for a short while.

We gotta chance this Saturday, as we do in nearly all Saturdays. I'm saying we win a close one. We're due for a Dr Jekkyl I believe. The loss and the way they lost affected the players tremendously and it was reflected in how they responded in their minds and in their preparation this past week. Coaches might've even learned something too, believe it or not.

In this thread my opinion matters the most so I guess that is that. Go Hawks, win one for the Gibber!

 

[HawkeyeMcNutt]

After watching the fourth quarter replay of the Northwestern-Michigan game I fear that the Hawks may get diced up this weekend.

As much as I'd like to see the Hawks slap Northwestern I do not think that is likely. Northwestern is FAST on both sides of the ball, and Iowa is not. Northwestern is deadly with the 5-10 yard pass plays and we all know how well Iowa defends the short pass.

Sadly, I see this one ending 34-10 in Northwestern's favor unless the Iowa coaching staff draws up a great game plan, in which case I will be pleasantly surprised and rejoicing with the rest of Hawkeye Nation in the upset of Iowa's Goliath.

Northwestern's defense ranks worst in the Big Ten.

 

[JHHawk]

I watched the whole Michigan-NW game,and NW is still the same very efficient offensive machine. Just like they were vs the Illini. They lost to Army,but then got DiNardo and a couple of other starters back from injury and have played two undefeated teams very close. Iowa is not better than Michigan or Illinois...so they need to play very well to get this win.

Be ready to see NW move the ball a lot,especially between the 20's...not much can be done, as Peras was 32 of 44 for 331 yds vs the vaunted attacking agressive new Michigan defense. So,there is no guaranteed remedy vs this NW passing attack.

Iowa has to mix it up,and try to keep Persa off-balance. Some blitzing,some soft coverage, some in between. Iowa needs to win the turnover battle, and score tds..more than 30 pts.

 

[NewMexHawk]

If the coaching staff allows our offense to open up. Since losing, the staff might even get MORE conservative than before, which will ensure a loss. But, hey, we might only lose by less than seven so Iowa fans can throw that stat around to show how good Iowa has been. In my book, a loss is a loss, regardless of how many points you lose by.

 

[mbchawk]

Coaches might've even learned something too, believe it or not. Not gonna happen with this staff. Its always the same except when they have no choice....see Pitt game.

 

[Johnnyhawkeye]

The officials won't overlook the QB getting his helmet ripped off if its Iowa and not Michigan doing it.

How in the world did they get away with that? oh yeah, there Michigan.

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

I think we need to be prepared for a frustrating game (as fans) from the standpoint of watching Northwestern complete a lot of short passes. I expect their qb to fling it at least 35 times ... Hopefully our bend but don't break approach will work this game.

 

[DTF]

Yeah we should just wait til the game is over to talk about it. Never understood these comments. This is a message board, they're full of opinion. Some good (Mine) some not so good (The OP). Some in jest (see previous sentence)

My point isn't "why predict the game at all?", but just that we've seen we can't predict what Iowa will do because you never know what team will show up. Will it be the team that scores at will, or will it be the team that is too easy to predict? I guess my point is that it's MY OPINION (clearly right) that Jekyll or Hyde could show up, and you see that in people's predictions. Then people plead their cases to each other because their predictions are polar opposites, when neither is wrong because Iowa hasn't shown much consistency yet. I guess I'm speaking more to the debates people get into, not the predictions themselves.

 

[Cover3]

I think we need to be prepared for a frustrating game (as fans) from the standpoint of watching Northwestern complete a lot of short passes. I expect their qb to fling it at least 35 times ... Hopefully our bend but don't break approach will work this game.

Yeah. I just looked up the box scores from our last six NW games on hawkeyesports.com and here are the number of offensive snaps in those games by each team:

2010: NW 82, IA 71-where the Hawks ran 16 plays on their hurried last drive
2009: NW 76, IA 63
2008: NW 79, IA 61
2007: NW 88, IA 70
2006: NW 70, IA 59
2005: NW 82, IA 81

Every year, save for 2005 (where we completely dominated the first half), they've run 11-15 more plays than us. That's 4-5 series of downs. In 2007, we forced three turnovers, which I think we need to do some more of this year to get our offense equal time on the field. I think our guys are good enough (esp. Prater and Hyde) to not get burned deep EVERY time we blitz. I would gladly trade a few big plays for them for some sacks and TOs.