Northwestern

[uihawk82]

Brian's red zone play calling is as follows:

"Keith, get your leg warmed up!"

I have seen iowa play 5 or so times in evanston and that wind in and off the lake can be really tough. we need to run the ball for TDs

 

[hawkeyes87]

when you look at NW schedule it's like a murderer's row.

I'm not disagreeing w/ your overall point, but NW also only put up 10 at Nebraska a couple weeks ago.

In their other B1G games Nebby has given up 38, 48, & 34.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

Such an important game. Win it, and we head into the bye with a legit chance to win the West.

Lose it and we hope we get another win or two to qualify for some who cares bowl.

Our MVP, Keith Duncan, may need 4 field goals again to win this one.

Everything you said is truth ... except the part about "legit" chance. Marginal - on paper - is more like it.

Wisconsin, off a bye (vs Iowa off a bye?), with time to regroup and prepare, will shut Iowa down in Madison and cruise through the rest of the West. I'll be shocked if Iowa scores more than 10 points and optimistically expect 2 field goals.

This offense is a pathetic mess and it ain't gonna get fixed this regular season.

 

[SCHawkeye2]

The good news....we know whats coming.The NW defense will commit 8 to stopping the run, with LB's blitzing the gaps.

The bad news..last year we knew that D was coming from NW but had no offensive plan to overcome it (64 yds rushing).

The bad, bad news....Thus far this year both MI and PSU shut down the IA offense with a similar tactic.

Does BF have an answer for this?

 

[HawkeyeDenis]

I'm not disagreeing w/ your overall point, but NW also only put up 10 at Nebraska a couple weeks ago.

In their other B1G games Nebby has given up 38, 48, & 34.

I don't count Nebby as anyone's big game. The games I was referring to Away game against Stanford then Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

 

[Hawk1960]

Northwestern has been underachieving all year, to say the least. Their QBs combined have only 2 passing TDs and 10 INTs. I hope I am wrong, but they are due to snap out of it and overachieve at some point ... it's what they normally do.

 

[trj]

Guilty as charged.

I bought into the Hunter Johnson hype without letting it play out.

 

[Northside Hawk]

How about this? Northwestern had a lot of things fall into place for them last year and it was due to even out.

They also forced an insane amount of turnovers last year, the way we sometimes do in our overachieving years, and that is not sustainable year after year.

Fitz is going to have to pull out all his magic to win this one. Not saying he can't, given the history of the series, but I don't see any Austin Carr, Justin Jackson, Clayton Thorson or even Jon Vitale out there.

 

[koralakers]

Fitz will rally his troops. It'll be a fight to the end. I predict a very ugly game. You play like your competition

Yep. Fitz’s Super Bowl. He out-Ferentzs Ferentz every time. His own personal Whopping Boy

 

[HawkeyeDenis]

This could be another case on paper where Iowa is better than Northwestern at all phases of the game yet it turns into a last minute score.

 

[clownkilla]

Their red zone efficiency was horrible. This game shouldn't have been close. Iowa dominated and settled for field goals.

That's what leads me to believe that there is still hope for a strong finish this season. A couple better play calls/execution and who knows...our boys keep putting in the work, it's going to pay dividends. It's all still in front of us! We may be down but we ain't out.

 

[clownkilla]

Fitzgerald: "Looking at film Iowa will do A and we can stop it by doing B. ..... But...they might start to figure that out and do something we can't predict."

Kirk:

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

The key is Bowser. He's back now, and one of the more underrated players in the league. If we keep him from grinding out big yardage, we should win. We need our LBs and Koerner to have solid gap discipline, otherwise he'll just keep the chains moving.

 

[MWS604]

Unfortunately against NW Iowa cannot be "Iowa. Fitz will have his defense well prepared and ready to take away what we normally try and do. Iowa absolutely needs to break tendencies. They need to pass to set-up the run. They need to run straight at NW and avoid the stretch play where their defense can shoot gaps and disrupt plays. They need to take deep shots in the middle of the field early to loosen the box. The longer the score stays close the better the chance of NW wining. This is game that Iowa should without a doubt win which is exactly why I am nervous because typically those games are where they have fallen flat

#1 issue is that every B1G team knows how to beat the Hawkeye zone blocking scheme. Even if the coaches keep harping about the "cleaning up" the "execution" issues, use it sparingly on running downs and I think we could see better production.

 

[HawkeyeDenis]

That's what leads me to believe that there is still hope for a strong finish this season. A couple better play calls/execution and who knows...our boys keep putting in the work, it's going to pay dividends. It's all still in front of us! We may be down but we ain't out.

I hope your right. Iowa can still have a great year if they win out. Of course right now it seems an insurmountable task, but Iowa has surprised us before.