Observations- and an apology to KOK

[hawkdrummer1]

A few observations (or rather, opinions)

-a number of mistakes that should be "coached out". At times a very undisciplined team. For example, the entire D overpursuing in a bunch on that play early in the 1st half. Looked like a 3rd grade soccer team. Contain busted...a lot.

-Don't continue to tell me how good our linebackers are. They're not. Most of those runs up the middle..and QB scrambles fall right at the feet of the linebackers. Lousy pursuit, bad angles, missed reads.

-I think we all owe Ken O'Keefe an apology. We now know it was the head man. Some of the inexplicable play calling that killed drives...was eerily familiar. And the running plays into the short side of the field that almost never yield a gain... still there. So perhaps it wasn't Ken after all.

-I haven't seen so many runs between the tackles since Michigan-OSU circa 1973.

-I think we saw the Defensive line begin to find itself. Let's hope so.

-KFz will see his support continue to fade if this continues. The predictable patterns..the flat feet against aggressive offenses...and the absolute refusal to play AGGRESIVE. A guy that gets this kind of money and this kind of support from the fans (40,000 at a road game!) needs to deliver more.

It's said that teams improve the most between game 1 and game 2. This team had better, or we're gonna lose by 20.

 

[SpiderRico]

A few observations (or rather, opinions)

-a number of mistakes that should be "coached out". At times a very undisciplined team. For example, the entire D overpursuing in a bunch on that play early in the 1st half. Looked like a 4th grade soccer game. Contain busted...a lot.

-Don't continue to tell me how good our linebackers are. They're not. Most of those runs up the middle..and QB scrambles fall right at the feet of the linebackers. Lousy pursuit, bad angles, missed reads.

-I think we all owe Ken O'Keefe an apology. We now know it was the head man. Some of the inexplicable play calling that killed drives...was eerily familiar. And the running plays into the short side of the field that almost never yield a gain... still there. So perhaps it wasn't Ken after all.

-I haven't seen so many runs between the tackles since Michigan-OSU circa 1973.

-I think we saw the Defensive line begin to find itself. Let's hope so. Otherwise we lose by 20 next week.

-KFz will see his support continue to fade if this continues. The predictable patterns..the flat feet against aggressive offenses...and the absolute refusal to play AGGRESIVE.

It's said that teams improve the most between game 1 and game 2. This team had better.

We ran more 5 wide sets, 3-1-1 sets, went for it on fourth inside the 10, threw it with less than 2 mins left in the half....etc,etc. it aint the play calling....its the decision making of the QB....

 

[Sparky]

A few observations (or rather, opinions)-a number of mistakes that should be "coached out=". At times a very undisciplined team. For example, the entire D overpursuing in a bunch on that play early in the 1st half. Looked like a 3rd grade soccer team. Contain busted...a lot.-Don't continue to tell me how good our linebackers are. They're not. Most of those runs up the middle..and QB scrambles fall right at the feet of the linebackers. Lousy pursuit, bad angles, missed reads.-I think we all owe Ken O'Keefe an apology. We now know it was the head man. Some of the inexplicable play calling that killed drives...was eerily familiar. And the running plays into the short side of the field that almost never yield a gain... still there. So perhaps it wasn't Ken after all. -I haven't seen so many runs between the tackles since Michigan-OSU circa 1973.-I think we saw the Defensive line begin to find itself. Let's hope so. -KFz will see his support continue to fade if this continues. The predictable patterns..the flat feet against aggressive offenses...and the absolute refusal to play AGGRESIVE. A guy that gets this kind of money and this kind of support from the fans (40,000 at a road game!) needs to deliver more.It's said that teams improve the most between game 1 and game 2. This team had better, or we're gonna lose by 20.

=

blah blah blah...first game of season and you're already whining

 

[olivecourt]

A few observations (or rather, opinions)

-a number of mistakes that should be "coached out". At times a very undisciplined team. For example, the entire D overpursuing in a bunch on that play early in the 1st half. Looked like a 4th grade soccer game. Contain busted...a lot.

-Don't continue to tell me how good our linebackers are. They're not. Most of those runs up the middle..and QB scrambles fall right at the feet of the linebackers. Lousy pursuit, bad angles, missed reads.

-I think we all owe Ken O'Keefe an apology. We now know it was the head man. Some of the inexplicable play calling that killed drives...was eerily familiar. And the running plays into the short side of the field that almost never yield a gain... still there. So perhaps it wasn't Ken after all.

-I haven't seen so many runs between the tackles since Michigan-OSU circa 1973.

-I think we saw the Defensive line begin to find itself. Let's hope so. Otherwise we lose by 20 next week.

-KFz will see his support continue to fade if this continues. The predictable patterns..the flat feet against aggressive offenses...and the absolute refusal to play AGGRESIVE.

It's said that teams improve the most between game 1 and game 2. This team had better.

What will it take to make some of you happy? We went no huddle. We went shotgun. We went empty backfield. We had five wide. JVB threw 34 times. We went for a 4th down and made it. How much more aggressive do you want to be?

The reality is that the players have to make the plays. If you want to say KF has done a bad job recruiting or developing players, and that we should never be in a dogfight with a MAC team, that's OK. Make your argument. But this "KF is too conservative" meme is just lazy thinking. There were a lot of problems today. Lack of aggression is not one of them.

 

[rjbaustian]

^ THIS!

 

[bphawkeye]

QB did not execute! that is all!

 

[ThunderHawk]

JVB = Jake the Flake. The sooner you guys accept this, the sooner you'll see things with clarity.

This is gonna be a rough season. Might as well use it to break in a QB with some upside.

 

[olivecourt]

JVB = Jake the Flake. The sooner you guys accept this, the sooner you'll see things with clarity.

This is gonna be a rough season. Might as well use it to break in a QB with some upside.

3,000+ yards. 25 TDs. 7 INTs.

Man, some of these threads are going to be fun to bump later in the year.

 

[ThunderHawk]

3,000+ yards. 25 TDs. 7 INTs.

Man, some of these threads are going to be fun to bump later in the year.

Nice stats. What was our record last season, and how did that stellar QB perform in the 4th quarter with the game on the line in games not involving Pitt?

Ouch.

 

[pmchawk]

Only got to listen to a little over 3/4 of the game. From what I heard on the from the only station I could get (northern Illinois station), because the horrible sports affiliate Iowa has refuses to let people stream the game anywhere, Iowa needs to stop saying bullies of the big 10 b/c you could say that maybe 2 years since 2003, online as a whole has been slightly above avg at best the rest for those years. Oline couldn't protect jvb, only TEs are allowed to go vertical in the passing game but not past 10 yards. D was ok but not great against an in experienced offense. If our passing game is only going to be e/w all year I hope kf is willing to walk away from GD since the job will have to be put back up for hire at the end of the year.

 

[Igothawked]

A few observations (or rather, opinions)-a number of mistakes that should be "coached out=". At times a very undisciplined team. For example, the entire D overpursuing in a bunch on that play early in the 1st half. Looked like a 4th grade soccer game. Contain busted...a lot.-Don't continue to tell me how good our linebackers are. They're not. Most of those runs up the middle..and QB scrambles fall right at the feet of the linebackers. Lousy pursuit, bad angles, missed reads.-I think we all owe Ken O'Keefe an apology. We now know it was the head man. Some of the inexplicable play calling that killed drives...was eerily familiar. And the running plays into the short side of the field that almost never yield a gain... still there. So perhaps it wasn't Ken after all. -I haven't seen so many runs between the tackles since Michigan-OSU circa 1973.-I think we saw the Defensive line begin to find itself. Let's hope so. Otherwise we lose by 20 next week.-KFz will see his support continue to fade if this continues. The predictable patterns..the flat feet against aggressive offenses...and the absolute refusal to play AGGRESIVE.It's said that teams improve the most between game 1 and game 2. This team had better.

What will it take to make some of you happy? We went no huddle. We went shotgun. We went empty backfield. We had five wide. JVB threw 34 times. We went for a 4th down and made it. How much more aggressive do you want to be?The reality is that the players have to make the plays. If you want to say KF has done a bad job recruiting or developing players, and that we should never be in a dogfight with a MAC team, that's OK. Make your argument. But this="KF is too conservative=" meme is just lazy thinking. There were a lot of problems today. Lack of aggression is not one of them.

=

I agree to some extent. However some of the teams agressiveness was due to the fact they were losing to a MAC team late in the 4th quarter.
One thing that really got me was again the clock management issue. JVB made two horrible decisions in the 1st half 2 minute drill. They wasted two TOs in the 1st half and the 2nd TO in the 2nd half was mind blowingly dumb. They had to call a timeout after an on-field timeout. I wonder if that is a situation where Kirk hears the play call and gets on the headset and says "he!! no" and then the scramble is on and the TO then gets called. I dont know, its strange and no different than its ever been.

 

[imported_ankle23]

3,000+ yards. 25 TDs. 7 INTs.

Man, some of these threads are going to be fun to bump later in the year.

posted same earlier in response to some moron.

it must be another iowa football season if the typical morons are out moaning and whining about the same old topics. hokdrummer being a good example of such.

yeah, 25/7, horrible.

blitz! vanilla! predictable! blitz! aggressive! passive! blitz!

norm and kok took a lot of heat - - wonder how soon the hok fan will find their new 'scapegoats'....

 

[ChosenChildren]

We won against a very good team with an excellent, speedy defense. We won after trailing by 8 pts in the 4th qtr. I'm proud of this team.

Hang in there; we'll get better

 

[DDThompson]

Teams from the MAC are not "very good teams". That's why they're in the MAC.

I'm betting this excellent, speedy defense gives up more than 18 points to half the teams in the MAC.

But, yeah. "We'll" get better.

 

[DJL]

Teams from the MAC are not "very good teams". That's why they're in the MAC.

I'm betting this excellent, speedy defense gives up more than 18 points to half the teams in the MAC.

But, yeah. "We'll" get better.

I was very unimpressed by the passing game today, but, they had an experienced defense, and an experienced defense is usually ahead of the offense, especially an inexerienced offense ini a new system, early in the year. I am not ready to abandon all hope just yet.

 

[HawkfaninWA]

I just rewatched the game and couple of thoughts.

1. N. Illinois IS a good football team and they will win quite a few games this year which will help our SOS.

2. Was nice to see the offense move the ball (and they had some great flashes of "smoothness"). The problem was, most of it was between the 20's.

3. JVB better figure out blitzes. Reminded me of JC at times.

4. Bullock looked great. If he keeps it up, we'll be looking at a nice run package. Especially if Garmon comes along more.

5. Props to Weinke. Guy switches to punter to help out the team and look what he does . . . basically wins the game on special teams with Castillo pinning them deep.

6. Our D line has a ways to go. Mobile QB's continue to give our D fits (see Persa . . . for that matter most NW QB's for the last few years).

7. What was up with Hyde? Got burned a few times.

8. If we want to win games this year, we need to push the double TE sets ala New England Patriots style. There are very few defenses that can shut down CJ and Derby.

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

I just watched the replay of the game now that my emotions are a little more settled. For the most part, the defense did a good job (with the exception of the td run by their qb). The offensive line did not do a good job of keeping their blocks. Kept rewinding some of the plays and too many times saw our linemen standing around while the NIU defenders collapsed on Vandy.

The line opened up some decent holes but the breakdown of pass protection surprised me the most. ISU has to be salivating a bit because we gave them several reasons to be feeling positive about coming into Kinnick next week and winning.

Vandy looked shaky. Seemed to focused on one receiver and panicked when that receiver was not open. Could go on and on ... I know we all watched the same game.

On the positive side, I did like how we mixed it up a little more on offense. It was the execution, not the play calling. The OLine has got to tighten up or next week could be a long day for the Iowa offense.

The D tightened up after giving up the long run. So it was good to see us makes the stops when we needed them. Our special teams looked pretty good as well. Liked the fact we did not give up any long returns. And Meyer hit a heck of a tough field goal when the wind was really stirring up.

We will see a better Iowa team next week. Will it be good enough to beat Iowa State? If the game was in Ames I would say our chances would not be very good. At home, I am hoping we get out of Kinnick with a win.

Not a pretty performance whatsoever, but a win is a win. And winning by 1 point is better than losing by 1 point. I think we will get on track. With new schemes and new players it will take a few weeks to get going. For players to understand their roles, etc.

Kudos to the Hawk fans in attendance. Loved the shots of the crowd and seeing Hawk fans take over the stadium. It was a tough game to watch but let's hope our coaches are able to do a lot of "coaching" this next week and correct the execution.

 

[DJL]

I saw Hamilton in there today too, but I don't remember Vandy throwing to him. We need to figure out how to get these big talented guys the ball.

 

[Hawkstrat]

We won against a very good team with an excellent, speedy defense.

NIU doesn't have a good defense. Look at some of their performances last year.

Not necessarily regarding your post, but someone mentioned that Iowa wasn't conservative today, and to prove that they pointed out how often Iowa threw the ball and lined up in the shotgun. While those are both true, I don't know if I would call throwing the ball four yards down the field out of the shotgun anymore aggressive than KOK.

 

[dawaynerdawg]

I could have told you that. It does not matter who our OC is Kirk is in total control of the offense. We should just not even have an offensive cord. position.