Odds to Win the Big10

[hawkeyebob62]

From the SE corner of the grandstands Wadley's TD run looked almost like a draw with a slight delay but from that replay the handoff happened pretty quick. But Stanley looked like he was in a pass drop motion rather than pivoting to handoff so give him kudos to Stanley to make it look like pass.

That was what I thought, too, but when watching again, it's pretty clear it was a simple zone play in which, like the Minny game last year, guy(s) was(were) out of position and Wadley worked it.

 

[CP87]

Where I feel less than confident is with the same old issue plaguing Iowa football, the offense. With KF style of football, our defense just gets gassed every single game and it comes down to a lucky bounce, a long Wadley run, or who knows what else for us to get the win. Even in our 12-0 season, every game was a heart attack in the Big10

In 2015, I believe Iowa was among the leading teams in the nation in "game control" (see this link for murky description; sorry, couldn't find a better link). So while they didn't blow many out in B1G play, they dominated win probability in almost all games. They had a 2-score lead (more than 8 points) for most of the second half of almost all games. So while they played close, I would not describe them as heart-attack games.

To vork22's point above about winning the west being delusional without a favorable schedule: 2009's schedule was a meat-grinder, likely worse than this season's. Yet that could have very well been a conference champion without the untimely injury to our starting QB. And yes, there was plenty of luck along the way, but something like happening is not unprecedented.

 

[IndianaHawk]

After Saturday's Notre Dame game I am not that worried about MSU. However, if Iowa doesn't get past MSU. Forget about winning the West.

MSU racked up a lot of yards. Only lost because of -3 in turnovers. That can be cleaned up.

 

[uihawk82]

In 2015, I believe Iowa was among the leading teams in the nation in "game control" (see this link for murky description; sorry, couldn't find a better link). So while they didn't blow many out in B1G play, they dominated win probability in almost all games. They had a 2-score lead (more than 8 points) for most of the second half of almost all games. So while they played close, I would not describe them as heart-attack games.

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Less than a 3 score lead with KF in the second half is nerve wracking. I was at jNW in 2005 when we lost a 13 point lead in less than 2 minutes even though the hawks had a 4-1 yardage ratio up to that time. They misused the clock at end of first half which came back to haunt them, etc etc. We have all seen this rodeo of not being able to get a first down to get the win.