Offensive Failures Plague Hawkeyes

I didn't expect Iowa to win against Wisconsin but two interceptions inside Iowa's 30 yard line. Ridicules. Jon broke it down very well. Sad to be this inept 9 games into a season.

I have to say the Davis experiment isn't working. Don't know what the limit is with this group of athletes is but I would have to say the coaches aren't even close. Lack of motivation? Focus? Got the cool uniform but don't want to get it dirty? These guys may not be very athletic but they are also not playing to their abilities.
 
Bigtenchamp said:
the unwillingness to run uptempo is Ferentz - I'm not trying to beat you over the head with the idea that's its not Davis but it's always been like this.

And I'm not saying I think Davis is good by any means.
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Absolutely blows my mind that there are still people that refuse to get this.
 
Two weeks ago the problem was the defense not the offense. The uniforms are fine. The last time I was in Kinnick I loved the atmosphere (2009 Michigan). Win and the atmosphere takes care of itself. I like Brian Ferentz but calling out Kinnick stadium atmosphere is lame. He has bigger things to worry about like producing an offensive line that is dominate instead of one that dominates for a couple plays and gets their qb killed an another. Hey Brian you wanna change the atmosphere in Kinnick? Do your job and produce an offensive line that dominates all the time like they did in the first half against OSU.
 
While we're on the subject of coaching how about a positive shout out for Reese Morgan who again is producing a stellar unit especially given the talent he has? Where he coaches we have strength.

To be fair I'm sure some of the play calling was cut back when the QB change occurred especially given the score, but there are major challenges for any play caller when the receivers drop passes, don't run patterns to the first down sticks, we lack a breakaway running threat, and the line isn't creating big holes for the running backs. I don't know what I'd call given that we had problems with the sweep, we couldn't run inside, and the lack of a run threat made the play action less believable. We don't have Peyton back there or Megatron to throw it to.

I also do think Mark is hurt or at the very least is well below 100% by the way we are not using him.

Bottom line is we are not getting the job done and it's frustrating to all of us. There are times when we need to give the others teams defense some credit too. We've faced some pretty decent defenses in the league so far and have really struggled. Purdue, Michigan, and Nebraska still look like winnable games and hope springs eternal. We knew before the year started we had problems at wide receiver, a new QB is always an unknown, and that our running backs all had limitations. Not much has changed. I'd hoped for more out of our o-line and thought that our back-ups there would perform better. Trying to take game day emotion out of the picture we are about where I thought we'd be before it all began and I like you want better. However, it's not like it was with Bob or Frank as our coaches either. At this point let's get to the best bowl possible and get the extra practices in. Lord know we need them.
 
hawks run the same plays a dozens of other teams out there.....I say it's the talent level or lack there of.
 
I'm starting to think the o line is not as good as we all thought, back in the day Iowa could stick any RB in and expect 100 yards. I agree with you all, how in the heck does Iowa look different every week?
Are they trying to fool people? Lol, I don't konw whats going on any more. Next week we will come out all triple option the first half.
 
Yeah those pom poms was a horrible decision. It made the stadium appear to be full Badger fans. Also, how in the heck do the Badger fans get premium seats? I could see if it was 1 or 2 mixed in a crowd but there were groups of them all sitting together and close to the field. This ticks me off because as a Hawk fan I have to shell out a crapload of money in tickets and donations to get that close.
 
ssckelley said:
Yeah those pom poms was a horrible decision. It made the stadium appear to be full Badger fans. Also, how in the heck do the Badger fans get premium seats? I could see if it was 1 or 2 mixed in a crowd but there were groups of them all sitting together and close to the field. This ticks me off because as a Hawk fan I have to shell out a crapload of money in tickets and donations to get that close.
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Exactly what I thought when the game first came on. Whoever made the pom-pom decision is a complete idiot.

I had noticed the same thing about the Bush song being played on third down.. I'm not opposed to this type of thing, but the EXACT SAME SONG on EVERY third down? At least put a little effort into it and pick 2 or 3 different tunes that you can play to mix it up a bit. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who thinks it's lame.

Regarding the offense, not sure what else I can say. Lack of playmakers is a definite. Just compare the 2002 team (or 2008) to this year's team, and there you go. But I also am starting to think that either KF doesn't care much about offense, or just doesn't have a clue about putting a good offense on the field. Don't have the players who "can execute"? Better go out and recruit some! Not holding my breath, though. After 15 years, it's become obvious that it's just not going to happen. Better hope the defense can kick some arse so we can even win 6 or 7 games a season. Otherwise, get ready for a lot more 4-8 types of seasons with the offense our coaches are putting out there.
 
The things that have defined football under Ferentz are good defenses and poor offenses. The defense has always carried our program. His approach is very conservative and boring.

Indiana and NW have fielded excellent offenses that score in bunches.However their defenses have been abysmal and cost them games. Which do you prefer? Exciting high scoring offenses but come up short because the defense sucks. Or Kfs conservative punting is winning hope the dee holds on approach which often results in close losses?

I would prefer one in the middle like Wisconsin.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
Exactly what I thought when the game first came on. Whoever made the pom-pom decision is a complete idiot.

I had noticed the same thing about the Bush song being played on third down.. I'm not opposed to this type of thing, but the EXACT SAME SONG on EVERY third down? At least put a little effort into it and pick 2 or 3 different tunes that you can play to mix it up a bit. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who thinks it's lame.

Regarding the offense, not sure what else I can say. Lack of playmakers is a definite. Just compare the 2002 team (or 2008) to this year's team, and there you go. But I also am starting to think that either KF doesn't care much about offense, or just doesn't have a clue about putting a good offense on the field. Don't have the players who "can execute"? Better go out and recruit some! Not holding my breath, though. After 15 years, it's become obvious that it's just not going to happen. Better hope the defense can kick some arse so we can even win 6 or 7 games a season. Otherwise, get ready for a lot more 4-8 types of seasons with the offense our coaches are putting out there.
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I thought it was pretty funny in the msu/mich game they played the beatles 'let it be' during an official's review. Never would happen at iowa.
 
Our offense is soooo slow and methodical. The players have no chance to get into a rhythm. We ran uptempo against msu and scored 2 quick touchdowns. We rolled out rudock and got him running and I think that helped to get him going.

We see things that work and then we don't see them again because Kirk gets too uncomfortable outside his comfort zone. I can't imagine how little he felt on the sideline after the fake field goal attempt in the orange bowl. He must have decided he never wants to feel that way again cause we haven't tried one since.
 
JonDMiller said:
Once again, it was Iowa's offense or lack thereof which was its undoing on a fall Saturday in Big Ten play. This isn't a one or two or three year thing; its been the case for the majority of the Kirk Ferentz era. The offense simply hasn't carried its weight, put the defense in tough positions and in the end, Iowa fell short.

Iowa held Wisconsin to under 370 total yards on the day. The Badgers had 13 'real' possessions and went four or fewer plays and 'out' seven times, or more than half. Iowa's defense held the Badgers to 4 of 15 on third downs.

That was a winning effort by the Iowa defense...which has been the case more often than not during the Kirk Ferentz era. But that offense...oh boy that offense.

Iowa's first four possessions began at the following yard line:

1. Wisconsin 49
2. Wisconsin 39
3. Iowa 44
4. Wisconsin 41

Total points = 6

This was an unconscionable lack of scoring and conversion. There was a mix of 'lack of execution' as Kevonte Martin-Manley dropped two passes...there were other areas where the players didn't take care of business. There was also three straight passing plays on Iowa's first possession, which certainly broke tendency but proved ineffective.

Iowa went 4 of 18 on third downs. Iowa gained less than 300 yards of offense. Iowa kept trying to run outside zone plays with Mark Weisman who is ineffective doing that against Big Ten defenses.

Speaking of Weisman; I have a great deal of respect for his toughness and believe there is a role for him in Iowa's offense. That said, I don't believe he's someone you should give the ball to 15-plus times against Big Ten teams, unless you are just physically overwhelming them. He is strong and I love seeing him truck opponents, but he has physical limitations, the most glaring is his inability to produce on outside zone plays against legitimate defenses. This is a staple of Iowa's offense and Weisman isn't going to get it done laterally; he's a north-south rusher. He needs to run out of Power-O sets or hat on hat blocking or even inside zones. The outside zone? No more of it...it's not working with him and probably won't. This isn't Weisman's fault; the coaches shouldn't be putting him in positions where he has a limited chance for success.

There's a role for Damon Bullock and there should be a role for Jordan Canzeri; get him five carries per game, or at least a series, to see what he can do. He's the only running back on the team with the ability to rip off a long run like the one he did in the second half on Saturday, so give him a few cracks.

In my opinion, LeShun Daniels is the only 'Big Ten' caliber bell-cow back on the team, but he's not going to get there this year. He's green, he's learning and the light probably won't go on until next September.

On the whole, this team just lacks playmakers. I wrote before the year that this season's receiving corps would be the most challenged of the Ferentz era and that is proving to be accurate.

That said, Iowa came out against Ohio State and ran the three tight end sets and looked like a house of fire. Where was that this game? Where has that been the last two weeks? What is this offense trying to do? Who are they? What is their identity?

They don't have one and haven't since beating Michigan State 37-6 in Kinnick Stadium on October 30th, 2010. that's over three years ago.

Since then Iowa has averaged 23.6 points per game over its next 39 games. I don't have the time to run the numbers but I am guessing that might be the worst scoring output over any 39 game stretch of the Ferentz era, unless the first 39 came in under that.

Iowa has scored 87 points in its five Big Ten games this year. One year ago, with the worst offense of my lifetime, Iowa had scored 99 points through five games. Yes, Iowa has played three good defenses this year in Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin, but it played against a great MSU defense one year ago plus a solid Penn State team, in addition to Minnesota and Northwestern, which Iowa has played this year.

While this year's offense 'looks' better and 'feels' better, is it smoke and mirrors? Their third down conversion numbers are much better but the overall point production in Big Ten play just isn't there. They scored nearly 60 against Western Michigan but that included two pick sixes and two punt returns for TD's. Take those numbers out of Iowa's mix this year and their 25.3 average drops to 22.2..which is getting awfully close to last year's 19.3/ppg total.

Do you remember being a kid and pushing food you didn't like around your plate in order to give the impression that you actually ate it? That's what things are starting to feel like. Iowa hasn't scored a regulation touchdown during its last seven quarters of play all of which have come at home.

Iowa just scored 19 combined points in regulation over the last two games, in this era of offensive football...and some thought James Vandenberg was the problem?

These numbers are incredibly poor. Depressingly poor and if the message boards, twitter and post game call in shows are any indication, people are just tiring of it. Look towards the turnstiles at Kinnick Stadium; another non-sellout. Iowa has one home game left, against Michigan, and they probably won't sell it out, either. That will mean zero sellouts this entire season.

On Friday, Brian Ferentz sent out a tweet being critical of Iowa's gameday atmosphere in Kinnick. We all know he isn't referring to the fan support. It's more about the sound system (which will be upgraded next year) and what Iowa experiences on the road yet doesn't do to its opponents in Kinnick Stadium.

Let me submit this, from Brendan Stiles late Saturday night:

"Since 2010, Iowa is 16-11 at Kinnick Stadium. 4 wins are FCS opponents (E. Illinois, Tenn. Tech, UNI, Mo. State) & 2-2 vs. MAC."

That's a yo....then he added Iowa lost a total of nine games at Kinnick between 2002-2009.

'Machinehead' was audible through the TV when Iowa's defense forced a third down...several times. Who thinks that's a great song to get the crowd fired up to bring more noise? A nearly 20 year old song from Bush? Or how about the band knocking out a little 15 second riff of Quiet Riot's 'Mental Health' late in the game, a song that was released in 1983? Iowa plays so much ACDC that they are probably charged for royalties.

Iowa has to be the only team in college football who still plays it's stadium music with an eight-track player. OK, that's not true....at least I don't think it's true. But would you be shocked if it was? I've seen numerous critiques about the aforementioned environment through the years, so I will take your word for it. During the past decade, I haven't made it to many games due to radio obligations and when I have been there I haven't paid to get in. But these concerns are items I've read over and over or heard from callers over and over, so I'm simply repeating those critiques. They must be common enough for Ferentz to comment on them.

Add to it that Iowa put red, white and blue pom-poms on the seats before the game. While they were looking to honor veterans in doing so, Iowa's opponent this week is all about red. How much thought went into this one? Sort of had the feel of a last minute decision because this was 'black out' Saturday and the pom-pom release was late in the week. Did one slip past the goalie here, too?

Too many things related to the Iowa football program seem stale...the offense, the music, the environment. Iowa can change that, first and foremost, by winning, something Kirk Ferentz mentioned after the game.

Since the sledding actually got tough this year, which began against Michigan State, Iowa's offense has regressed into something akin to last year; they've averaged just 18.25 points per game over the last four games.

The silver lining is they are at Purdue next week with a chance to become bowl eligible. Purdue is horrible, but Iowa's offensive inconsistency means they aren't above losing to anyone in this league, even lowly Purdue. Michigan is a train wreck and Nebraska seemed to be heading that way before their miracle finish in Lincoln on Saturday.

As bad as Iowa has been on offense, a 3-0 finish to the year wouldn't really surprise me. 2-1 seems fairly plausible, with wins these next two weeks as the best path.

Iowa desperately needs one more win because they really need those 15 extra practices a bowl would bring.

Greg Davis is nearly two years into his stint as Iowa's offensive coordinator and while this year started out promising, it's limping to the finish line. The food has been spread all over the plate but it's hard to fool people when you can't score. Is it all on the coaches? No, as we've seen quite a bit of 'lack of execution' out there. But after a while, the evidence starts to make that irrelevant...when the same things keep happening over and over and over, the macro overtakes the micro.

Iowa has three games to win one....I hope they win more than that but one more is a must. Next week's game at Purdue is certainly a must-win for Iowa. Lose that one and....I don't even want to think about it.

OK. Let's end on a positive note. There is hope, right? There is always hope, so don't stop believin'.

Wait...that's from 1981, too.
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Wow.
Brian Ferentz has nothing better than that to tweet about?
He should tweet about how the Iowa fans are getting fleeced by coaching staff salaries..and then offer some sort of refund.
 
DowsHawk1 said:
While we're on the subject of coaching how about a positive shout out for Reese Morgan who again is producing a stellar unit especially given the talent he has? Where he coaches we have strength.

To be fair I'm sure some of the play calling was cut back when the QB change occurred especially given the score, but there are major challenges for any play caller when the receivers drop passes, don't run patterns to the first down sticks, we lack a breakaway running threat, and the line isn't creating big holes for the running backs. I don't know what I'd call given that we had problems with the sweep, we couldn't run inside, and the lack of a run threat made the play action less believable. We don't have Peyton back there or Megatron to throw it to.

I also do think Mark is hurt or at the very least is well below 100% by the way we are not using him.

Bottom line is we are not getting the job done and it's frustrating to all of us. There are times when we need to give the others teams defense some credit too. We've faced some pretty decent defenses in the league so far and have really struggled. Purdue, Michigan, and Nebraska still look like winnable games and hope springs eternal. We knew before the year started we had problems at wide receiver, a new QB is always an unknown, and that our running backs all had limitations. Not much has changed. I'd hoped for more out of our o-line and thought that our back-ups there would perform better. Trying to take game day emotion out of the picture we are about where I thought we'd be before it all began and I like you want better. However, it's not like it was with Bob or Frank as our coaches either. At this point let's get to the best bowl possible and get the extra practices in. Lord know we need them.
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Extra practice to practice the same old crap..Maybe not as beneficial as for most programs.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
good write-up Jon. May I suggest an adjustment in the subject line.

Offense failures define Hawkeyes... under Ferentz

And to you statistic lovers...there are only two stats that matter offensively.

Points scored & Wins.
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Good points and yes those are all that matters score at least 1 more than the opposition every week and the W's follow. Unfortunately, Kirk tries to sit on the ball with a 3-0 lead in teh first half. More unfortunate is the fact that Gary Barta has put the University and the fan base in a very bad position in the way he handled Kirk's extension and for this we may all pay for a very very long time.
 
Kirk Ferentz has a conservative comfort zone and he will never step outside of it. It's really easy for opposing coaches to game plan for Iowa. They know exactly what KF will do by down, distance and field position. The formations are always the same, so it's easy to set up your defense. Every time an Iowa QB audibles, it's to a run play. Pretty easy to beat that. It's a sad excuse for an offense. That's for sure.
 
lightning1 said:
Kirk Ferentz has a conservative comfort zone and he will never step outside of it. It's really easy for opposing coaches to game plan for Iowa. They know exactly what KF will do by down, distance and field position. The formations are always the same, so it's easy to set up your defense. Every time an Iowa QB audibles, it's to a run play. Pretty easy to beat that. It's a sad excuse for an offense. That's for sure.
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True, and this is why it is frustrating to here people say, "We don't have any talent on offense." How do we know we don't have any talent when we mis-use talent like Canzeri and Powell and CJ Fed and even Rudock last year (sitting on the bench). I mean we could have an offense filled with talent but with our risk-averse play calling we are handicapping the team to the extent that no amount of 5 star athletes could over come it. How is our talent supposed to overcome a coach who punts from the 35 (30 sometimes) yard line?
 



Some men see things as they are and say why....I dream of doing things over, and over, and over, and over, and over again and say why not?

th
 
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