One Negative, One Positive

[MeatMan]

In thinking about Jon's recent thread, I'm going to make a solid attempt to post one positive thing for every negative thing.

So, here goes. I was incredibly impressed with Rudock hanging in there just long enough to deliver that game winning TD to CJF. He knew that CJ would be open enough, saw the blitz coming, didn't panic, and delivered right on the money.

And, to balance that, can we please stop running the stretch play with Weisman? That's not what he's good at. For what he's good at, see the runs he had to start the game. Power, inside zone is his bread and butter.

 

[MeatMan]

+ Our newbie DE's held up surprisingly well on the edges. Not great by any stretch, but they certainly didn't get abused like last year.

- Why is the 3rd quarter so bad for Iowa? Have the lead, then give it up right away to start the second half. That's a terrible pattern, especially with Wisky coming up.

 

[clim]

Also can we leave Weismann in on 3rd and short more and I'll counter that with the wrs catching passes much better

 

[MeatMan]

- we just barely beat jNW, even though they gave us many chances to just bury them

+ we beat jNW!!!

 

[atxhawk]

Positive. I continue to be impressed with Rudock's confidence and pocket presence.

Negative. Refusal to make adjustments to the offensive gameplan in the second half.

 

[MeatMan]

+ Daniels looks like he has what it takes to be a great RB.

- KO coverage is still terrible.

 

[NCHawker]

+ D only gave up 10 to jNW, 34 to OSU, 26 MSU (those teams usually score a lot more). Yesterday was 1st time since 2007 that jNW was shut out in the 1st half of a game.

- D line got manhanded in 2nd half for 3nd straight game

 

[damnfinn]

pos: Defense only gave up 104 passing yards to Northwestern
neg: Defense gave up 225 yards rushing to Northwestern

 

[damnfinn]

positive Iowa defense had 6 sacks.
neg. Kornbraths punting, we need to find a new punter fast.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Negative: Iowa Offense scored 10 points in regulation
Positive: Iowa defense allowed 10 points in regulation (and overtime)

 

[damnfinn]

pos. Hitchens
pos. Hitchens, he is turning into a stud LB so he gets 2 positives.

 

[tm3308]

positive Iowa defense had 6 sacks.
neg. Kornbraths punting, we need to find a new punter fast.

What's Kornbrath doing wrong? He had four punts yesterday, three of which were downed at or inside the 20 (including one at the 1-yard line), and averaged 40 yards per kick.

Against OSU, he had a 54-yard punt downed at the 4, a pooch punt that was returned -1 yard (down at the 16), and one poor one for 27 yards (which I believe was the one he was run into on).

Against MSU, he opened with a 57-yard punt that was returned 12 yards to the 27 (coverage missed the tackle at the 15). Then, punting from the goal line he kicked a 41-yarder to at least put MSU back on the other side of midfield. He had another 41-yarder after that. And he had a 43-yard kick that was fair caught at the 10.

The run down gets pretty repetitive. Kornbrath has actually been a pretty useful weapon for us this year. He's only had a couple poor punts and a lot of very good ones.

 

[MeatMan]

positive Iowa defense had 6 sacks.
neg. Kornbraths punting, we need to find a new punter fast.

i don't agree with your negative. we've had some great punters here, and he's no Donahue, but he's no slouch either.

 

[thejumper5]

Pos: Iowa has beaten all the teams they're legitimately better than this year. They have yet to be the victims of a true upset.

Neg: This is one of the few times under Ferentz that we can say that at this point in the season.

 

[Seth53]

Pos: Likely Iowa will qualify for a bowl game.
Neg: Orange, Cap-1 and even the Outback bowls seem like a distant memory. Rose Bowl...like another lifetime.

 

[IronHawk]

+ Our newbie DE's held up surprisingly well on the edges. Not great by any stretch, but they certainly didn't get abused like last year.

- Why is the 3rd quarter so bad for Iowa? Have the lead, then give it up right away to start the second half. That's a terrible pattern, especially with Wisky coming up.

Hardy and Ott have done well.....I still wish we had Alvis.

 

[Xerxes]

+ I agree with all of the positive Rudock comments so I'll go somewhere else, T Smith looks better out there. Iowa's going to need him the next 5 games.

- When the intermediate passing game is working (like it was late yesterday) why go to the run when it isn't?

 

[IronHawk]

I think GD and KF have done well to bring Ruddock and the offense along at a pace where they have made strives in a positive direction. It's way better than what we saw last year.

 

[Jonesy86]

+The passing game is vastly improved over last year.
- There's still not enough deep passing plays. And outside OSU, not enough play action.

 

[uihawk82]

+The passing game is vastly improved over last year.
- There's still not enough deep passing plays. And outside OSU, not enough play action.

Totally agree. When are opponents are keeping their safeties close to the LOS many times we need to try to hit a 30-40 yard pass once in a while to make them pay for it.