Props to Foles and the Zona D

[homerHAWKeye777]

Great play by Foles. His precision WAS impressive.

Furthermore, props to the Zona D, particularly their DL, for playing better than I anticipated. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that Iowa was forced to be predictable due to the crappy early special teams play. All the same, the Zona D responded when their team needed it most. Furthermore, getting repeated sacks ... very impressive.

Congrats to those good Wildcat fans out there.

 

[ATLHawkeye]

I agree, Homer. Today they were just better than we were... especially when it really counted. Sucks, but sometimes that's about all you can say.

 

[edbob21]

I have to agree. Foles didn't prove much all game UNTIL that play. Gotta give him props for threading the needle between 4 Iowa defenders for that TD. Stanzi not getting rid of the ball 4 straight plays is troubling at best but in the long run its one game and we played well minus gifting them 21 points at the start. You can't expect to win games where you start out that poorly. No matter what, theres still 9 games left and this team still has what it takes to win the Big Ten and play for a Rose Bowl.

 

[TecmoSuperHawk]

Foles was pretty much what I expected. He's a good QB and he made some real nice throws tonight, definitely impressive.

I never expected Arizona's D to stuff the run the way they did. Very disappointed in our O line play, but some credit to Arizona's front 7. Sigh...

 

[ForeverHawk]

Iowa was predictable because they could not run the ball and that had everything to do with Zona's D. They could tee off on the passing game and that is exactly what they did on the last series sacking Stanzi three times!

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Iowa was predictable because they could not run the ball and that had everything to do with Zona's D. They could tee off on the passing game and that is exactly what they did on the last series sacking Stanzi three times!

The precise reason why Iowa was predictable was the following:

- Iowa got caught down early and had to play "catch up" the rest of the game. That then forced our hand to pass more than we ever would have liked.

- Arizona was stacking the box with no fewer than 8 guys on pretty much EVERY DOWN. Against many teams, we often can still manage to grind out the run ... at least late in the game. However, kudos to Arizona for controlling the gaps and filling well. We had very little "daylight" running against the stacked box tonight.

- As a result of the above, we were forced to pass. However, to make matters worse, with the little time that Stanzi did have to throw (at least at the end) ... we weren't having guys breaking open. There UA's secondary deserves props.

It would have been interesting to see how we would have fared if we actually had a chance to implement the offensive game-plan that had been originally constructed for the game. Unfortunately, we lost momentum in the game so early ... we never really had too much chance to pull it off.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Foles was pretty much what I expected. He's a good QB and he made some real nice throws tonight, definitely impressive.

I never expected Arizona's D to stuff the run the way they did. Very disappointed in our O line play, but some credit to Arizona's front 7. Sigh...

They didn't stuff our run with ONLY their front 7. The bigger credit, in my book, goes to their secondary for holding up well against the pass while having guys on islands so frequently.

Ultimately, our inability to pick up the blitz and/or slow the pass-rush is what sealed our fate. Of course, obviously we had more "issues" than just that.