Selection Committee had questions about Iowa's offense ...

K

khock

Well-Known Member
What about defense? For now I'm fine with #9 ranking but the justifications used doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Last time I checked there were three phases to football ... offense, defense, and special teams. Iowa has the #6 scoring defense in the country, sound special teams play, and an offense that has won by better than 17 points per game on average. Oh and they have not lost.

Iowa is essentially Alabama without a loss in these metrics.

Scoring Offense (national rank/team/PPG)
48th Iowa (32.6)
22nd Notre Dame (36.5)
43rd Alabama (33.5)
44th Michigan St (33.4)
1st Baylor (61.1)
2nd TCU (48.9)
3rd Memphis (47.9)

Scoring Defense (national rank/team/PPG)
6th Iowa (15.3)
39th Notre Dame (22.3)
12th Alabama (16.4)
37th Michigan St (22.1)
59th Baylor (25.1)
53rd TCU (24.5)
63rd Memphis (26.6)
 
It was completely absurd that they even suggested a team is ranked higher than Iowa because they have a "better offense". Thats the most subjective thing I've heard. Iowa put up 40 on NW, Stanfords "vaunted offense" put up 6. Iowa put up 31 against iowa state, Baylor put up 45, Texas (who beat Oklahoma) put up 0.

TCU put up 27 points against Minnesota and nearly (should have?) lost the game. Minnesota is a bottom rung Big Ten team.

There is definitely something going on as far as disrespecting Iowa. The talking heads and committe keep hiding behind this "eyeball test" because it cant be proven. "Eyeball Test" is whatever the hell they want it to be
 
You'd think it'd be pretty hard to poke holes in our resume if you'd actually look at it... Scoring 32 and giving up 15 against a more then respectable schedule thus far is pretty darn solid. We haven't turned the ball over much and we've been forcing timely turnovers all year long. Only given up the one rushing td all year still I think. That's more impressive to me then a Baylor putting 60 on the board against the porous schedule they've had till now. And I'm not even saying we should be higher then 9 right now so much as to me not looking at the teams just from an accomplishment standpoint that's gotta be tougher to do 8 games in with the opponents involved.
 
What a difference a year makes. Between last year where the Dline may not have been holding the point of attack, LBs getting out of their lanes and safeties taking bad angles they got gashed in the running game over and over last year. Now teams are just stymied and getting away from their game plans if they want to run cause they just can't put a long drive together on us. What's the longest run we've given up this year? I'd be curious to know that too.
 
So if we don't do 3 fullback dives against Northwestern, we are pretty much dead even with Alabama's offense and a full point per game ahead of them on defense. Sounds to me like Alabama is way better that us, even if they lose a couple more.
 
PCHawk said:
So if we don't do 3 fullback dives against Northwestern, we are pretty much dead even with Alabama's offense and a full point per game ahead of them on defense. Sounds to me like Alabama is way better that us, even if they lose a couple more.
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What sucks is a team like Baylor would have done everything they could have to score in that situation, but Kirk just wanted to get out of there with a win and not show anybody up.

Sadly you're apparently SUPPOSED to show people up.
 
These talking heads suck. Iowa has the defense and special teams to win and a decent offense.

I would much rather have what Iowa has than a baylor offense but it gives up 50 pts a game.
 
I have a question about why there needs to be a committee? Are people afraid their favorite teams may not get in if we relied on cold hard numbers?
 
I guess a 3rd string running back racking up over 200+ yards and 4 TD against a team that shut down Stanford leaves some doubt out there? I get it.
 
99topdawg said:
I was going to say the exact same thing. Without the blocked punt and pick-six, we score 17 vs. Maryland. It would be so nice to have CJ, Canzieri, and Daniels all healthy at the same time.
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These sorts of comments make no sense. So you know for a fact that we wouldn't have scored on our possession had we not blocked the punt? And you know for a fact that we wouldn't have scored on our next possession had the pick-six not happened?

Teams that put up lots of points certainly aren't driving 80 yards on every offensive possession. They get the benefit of turnovers, special teams plays (good kick/punt returns), etc. Are you also saying that we don't count those for them either?

We have nothing to apologize for concerning our offense. And the last time I looked, football was a 3 phase game (offense, defense, special teams) where equal reliance is placed on all 3 parts. Our offense is good enough to win games, our defense is good enough to win championships and our special teams, while having a breakdown every now and again, has flat out won us games so far this year.

In the end, we just have to keep winning because I don't think there will be more than 3 undefeated teams left after the regular season and before conference championships start. If we can get to, and out of, the conference championship unscathed, I guarantee we will be one of the 4 teams in.
 
99topdawg said:
I was going to say the exact same thing. Without the blocked punt and pick-six, we score 17 vs. Maryland. It would be so nice to have CJ, Canzieri, and Daniels all healthy at the same time.
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Kirk has already said they went conservative in the second half up 21 and the approach is fine. All they need to do is win.
 
Questions Iowa's offense. Doesn't question Baylor's/TCU's defense. Seems fair.
 
In the committee's and the national media's mind they will be justified the minute Iowa stumbles and loses a game. Never mind all the other teams that have lost a game. It will be all; See we told you Iowa wasn't any good.
 
SpiderRico said:
These sorts of comments make no sense. So you know for a fact that we wouldn't have scored on our possession had we not blocked the punt? And you know for a fact that we wouldn't have scored on our next possession had the pick-six not happened?

Teams that put up lots of points certainly aren't driving 80 yards on every offensive possession. They get the benefit of turnovers, special teams plays (good kick/punt returns), etc. Are you also saying that we don't count those for them either?

We have nothing to apologize for concerning our offense. And the last time I looked, football was a 3 phase game (offense, defense, special teams) where equal reliance is placed on all 3 parts. Our offense is good enough to win games, our defense is good enough to win championships and our special teams, while having a breakdown every now and again, has flat out won us games so far this year.

In the end, we just have to keep winning because I don't think there will be more than 3 undefeated teams left after the regular season and before conference championships start. If we can get to, and out of, the conference championship unscathed, I guarantee we will be one of the 4 teams in.
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I don't know how you can honestly watch the Maryland game and not think Iowa's offense was questionable...

Offense is far and away our weakest area - namely our passing offense is very sickly.

However - hopefully the trend continues that we don't need a great offense to win.
 
Not saying our offense has been stellar by any means, but could it have anything to do with field position and where we're starting drives from? Curious is all. Not trying to defend the offense, just seems for the most part defense and special teams are keeping our opponent on their end of the field.
 
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