So not to be a negative Nancy....

H

Hawkfnntn

Well-Known Member
But is this sustainable? By this I mean winning like we are with our overall offense being so bad? The numbers are even worse then watching it happen out there. I'm glad we didn't turn it over this week so that's a plus that needs to be recognized but man less then 200 yards of offense barely 100 yards passing can't be something to hang our hats on. It's pretty bad. What other top 5ish team over the years has had as anemic of an O as we do currently? Usually teams struggle at rushing or passing but make up for it with the other. We struggle at everything except punting and kicking FGs (and we even missed one of those due to a bad snap)

I'd like to say that Indianas and ISUs defenses are all that and that they deserve some credit for slowing us down and maybe they do a little. But not that much so and we'll have a better idea after the next couple of weeks. If we can put 350 plus yards up on Kent St and CSU the next couple weeks and look good doing it I won't feel so bad and we can just delete this thread.

If this is what we are offensively I have a tough time thinking our D can maintain this for us to win out and be a top 5ish team. It just seems impossible to me in todays offensively wild world of college football. I guess crazier things have happened and at the end of the day Al Davis's line of thinking is all that matters. So I'm enjoying this ISU win. I hope our boys rest up have a good week of practice and can dominate Kent St.
 
Definitely not sustainable. The offense will need to improve for us to have a real shot at the B1G. However we don't need an elite offense, just one that's a little better than what it is right now.

I agree that Kent State and CSU will tell us a lot about our offense. Hopefully we can get the young receivers in for some snaps and see what they can do.
 
Here what I think honestly - Iowa's offense was not inspiring in any way on Saturday, but I think Ferentz is a take what the other team gives you kind of guy. And since ISU kept turning the ball over and the offense generally looked like they were trying to F a doorknob, he had complete confidence in his defense to just ride the game out. I think the same thing happened vs. Indiana. He's perfectly comfortable to let his defense win the game and Iowa has an elite defense. I think we haven't seen what Iowa's offense is actually capable of because no game has really demanded it in any way.
 
I think the "stats" are getting blown waaaaaay out of proportion

The defense and special teams has played so damn elite that it's given the offense a very short field to work with. What isn't sustainable is the defense matching the offense in scoring. I personally think our offense is better than the stats show. That being said, the eye test doesn't lie. Those 1 to 2 yard out passes are head scratchers to say the least, esp on 3rd and long. Spencer getting sacked in FG range is not good (somehow that first sack led to the fumble 6 which is crazy). I think we all expected Goodson to struggle stat-wise due to the fact that Petras had to prove he could handle the big time. I think that bomb to CJ showed that Petras might be a little bit better than Stanley. Petras also had a few other nice passes downfield, especially when we needed them. I remember a couple of dropped passes that would have gone for first downs in both the first and second games. Our lack of talent, or depth, or whatever it is at WR is showing IMO.

That being said, the most important players on the team in this order are (my opinion of course):

1. Taylor
2. Jones
3. Linderbaum
4. Petras
5-16. Basically anyone on the defense
17. Goodson


We have the best punter and arguably the best defense in the country. Petras showed me just enough in that game to make me a believer. Go Hawks! Enjoy the ride!
 
Wundershozen said:
I think the "stats" are getting blown waaaaaay out of proportion

The defense and special teams has played so damn elite that it's given the offense a very short field to work with. What isn't sustainable is the defense matching the offense in scoring. I personally think our offense is better than the stats show. That being said, the eye test doesn't lie. Those 1 to 2 yard out passes are head scratchers to say the least, esp on 3rd and long. Spencer getting sacked in FG range is not good (somehow that first sack led to the fumble 6 which is crazy). I think we all expected Goodson to struggle stat-wise due to the fact that Petras had to prove he could handle the big time. I think that bomb to CJ showed that Petras might be a little bit better than Stanley. Petras also had a few other nice passes downfield, especially when we needed them. I remember a couple of dropped passes that would have gone for first downs in both the first and second games. Our lack of talent, or depth, or whatever it is at WR is showing IMO.

That being said, the most important players on the team in this order are (my opinion of course):

1. Taylor
2. Jones
3. Linderbaum
4. Petras
5-16. Basically anyone on the defense
17. Goodson


We have the best punter and arguably the best defense in the country. Petras showed me just enough in that game to make me a believer. Go Hawks! Enjoy the ride!
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Well it is just a 2 game sample size so far. But we are dead last in the Power 5 in total O. For a top 10-top 5 team that's news worthy stuff.

From the national pundits eyes I'm sure they won't take us too seriously till we beat PSU. We beat them and Wisky it's all downhill from there. But even those games will all have us on the edge of our seats because who knows how our points are going to ever come
 
Hawkfnntn said:
From the national pundits eyes I'm sure they won't take us too seriously till we beat PSU. We beat them and Wisky it's all downhill from there. But even those games will all have us on the edge of our seats because who knows how our points are going to ever come
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I'm with you on the PSU game for sure. Both teams will likely be undefeated and it will be the spotlight on us this go around. Huge game. The road to the West always seems to run through Madison as well....
 
Hawkfnntn said:
But is this sustainable? By this I mean winning like we are with our overall offense being so bad? The numbers are even worse then watching it happen out there. I'm glad we didn't turn it over this week so that's a plus that needs to be recognized but man less then 200 yards of offense barely 100 yards passing can't be something to hang our hats on. It's pretty bad. What other top 5ish team over the years has had as anemic of an O as we do currently? Usually teams struggle at rushing or passing but make up for it with the other. We struggle at everything except punting and kicking FGs (and we even missed one of those due to a bad snap)

I'd like to say that Indianas and ISUs defenses are all that and that they deserve some credit for slowing us down and maybe they do a little. But not that much so and we'll have a better idea after the next couple of weeks. If we can put 350 plus yards up on Kent St and CSU the next couple weeks and look good doing it I won't feel so bad and we can just delete this thread.

If this is what we are offensively I have a tough time thinking our D can maintain this for us to win out and be a top 5ish team. It just seems impossible to me in todays offensively wild world of college football. I guess crazier things have happened and at the end of the day Al Davis's line of thinking is all that matters. So I'm enjoying this ISU win. I hope our boys rest up have a good week of practice and can dominate Kent St.
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We will drop either PSU or WI, and two other games that we shouldn't. Hopefully that's enough to win the West, and then it's blowout city against OSU. Sorry, folks, until OSU falls off (one close loss against a really good Oregon team isn't "falling off") we ain't winning the B1G. We will be between 15-25th ranked at the end of the season.

I'd be ecstatic with a 3 loss season with one of those losses being in the B1G title game. We do NOT wanna go on national TV and blown off the globe by a really CFP team.

Remember, EVERY single time people have gotten hyped about the Hawkeyes it blows up in their face, and every time we have a crazy good year there was no expectation at all (2015, etc). People talking B1G championship and playoffs are jinxing it and setting themselves up for disaster.

The last time I ever did and ever will get hyped was the Rose Bowl. The B1G game I chalked up to a dogfight coin flip as close as it was, and I was sooooooo sure we'd boat race Stanford and go 13-1. Shame on me, that ain't happening again.
 
BryceC said:
Here what I think honestly - Iowa's offense was not inspiring in any way on Saturday, but I think Ferentz is a take what the other team gives you kind of guy.
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This, for sure.

By my calculation, they've been playing outright "eat the clock" (or at least "semi-eat the clock" offense) for about 45% of the time they've been on the field. Maybe even more if you consider the idea that before they made the call to start eating clock, they likely started calling an extra run or high percentage short yardage pass per series to keep the clock moving....instead of going for the first down.

And when they weren't, it was the first halve's of two of the most amped up situations all these players have ever seen. AND.....this is all in weeks 1 and 2.

One of the things I've always thought about Kirk is, few teams would get better over the season with as much regularity as a KF team. And even fewer got better between the last regular season game and a bowl game. (He learned his lesson early on that).

The o-line has appeared to struggle opening much for Goodson. But, again....they didn't get a whole lot of opportunity to make adjustments. There's been some drops. Petras has only done some dumb-ish things that resulted in loss of a couple yards, but I'll take that over bonehead moves that could lead to turnovers and points. He's definitely thrown a few really nice ones. Quite a few drops. But again, he hasn't "HAD" to for large chunks of the first game, and a decent chunk of the ISU game. A few times when we 'needed' something from him, we got it. A few times when it woulda been really nice, we didn't get so much.

Hard to imagine a KF/Iowa o-line not improving. Hard to imagine Petras not improving. Even if it's not massive, each percentage of increase will click over.

Should be a special year....as a baseline. Could be very special. Could be very very special. Maybe even very very very special. I'm thinking somewhere between special and very special.
 
Iowa's likely not going to be worse than 9-3 this season.

In 122 or so years of college football, the U of I has only had 16 seasons where they won more than 9 games.

They've only had 9 seasons where they've won 10 or more.

Obviously a lot to unfold still here, but Iowa is in great position to have a special season - especially considering the above prospective.

if 9 or above wins has only happened 16 times in 100+ years, I'd consider anything above it pretty special.
 
I went back and re-watched the first half (haven't gotten to the second half yet). I had kind of forgotten, but during second quarter, this is what transpired:

- Punted the ball down to about the five yard line where Purdy throws the interception to Hankins. Iowa ball at the ISU 49
-We march down the field and score a TD on a mix of pass and run. All of Petras' passes were completions
-We hold ISU and get the ball back on their punt at our 29 yard line. Again, we march down the field with some pinpoint passing again by Petras. I believe he was 4 of 5 on this drive. Also mixed in some nice runs. Drive ends with a perfect pass to CJ for a 26 yard TD.

So in the span of about 10 minutes of the clock, we had two consecutive drives that netted us 120 yards and 14 points. Petras was 7 of 8 on those drives. This started when we were down 3-0 and really needed to step it up and score. We didn't do a lot in the third quarter and then Jacobs strips the ball and Campbell scores and we're up 21-10. And from there, we turned the game over to the defense and basically were looking to eat clock and avoid mistakes.

I wish the stretch like those two drives happened with more consistency but given time, I think we will see more of this type of offense. The turnovers and points off turnovers is not sustainable and everyone knows that. But this offense has the capability to be at least serviceable and score points when the game is in doubt.
 
Fryowa said:
We will drop either PSU or WI, and two other games that we shouldn't. Hopefully that's enough to win the West, and then it's blowout city against OSU. Sorry, folks, until OSU falls off (one close loss against a really good Oregon team isn't "falling off") we ain't winning the B1G. We will be between 15-25th ranked at the end of the season.

I'd be ecstatic with a 3 loss season with one of those losses being in the B1G title game. We do NOT wanna go on national TV and blown off the globe by a really CFP team.

Remember, EVERY single time people have gotten hyped about the Hawkeyes it blows up in their face, and every time we have a crazy good year there was no expectation at all (2015, etc). People talking B1G championship and playoffs are jinxing it and setting themselves up for disaster.

The last time I ever did and ever will get hyped was the Rose Bowl. The B1G game I chalked up to a dogfight coin flip as close as it was, and I was sooooooo sure we'd boat race Stanford and go 13-1. Shame on me, that ain't happening again.
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Yup, exactly this. I take it one step further though - I think, until something drastically changes in the B10 power balance, my ideal Iowa season is 2nd place in the West. Wisconsin is my 2nd most hated rival (to Nebraska), but I'm more than happy to watch them get to enjoy the 59-0 beatdowns in the B10 championship game. Meanwhile, Hawks can sit back and say, "sucks to be you" while we wait to hear what nice warm weather bowl we'll be going to.
 
haydensly said:
I went back and re-watched the first half (haven't gotten to the second half yet). I had kind of forgotten, but during second quarter, this is what transpired:

- Punted the ball down to about the five yard line where Purdy throws the interception to Hankins. Iowa ball at the ISU 49
-We march down the field and score a TD on a mix of pass and run. All of Petras' passes were completions
-We hold ISU and get the ball back on their punt at our 29 yard line. Again, we march down the field with some pinpoint passing again by Petras. I believe he was 4 of 5 on this drive. Also mixed in some nice runs. Drive ends with a perfect pass to CJ for a 26 yard TD.

So in the span of about 10 minutes of the clock, we had two consecutive drives that netted us 120 yards and 14 points. Petras was 7 of 8 on those drives. This started when we were down 3-0 and really needed to step it up and score. We didn't do a lot in the third quarter and then Jacobs strips the ball and Campbell scores and we're up 21-10. And from there, we turned the game over to the defense and basically were looking to eat clock and avoid mistakes.

I wish the stretch like those two drives happened with more consistency but given time, I think we will see more of this type of offense. The turnovers and points off turnovers is not sustainable and everyone knows that. But this offense has the capability to be at least serviceable and score points when the game is in doubt.
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I agree, well said. There have been flashes of encouraging productivity on offense, the pieces are there. I will feel much better if/when we have a few more such stretches under our belt.
 
Wundershozen said:
I think the "stats" are getting blown waaaaaay out of proportion
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Yeah let's look at the running game stats:

After the hawks went up 27-10 early in the 4th qtr I think Iowa had 3 possessions. I think all 3 possessions were 3 and out with very basic runs into a stacked defense. So there are 9 carries there for about 9 net yards.

Now minus out Petras' -23 yards overall on 7 carries

The running backs got 90 yards on 31 carries if my quick math is correct for right at 3 yards per carry which is not great but not bad against two really good defenses. And if you subtract out the run out the clock conservative protect the ball 4th qtr carries you get 21 carries for 80 yards or 4 yards per carry by the running backs.

Again by our running backs without a starting lineman against two tough defenses.

I think the running game will get better which will open up the passing game.
 
O line needs some work. Getting Schott back and two weeks with lesser opponents are a good formula for improvement. We get the running game going and the offense will look a whole lot better.

IMHO we just faced two of the best defenses we'll see all year. Penn St and Wisconsin will offer similar challenges.
 
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Fryowa said:
Sorry, folks, until OSU falls off (one close loss against a really good Oregon team isn't "falling off") we ain't winning the B1G.
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Did you see OSU's defense??? That was melted swiss cheese.

The TV people were talking about how worried fans, reporters, and team people were about the defense being weak. If OSU is still bad defensively against the run and they play another team with a really good running attack and a QB and receivers that can pick them apart then I see OSU going down or being in a big shootout again.

It is not to me out of the realm that in 2 months an Iowa team with a running game going on all cylinders and a much crisper, better passing game could not have long time consuming drives against OSU and control a game against them by lowering the number of possessions etc
 
I wouldn't be surprised if this team finished 12-0. I also wouldn't be surprised if they finished 6-6. If we find just one viable threat on the outside and Petras can hit that guy 2-3 times per game, our offense will be just fine. If that guy doesn't appear, we will face 9 man fronts the rest of the season and the defense will get exposed against more physical teams and against Northwestern and we'll be 9-3 at best.
 
Certainly something amiss when your exciting playmakers on offense thus far are Charlie Jones and Tory Taylor.
 
Fryowa said:
We will drop either PSU or WI, and two other games that we shouldn't. Hopefully that's enough to win the West, and then it's blowout city against OSU. Sorry, folks, until OSU falls off (one close loss against a really good Oregon team isn't "falling off") we ain't winning the B1G. We will be between 15-25th ranked at the end of the season.

I'd be ecstatic with a 3 loss season with one of those losses being in the B1G title game. We do NOT wanna go on national TV and blown off the globe by a really CFP team.

Remember, EVERY single time people have gotten hyped about the Hawkeyes it blows up in their face, and every time we have a crazy good year there was no expectation at all (2015, etc). People talking B1G championship and playoffs are jinxing it and setting themselves up for disaster.

The last time I ever did and ever will get hyped was the Rose Bowl. The B1G game I chalked up to a dogfight coin flip as close as it was, and I was sooooooo sure we'd boat race Stanford and go 13-1. Shame on me, that ain't happening again.
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That's what it feels like. We have been spring boarded all the way up to 5 because we played 2 ranked teams compared to nobody else having done so. ISU shouldn't have been ranked so high to start with that's pretty obvious now. Indiana is a borderline top 25ish team. I don't think we should be #5 sorry I don't. Don't get me wrong I like being recognized as such but man I can't with any confidence puff my chest out and say yeah that's what we are.

I can't in good conscious do it when our offense is literally dead last in the power 5 in yards. Do I think we are top 10ish and can beat anyone on any given day? Sure you're damn right. But that goes both ways still due to what I just said too... We can't be surprised if MD popped off a couple big plays gets up 14 to 0 on us and then what? We haven't had to play from behind yet so do we have a snow balls chance of making any kind of comeback being down multiple possessions on about anyone? Tough to argue we do.

Just feels like we are going to get humbly brought back down to earth after getting a seat at the big boys table with a lot of season to go. That's frustrating but hopefully they prove me wrong
 
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