So whats the problem with this team

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
First our wide receivers cant get open. Scheme or ability? IMO its mostly the scheme.
Second our offensive line especially tackles have been bad. Some thought this might be one of our best. Not the case so far. This is an area that could get better
Third our defensive line isnt as good as I thought it would be. Outside linebackers havent been too good either

Still think we have 2 good running backs and Im not ready to quit on Beathard. Pass protection has to improve a lot or its going to be a long year

Of all things our punter has been great along with kickoffs. Not so sure about Field Goal kicker as Ferentz looks to be unsure about trying one
Overall really a disappointment so far. "of course its always good to trounce the Clones"
 
There is no spark on this team. Don't know if that's because coaching has scaled things back (look at last years play calling in OOC vs this year), or if our seniors are not stepping up.

CJ looks like he's hurt or afraid of getting hurt. He has taken a step backward this year.

King doesn't want to tackle. How many times did he go for the strip yesterday instead of just lowering his shoulder. Reminded me of Primetime in his lack of wanting to tackle.

Our OL is a mess. They've done OK run blocking, but we can't pass. And some of that is scheme. When you have all your WR running within 5 yards of the LOS, teams can cover those routes easy.

This looks like the 2015 team has been neutered.
 
I know what the problem is, last years 2s that were actually 3s are now being this years 1s that are 2s. There seems to be no depth on Oline. limiting our Oline recruits to try and get receivers is hitting us hard. I'd say with Daniels and Welsh the line is a little better then 07. And without I would say worse.
 
As Hunter S Thompson said in "Where the Buffalo Roam"..."I think third downs are going the tell the story in this one". Last year CJ Beathard made damn near every throw, every play with his feet, to keep the chains moving. This year, it's a vastly different story. Our time of possession is in the tank, and it's exposed weaknesses that haven't had time to be shored up yet (DL). Beathard making plays on third down won damn near every game last year...think about ISU, PITT, Indiana, etc. The only game he didn't was Nebraska. The offense has to get better on third down and move the chains. When they do our defense will also improve as we won't need to see them as much.

The good news...the offensive line looked vastly different yesterday than the week previous. Granted, it was Rutgers, but the run game (if Davis would have exploited it) could have been completely dominate. Improvements in pass protection should happen also. If this occurs, and CJ gets his swagger back, well...Iowa has a chance to be a very very tough out. Time is of the essence though. The Minnesota game is looming on the road as right now, I'd say that's a loss if we can't protect the QB and we can't improve on 3rd down. Minnesota appears to be able to run the football and Leidner has a boner for us.
 
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According to Jon/Steve's podcast last week Iowa is second to last in plays ran.

101st in total offense
104th in TOP

Check out the rest of these brutal numbershttp://stats.ncaa.org/team/312/12424. Remember there are 128 FBS teams.

I am with everyone else just run the football and then run it some more. Move the pocket around with some bootlegs and waggles. Get the ball out of CJ's hands quickly with short passes.
 
We're never going to be able to move the ball as long as we have no passing game. We have probably the worst group of receivers of any team in college football. They absolutely cannot get open, and this will affect the running game. Teams will have everyone within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage because we have no threat at receiver. Wait until we play a defense with a pulse, you think it's bad now..
 
I think it really boils down to one thing: Lack of talent.

And that is a vicious cycle that repeats itself and makes it very hard to put back to back years together with really good seasons and why we don't see it here often. Lack of talent really puts too much on the players who actually have it. When Iowa loses good players, even when they return great players, it really hurts the team.

This year's team really misses Drew Ott and T Smith. They don't have anyone to consistently get pressure of the QB and a guy who is a legit threat down the field. To make matters worse, those two guys should be on the team this year as RS SRs. Both had RS wasted late in the lost 2012 season. But Iowa needed them because of what? Lack of talent.

And once again, the cycle repeats itself. Iowa has probably burned RS on a WR and a DL that Iowa will probably miss in the 2020 season because instead of being mature, experienced RS SRs they will have used up their eligibility and Iowa will burn more RS on players that aren't ready to help them but are needed because of a lack of talent.
 
Caddy said:
We're never going to be able to move the ball as long as we have no passing game. We have probably the worst group of receivers of any team in college football. They absolutely cannot get open, and this will affect the running game. Teams will have everyone within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage because we have no threat at receiver. Wait until we play a defense with a pulse, you think it's bad now..
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Disagree here totally. All we need to do is run the ball more like our opponents. Our opponents have rushed 178 times for 716 yards (4.02 YPC). We have rushed the ball 128 times for 637 Yards (4.98 YPC). If you take away CJ's rushes/sacks we have rushed 107 times for 634 yards or a 5.92 YPC average.

We are averaging nearly 2 Yards more per attempt than our opponent (RB carries anyway), yet the opponent has attempted nearly 70 more rushes than our RB's have. This is criminal, this is Greg Davis, this is killing this team.

Run the freaking ball a minimum of 35 times per game with our RB's, this will open up the passing game, this will keep teams on their heels. Stop trying to set up the running game with that pass, set up the passing game with the run.
 
deanvogs said:
Disagree here totally. All we need to do is run the ball more like our opponents. Our opponents have rushed 178 times for 716 yards (4.02 YPC). We have rushed the ball 128 times for 637 Yards (4.98 YPC). If you take away CJ's rushes/sacks we have rushed 107 times for 634 yards or a 5.92 YPC average.

We are averaging nearly 2 Yards more per attempt than our opponent (RB carries anyway), yet the opponent has attempted nearly 70 more rushes than our RB's have. This is criminal, this is Greg Davis, this is killing this team.

Run the freaking ball a minimum of 35 times per game with our RB's, this will open up the passing game, this will keep teams on their heels. Stop trying to set up the running game with that pass, set up the passing game with the run.
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What about if you take away their QB's rushes/sacks?
 
Hawk5656 said:
What about if you take away their QB's rushes/sacks?
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I don't know if that really matters, as we have faced 4 teams that all run their QB as part of their game plans. I mean CJ isn't really part of our ground attack it is either a sack or a scramble. CJ has 21 rushes for 3 yards currently.

Maybe take away the Miami QB's rushes, but ISU, NDSU, and Maryland their QB's are part of their running game
 
deanvogs said:
I don't know if that really matters, as we have faced 4 teams that all run their QB as part of their game plans. I mean CJ isn't really part of our ground attack it is either a sack or a scramble. CJ has 21 rushes for 3 yards currently.

Maybe take away the Miami QB's rushes, but ISU, NDSU, and Maryland their QB's are part of their running game
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I am just saying we're not averaging 2 more ypc with our RB's because we have gotten a lot of sacks that goes against our opponents rush numbers and our rush defense is not very good now. Either way I agree we need to more running the ball a lot more than we are
 
Taking it further, last year in our first 4 games we had 34, 35, 21, and 42 non CJ rushes in the first 4 games.

This year we have 27, 32, 20, and 26 non CJ rushes in the first 4 games.

We should be running the ball a minimum of 35 times with our RB's per game. Even if we average 5 YPC (which is nearly a full yard less than their current avg.) we can control games.
 
Hawk5656 said:
I am just saying we're not averaging 2 more ypc with our RB's because we have gotten a lot of sacks that goes against our opponents rush numbers and our rush defense is not very good now. Either way I agree we need to more running the ball a lot more than we are
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Sure, we might not be averaging 2 YPG more than the opponent. Yet the point is the opponent realizes they need to rush the ball, and they have 178 total carries to 128 total carries for Iowa (counting QB runs). Heck they are getting way less per carry (even counting CJ) and they are running, running, running, and our idiot OC is passing, passing, passing.
 
deanvogs said:
Sure, we might not be averaging 2 YPG more than the opponent. Yet the point is the opponent realizes they need to rush the ball, and they have 178 total carries to 128 total carries for Iowa (counting QB runs). Heck they are getting way less per carry (even counting CJ) and they are running, running, running, and our idiot OC is passing, passing, passing.
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I don't get why you keep mentioning QB runs but yeah I agree we need to run the ball more. We're also last in FBS in offensive plays
 
So I posted this in Nov. of '12. I didn't bash on Greg Davis last year because we were winning games, and I felt maybe his offense had maybe ironed out the issues. I think I was wrong, and am going back to my original thoughts on the Greg Davis offenses.

deanvogs said:
I wonder what direction this goes next year. If we continue to try to combine a power zone run game, with the quick timing west coast passing game, my guess is we will continue to look terrible on the offensive side of the ball.
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deanvogs said:
So I posted this in Nov. of '12. I didn't bash on Greg Davis last year because we were winning games, and I felt maybe his offense had maybe ironed out the issues. I think I was wrong, and am going back to my original thoughts on the Greg Davis offenses.
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Did you factor in the lack of depth and speed over the top? Lack of depth overall? Is that on GD alone or the total package? Getting rid of GD won't solve the issues. It will take more than that.
 
HawkGold said:
Did you factor in the lack of depth and speed over the top? Lack of depth overall? Is that on GD alone or the total package? Getting rid of GD won't solve the issues. It will take more than that.
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I don't disagree with this. KF is ultimately in charge, but I think the KOK offense was more fitting for what Iowa is. As JD said in his podcast, give me the QB waggle, the crossing routes, the play action passes. Run the ball to set up the pass, not this crap GD does where he tries to come out passing to set up other things???
 
Jaleel is doing the Carl Davis approach. Take plays off. Or maybe he's protesting by playing poorly. Just to show people.
 
deanvogs said:
I don't disagree with this. KF is ultimately in charge, but I think the KOK offense was more fitting for what Iowa is. As JD said in his podcast, give me the QB waggle, the crossing routes, the play action passes. Run the ball to set up the pass, not this crap GD does where he tries to come out passing to set up other things???
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As of today I think we are averaging around 8 wins per year with GD. Without even looking it up I bet that's about the same as KOK.

The success or failure isn't because of the coordinators - or QBs - or weight room - or the stadium turf - or the refs - or the weather - or the fans - or any of that nonsense.

The head coach selects his assistants; his players; probably has input into the schedule; he chooses the personality of the program whether it be conservative or riverboat gambler. He makes the tough decisions on game day.

It's all Kirk - it's always been Kirk - it always will be Kirk. He's the author of all our pleasure and pain.
 
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