Sorry to be an Optimist....

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
But it seems to me that Iowa has a chance against everyone left on their schedule except for Ohio State. Here we go:

1. W. Michigan: We SHOULD win this game.
2. At Minnesota: Gophers are ok, but not great. I think we match up pretty well.
3. MSU: Great defense, but questionable offense. And we get them at home.
4. At Ohio State: Loss
5. Northwestern: Very good team, but an average defense. I think we can score on them if we limit turnovers.
6. Wisconsin: Why not?
7. At Purdue: Purdue is not good. 60/40 shot.
8. Michigan: They should have lost to winless Akron at home. They don't seem invincible to me.
9. At Nebraska: They stink on defense. STINK. And they may be without a coach. We will move the ball on them at home if Rudock is healthy and keeps progressing.
 
Sparty has the best defense Iowa will see all season. Agreed that the only guaranteed loss is OSU.
 
There is never a need to be sorry for being an optimist. It's what gets us through the rough seasons. I think winnable games are W. Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan State and Purdue. I'd love to beat Northwestern and I think we could if we ever learn how to corral their quarterback. The other games I have my doubt but we have always played Michigan tough and last year's Nebby game was close when we had a worse team. Wisconsin has a new coach so maybe. Who knows, the Hawks have suprised me in the past. I'll keep praying.
 
Don't write off the OSU cheater game. Their front 7 is mostly inexperienced. Iowa will be able to exploit that with a it's dominant power running attack. They need to have few if any penalties for turnovers, control the clock, limit the scoring opportunities for the cheaters. Iowa has also had success on kick returns vs the cheaters. So bonus points there will help.
Don't forget too that Iowa has been very competitive vs the cheaters. One game came down to a bad coaching call to sit on the ball, a dropping pass, and overtime. The other game came down to a missed holding call on 4th down. Iowa should have beat the cheaters both times. You know what they say though 3rd time is the charm. This time they do it.
 
Hawknick said:
Don't write off the OSU cheater game. Their front 7 is mostly inexperienced. Iowa will be able to exploit that with a it's dominant power running attack. They need to have few if any penalties for turnovers, control the clock, limit the scoring opportunities for the cheaters. Iowa has also had success on kick returns vs the cheaters. So bonus points there will help.
Don't forget too that Iowa has been very competitive vs the cheaters. One game came down to a bad coaching call to sit on the ball, a dropping pass, and overtime. The other game came down to a missed holding call on 4th down. Iowa should have beat the cheaters both times. You know what they say though 3rd time is the charm. This time they do it.
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Problem is, the first year you speak of was the year Iowa won the Orange Bowl.. The second year was with essentially that same team. That was 3-4 years ago. If this year's Iowa team goes into the shoe and comes out with a win, I will eat my dirty underwear for dinner.

That said, most of the other games on the schedule would appear that Iowa has at least a shot. I am not impressed with the conference this year at all, so Iowa has a chance, particularly in the home games.

I just don't see it @OSU. Still gotta play the games, though. No one thought Appalachian State would win @Michigan a few years ago, either.
 
I don't like the OSU game at all. I believe KF's worst B10 loss was 49-3 against MSU in 1999. This game has the makings to be just as bad or worse. There are very few players on Iowa's team that would start for OSU and quite frankly outside of OL & LB not too many would even make the 2 deeps there.

Northwestern, Michigan, & Nebraska's QBs are going to be a nightmare for Iowa's D but Iowa's running game could be a nightmare for each of them as well. If Iowa won 1 of these 3 I'd be very happy.

The rest of the games I expect Iowa to have a solid shot at winning.
 
Sheldor said:
4-8, 1-7
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I'm refraining from projections this year, but I will say after going to the cats-broncos game on Saturday night that Tyler Van Tubbergen has a good opportunity to look like John Elway against our defense. Dude was hitting guys who could catch the ball and he could run it. Unless we get a ton of pressure or Derpvis manages to consume at least 38 minutes of clock, I could Western putting up between 24-31 on our defense. I think our O should do better than that, but I won't be surprised if this game comes down to the last 4 minutes.
 
Xerxes said:
I don't like the OSU game at all. I believe KF's worst B10 loss was 49-3 against MSU in 1999. This game has the makings to be just as bad or worse. There are very few players on Iowa's team that would start for OSU and quite frankly outside of OL & LB not too many would even make the 2 deeps there.

Northwestern, Michigan, & Nebraska's QBs are going to be a nightmare for Iowa's D but Iowa's running game could be a nightmare for each of them as well. If Iowa won 1 of these 3 I'd be very happy.

The rest of the games I expect Iowa to have a solid shot at winning.
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Northwestern is going to score on Iowa almost every time they have the ball. It is going to be ugly unless Davis has the offense really clicking by then. I would share your optimism but we'll either lose two RBs or two o-linemen by then and our run game will be putrid again.

***Knocks on wood hoping that doesn't happen but doesn't want to brag about running game in front of AIRBHG***
 
This years team is doing somethings better than the 2010 and 2009 teams. I like the running attack better. The linebackers are doing better than the 2010 group. I would take senior Morris ahead of the freshman version. The depth on the lines are better. They are not trying to play the same guys all game. Plus the offense is keeping the D off the field longer.
 
Hawknick said:
This years team is doing somethings better than the 2010 and 2009 teams. I like the running attack better. The linebackers are doing better than the 2010 group. I would take senior Morris ahead of the freshman version. The depth on the lines are better. They are not trying to play the same guys all game. Plus the offense is keeping the D off the field longer.
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Of course senior Morris is better than freshman Morris. But Morris should have never seen the field regularly on defense in 2010. The Hawks were decimated by injuries to their LB corps that year.
 
Iowa has played a MAC team, a bad d-1aa team and one of the worst d-1a teams in the nation. Nobody really has a good idea how good or bad Iowa is based on that competition. Bottom line: they really haven't played anybody yet. Please don't buy in to the bs that NI is a good team. Look who they play. And look what happens when they play a good d-1a team. Folks, they are a MAC team for goodness sake!
 
Xerxes said:
I don't like the OSU game at all. I believe KF's worst B10 loss was 49-3 against MSU in 1999. This game has the makings to be just as bad or worse. There are very few players on Iowa's team that would start for OSU and quite frankly outside of OL & LB not too many would even make the 2 deeps there.

Northwestern, Michigan, & Nebraska's QBs are going to be a nightmare for Iowa's D but Iowa's running game could be a nightmare for each of them as well. If Iowa won 1 of these 3 I'd be very happy.

The rest of the games I expect Iowa to have a solid shot at winning.
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Iowa hasn't really had much trouble with Martinez. Burkhead was the one that the defense couldn't stop. Running QB's who can't throw accurately are traditionally what Iowa stops well and this years defense seems to fit that mold.

Any team whose primary offensive weapon is their running game will play into the hands of the Iowa defense because that's what they are best at stopping. Teams that like to throw and throw often are where this defense is going to need some luck to win.
 
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