Sunrise Reality Check

H

hwks1

Well-Known Member
Celebrated the win - and a great win it was for our program. Kirk going for it on our own 26yd line took tremendous courage.

The Defense played well - again. Nothing much has changed here, the Defense carries the team.....

BUT...I don't think we should get too excited. In a way this is classic KF. Keep games close and hope you get a break (fumble @ goal line). You could say that Kirk and Iowa are 'due'. We have lost many close games over the last couple years and those have been the difference between Iowa and Kirk going 9-3 or 7-5.

So what really is different this year? Sure Kirk has gone for it on 4th down - he did that last year. Yes, there have been some awkward attempts at trickery...

Reality:

Slipped by Iowa State in the final 2 mins of the game
Slipped by Pitt - nearly gave that game away. What if that game goes to OT?
Held off a good Wisconsin team but had almost no yards offensive production in the second half. This Wisconsin team was rolled by Alabama. Face it we had some very timely takeaways

Every remaining game on the schedule looks loseable or winnable...
 
What's the formula for a good Hawkeye team??

Great scoring D- I think we are ranked 15th in the country.

Serviceable Offense- We don't need to be great, just serviceable and I think we are. The Offense was good in the first half. Second half was another story.

Good special teams- Koehn has strong leg which helps to limit return opps in knockoffs, punting has been much better this year and Kings return game is fine. Basically solid all around.

I guess I'm feeling pretty good about this team.
 
If Iowa stays healthy (don't lose CJ) Iowa should take care of business at home.

I think it comes down to at Northwestern and at Nebraska (despite their troubles, Cornholes still can have the offense that could beat us when they are playing their best). Well, maybe at Indiana to.

Really, the key is to stay healthy and take it one game at a time.

I'm thinking 10-2 is a safe bet (with Iowa being an essential lock for a good bowl game) with 12-0 the ceiling now (before the post season).

Pretty amazing when I thought this was a 6-6 or 7-5 type team.
 
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Very much agree with the OP, that yesterday was 98% standard Iowa/Ferentz football.

There have been tweaks that amount to a new car wash, but the engine under the hood is the same.

And I'm happy with that.
 
hwks1 said:
Celebrated the win - and a great win it was for our program. Kirk going for it on our own 26yd line took tremendous courage.

The Defense played well - again. Nothing much has changed here, the Defense carries the team.....

BUT...I don't think we should get too excited. In a way this is classic KF. Keep games close and hope you get a break (fumble @ goal line). You could say that Kirk and Iowa are 'due'. We have lost many close games over the last couple years and those have been the difference between Iowa and Kirk going 9-3 or 7-5.

So what really is different this year? Sure Kirk has gone for it on 4th down - he did that last year. Yes, there have been some awkward attempts at trickery...

Reality:

Slipped by Iowa State in the final 2 mins of the game
Slipped by Pitt - nearly gave that game away. What if that game goes to OT?
Held off a good Wisconsin team but had almost no yards offensive production in the second half. This Wisconsin team was rolled by Alabama. Face it we had some very timely takeaways

Every remaining game on the schedule looks loseable or winnable...
Click to expand...

This is an excellent post. Iowa is much improved and the Big Ten West looks wide open. I think it is critical that our tight ends and wide receivers continue to stay active and in the offense. Teams are going to load up to stop the running game (which has been surprisingly good so far). I think CJ is going to have some big passing games going forward!
 
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hwks1 said:
Celebrated the win - and a great win it was for our program. Kirk going for it on our own 26yd line took tremendous courage.

The Defense played well - again. Nothing much has changed here, the Defense carries the team.....

BUT...I don't think we should get too excited. In a way this is classic KF. Keep games close and hope you get a break (fumble @ goal line). You could say that Kirk and Iowa are 'due'. We have lost many close games over the last couple years and those have been the difference between Iowa and Kirk going 9-3 or 7-5.

So what really is different this year? Sure Kirk has gone for it on 4th down - he did that last year. Yes, there have been some awkward attempts at trickery...

Reality:

Slipped by Iowa State in the final 2 mins of the game
Slipped by Pitt - nearly gave that game away. What if that game goes to OT?
Held off a good Wisconsin team but had almost no yards offensive production in the second half. This Wisconsin team was rolled by Alabama. Face it we had some very timely takeaways

Every remaining game on the schedule looks loseable or winnable...
Click to expand...

We can go ahead and be excited. Yes, Iowa is winning close games (especially the last 2). But I would argue Iowa was clearly the better team against Iowa State and Pitt. Iowa outgained the opponent by significant amounts. Iowa outgained ISU 475 to 310. Outgained Pitt 363 to 282. Iowa's only real shot at beating Wisconsin without Tevaun Smith and Boone Myers was to win a game exactly how Iowa won it yesterday. Have the defense play huge, take advantage of any opportunities that the defense or special teams created.

If Iowa has to beat Illinois on a last-second FG, then I would say it's more time to be concerned. Without T. Smith, defenses can sit on top of Iowa's passing game and dare us to go over the top. Jerminic Smith gets a great shot at growing and becoming a factor here in the next few weeks. Illinois' defense is nothing like Wisconsin's, the shots will be there in the passing game. Hopefully the offense can get a bit more rhythm before going to a very good Northwestern defense the following week.
 
I'm as happy as the next Hawk about this year's success so far. One has to be realistic, though. Illinois has a spread offense. A better passing attack than Wisky's. I hope Iowa's defense is as good as everyone says it is.

Many have said this is a normal Iowa team. That the defense has carried this team as usual. Except for the Wisky game, IMO, the offense has carried Iowa to each victory. Let's put credit where it is due. And let's be happy that both the offense and defense can win games.
 
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DodgerHawki said:
.... Without T. Smith, defenses can sit on top of Iowa's passing game and dare us to go over the top. Jerminic Smith gets a great shot at growing and becoming a factor here in the next few weeks...
Click to expand...
This is a great thread and I might add that J. Smith has speed but pretty much zero experience. Don't know what day TS sprained his knee, but JS looked like he didn't get many reps w/ the 1s.

The Illini are dangerous, good thing they play the Hawks in Kinnick, and a total team effort will be required to dispatch them. 12th man will be a huge factor in this contest. BF needs to figure out how to respond to the delayed LB Blitz and get it on the field by Saturday. I think Fitz is drooling with the prospect of knocking another Iowa QB out of the game and we get the Illini to work something out because they are going to see it when they review the game films.

Iowa has only the slimmest margin of error to get to the conference championship and zero margin of error if they have any hope of getting to the NCG.
 
What would we be saying if Wisconsin won this game? what if they punched it in down on the goal line?

What would you be questioning?
 
hwks1 said:
Celebrated the win - and a great win it was for our program. Kirk going for it on our own 26yd line took tremendous courage.

The Defense played well - again. Nothing much has changed here, the Defense carries the team.....

BUT...I don't think we should get too excited. In a way this is classic KF. Keep games close and hope you get a break (fumble @ goal line). You could say that Kirk and Iowa are 'due'. We have lost many close games over the last couple years and those have been the difference between Iowa and Kirk going 9-3 or 7-5.

So what really is different this year? Sure Kirk has gone for it on 4th down - he did that last year. Yes, there have been some awkward attempts at trickery...

Reality:

Slipped by Iowa State in the final 2 mins of the game
Slipped by Pitt - nearly gave that game away. What if that game goes to OT?
Held off a good Wisconsin team but had almost no yards offensive production in the second half. This Wisconsin team was rolled by Alabama. Face it we had some very timely takeaways

Every remaining game on the schedule looks loseable or winnable...
Click to expand...



Your post is pretty spot on. I think KF has changed a bit more than you give him credit for. I personally, as a long time fan did not believe he had it in him at this stage to change.

For instance, 2 fake punts in one season. Haven't seen that before. Last Saturday, going for it on 4th and inches deep in their own territory with a 4 point lead and in the 4th quarter. That's a new one on me.

However, you're correct that every game left is winnable or losable at this point. The Hawks have gotten some very good bounces this year. The Hawks are about 5 plays away from being 2-3 right now.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. There's a long way to go. On the bright side, from KF on down to the team, they seem to have more hop in their step. The intensity seems to be at a higher level so far if you will.

One day and one game at a time please.

On on the negative side of things, still DO NOT care for Greg Davis. Send him and his giant ego back to Texas please.
 
Going into season, we knew Iowa was working with inexperienced OTs and it showed more against Wisconsin. Schobert damn near won the game for them. However, it is to Iowa's credit that they made the inside running game work effectively. As far as complaints on conservative calls, look what happened when CJ was trying to pass. He was scrambling and fumbled. Also was nearly sacked on the last attempt to Kittle. If Iowa had run the ball on that play, who knows what would have happened.

Also, lets give credit for an excellent play call on the TD pass to Kittle. Iowa had been running and used play action on first down instead of waiting until third down.

As for Wisconsin's goal line fumble, give credit to DL. Morehouse said Meier helped create that fumble by slamming into OG and causing misstep by Stave.

Wisconsin was a strong defensive team but Iowa did better. Hopefully CJ and J Smith develop some timing because he was open at least twice but ball was overthrown
 
I for one believe that Wiscy was fortunate that they weren't trailing by multiple possessions going into the half. Based on the way our defense played (both halves) and the opportunities we had offensively in the first half they're lucky it was that close late.
 
Have to agree. Its a fine line for Iowa. I dont see a game on the schedule that we can stroll in and win with the possible exception of Maryland. At the same time obviously we could win any of our remaining games. Good teams find a way to win close games and I like the character of this team. The good teams Ferentz has had in the past won those close games.

I think we still need to find some play makers on offense and the offensive line needs to continue to improve. If those happen and Beathard stays healthy you have to like our chanses
 
longtimer said:
Have to agree. Its a fine line for Iowa. I dont see a game on the schedule that we can stroll in and win with the possible exception of Maryland. At the same time obviously we could win any of our remaining games. Good teams find a way to win close games and I like the character of this team. The good teams Ferentz has had in the past won those close games.

I think we still need to find some play makers on offense and the offensive line needs to continue to improve. If those happen and Beathard stays healthy you have to like our chanses
Click to expand...


There have been good teams that lost the close games too. '05, '08, and '10 were good teams that aren't remembered as good as they should have been because they lost the close ones.
 
Kind of the same old story on message boards, some go over the top in celebrating while others are always trying to pull back the reins. Football is a game of inches, can some times be luck, but at the end of the day all that matters are who scored the most points and up until now Iowa has scored more points than the other team 5 consecutive times. Yes the game looked ugly, we left points on the field and CJ was airmailing everything. To me the exciting thing is this Hawks team is 5-0 but the offense hasn't hit their stride yet. IMO, if CJ would have been on Iowa would have thumped Wisconsin much like Alabama did and on their home field.

This is by far a finished product and maybe they can keep improving and at the end of the year we will have something really worth celebrating. You don't want to get overly excited, ok great, but it isn't very often we are 5-0 so excuse me (among others) while I enjoy it.
 
Don't under estimate on how much the wind played a factor in the passing game, but that being said, we definitely shot ourselves in the foot several times. Fortunately most of those mistakes are correctable... good example: The end zone pass to Kreiger-Coble was on CJ... the play was designed for the TE to press into the LB and then turn and catch the pass to his left... CJ threw it to the wrong side of the LB - as I understand it.

A win is a win is a win....
 
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