Terrible Loss













I'm not sure what's harder to deal with, feeling embarrassed and demeaned after getting completely dominated, or having a statement game slip through your fingers due to questionable coaching philosophy and a few ill-timed mental mistakes?
 


I would swap out terrible with frustrating. Semantics to most and I get that, but this game was there for the taking.
 


A few things jumped out at me from this game:

1. The offense is showing some positive signs. The WRs for the most part were pretty solid and showed growth, and, some may not agree, but, except for Washington getting too many early reps, I like our RBs.

2. For whatever reason, I think the days of "TE-U" may be quickly fading. Even if Ostrenga was available, I doubt opposing teams would be the least bit intimidated.

3. The offensive line has made strides, but still way too many whiffs in both run blocking and pass-pro. Logan may be the most hyped, but he was mostly ineffective yesterday, struggling with both backside blocking and getting to the second level guys. If you are leading the RB through a hole, you can't ignore the guy to your left or right flowing to the ball. Way too many tackles were occurring behind the blockers.

4. The defense made some great stops, but the tackling at times was horrendous. Phil's 2-gap defensive scheme is predicated on the ILBs taking the proper angle, getting off blocks and filling their assigned gap. Everyone will remember Harrell getting that QB strip, but probably not the numerous overruns, improper angles and getting caught up in the wash. I'd love to go over film with Wallace find out his rationale for not rotating other guys in and letting the cream rise to the top.

5. I didn't like Brown's body language. Perhaps it was out of character, but, if you are the backup QB coming into an intense situation, your first order of business should be to calm your teammates and gain their confidence. To me, he looked timid and overwhelmed in a moment where he should have been rallying the troops.

6. Play-calling on the last drive. I'm not one to criticize play-calling generally, but when the offense has almost two minutes and all three timeouts, why abandon the run? At least give the perception. When IU was dropping into coverage and only rushing three, we could have easily picked up chunks of yards with QB and/or RB draws. There were a couple of times where Brown probably could have picked up an easy 10-15 yards with a simple draw play against the deep coverage alignment, but we played right into their hands. The opportunity to methodically march down the field was there. That one is on the coaches.

7. Playing "Not to lose" versus "To win" is getting old.
 




A few things jumped out at me from this game:

1. The offense is showing some positive signs. The WRs for the most part were pretty solid and showed growth, and, some may not agree, but, except for Washington getting too many early reps, I like our RBs.

2. For whatever reason, I think the days of "TE-U" may be quickly fading. Even if Ostrenga was available, I doubt opposing teams would be the least bit intimidated.

3. The offensive line has made strides, but still way too many whiffs in both run blocking and pass-pro. Logan may be the most hyped, but he was mostly ineffective yesterday, struggling with both backside blocking and getting to the second level guys. If you are leading the RB through a hole, you can't ignore the guy to your left or right flowing to the ball. Way too many tackles were occurring behind the blockers.

4. The defense made some great stops, but the tackling at times was horrendous. Phil's 2-gap defensive scheme is predicated on the ILBs taking the proper angle, getting off blocks and filling their assigned gap. Everyone will remember Harrell getting that QB strip, but probably not the numerous overruns, improper angles and getting caught up in the wash. I'd love to go over film with Wallace find out his rationale for not rotating other guys in and letting the cream rise to the top.

5. I didn't like Brown's body language. Perhaps it was out of character, but, if you are the backup QB coming into an intense situation, your first order of business should be to calm your teammates and gain their confidence. To me, he looked timid and overwhelmed in a moment where he should have been rallying the troops.

6. Play-calling on the last drive. I'm not one to criticize play-calling generally, but when the offense has almost two minutes and all three timeouts, why abandon the run? At least give the perception. When IU was dropping into coverage and only rushing three, we could have easily picked up chunks of yards with QB and/or RB draws. There were a couple of times where Brown probably could have picked up an easy 10-15 yards with a simple draw play against the deep coverage alignment, but we played right into their hands. The opportunity to methodically march down the field was there. That one is on the coaches.

7. Playing "Not to lose" versus "To win" is getting old.
6. Play-calling on the last drive. I'm not one to criticize play-calling generally, but when the offense has almost two minutes and all three timeouts, why abandon the run? At least give the perception. When IU was dropping into coverage and only rushing three, we could have easily picked up chunks of yards with QB and/or RB draws. There were a couple of times where Brown probably could have picked up an easy 10-15 yards with a simple draw play against the deep coverage alignment, but we played right into their hands. The opportunity to methodically march down the field was there. That one is on the coaches.

We had the game in our hands. The game was ours to win or lose

The entire game was decided when we passed the ball when we were already in FG range

The play call was the kiss of death, Brown was swarmed and shouldn't have thrown the ball

We were playing To Lose with that call


Excellent Post...

:cool:
 
Last edited:


Super disappointing but not terrible. The screen connects and we win.
Super disappointing and super frustrating. Iowa had three decent shots at more points in the fourth quarter.

First Drive: Around midfield, off of a turnover on downs.
5 plays 11 yrds - Field goal to go ahead 13 - 10
Gronowski out trying to run on 3rd and 13.

Second Drive: Start on 25 after Ind Field Goal to tie.
6 plays 36 yrds - Brown Interception

Third drive: Start at Ind 29 off of interception.
4 plays 5 yrds - Missed Field Goal

Indiana TD
 






I thought the 4th quarter Iowa INT would be the defining moment of Iowa's season.

Nope.
I’ve been to a helluva lot of sporting events, pro and college, probably ten different sports if I had to guess. I have never been to one in my life where a stadium went from that level of energy, excitement, and noise to dead silent and deflated so fast after that missed kick. We all knew as soon as he missed it the game was lost. Everyone just seemed to know they weren’t going to tie it with a FG, they were going to march down and walk in the end zone.

That’s why I feel so strongly after watching KF’s presser that he doesn’t have it anymore. He acted like it was absolutely no big deal, like we had just lost to Georgia on the road. He doesn’t care at the level he should care. He needs to publicly show it to his players how they can’t give away a dumb personal foul that lets the other team tie the game. They can’t fail on a 3rd down that would’ve put the game away. Can’t miss an easy FG when the pressure is on that would’ve made Cignetti play in panic mode instead of calmly walking down the field to score a TD because they knew their worst case scenario was overtime. You can’t let the other team have nothing to lose.

Instead he just stood there and meekly talked like a defeated, mumbling old man who just wanted to go home and go to bed because “shit happens” and that’s football. Those aren’t the messages you send your players after a game like that. Ask yourselves how Cignetti would’ve reacted in the post game if the tables were turned. We all know, but a lot of us are just blinded by KF’s cult of personality.
 


I’ve been to a helluva lot of sporting events, pro and college, probably ten different sports if I had to guess. I have never been to one in my life where a stadium went from that level of energy, excitement, and noise to dead silent and deflated so fast after that missed kick. We all knew as soon as he missed it the game was lost. Everyone just seemed to know they weren’t going to tie it with a FG, they were going to march down and walk in the end zone.

That’s why I feel so strongly after watching KF’s presser that he doesn’t have it anymore. He acted like it was absolutely no big deal, like we had just lost to Georgia on the road. He doesn’t care at the level he should care. He needs to publicly show it to his players how they can’t give away a dumb personal foul that lets the other team tie the game. They can’t fail on a 3rd down that would’ve put the game away. Can’t miss an easy FG when the pressure is on that would’ve made Cignetti play in panic mode instead of calmly walking down the field to score a TD, because they knew their worst case scenario was overtime.

Instead he just stood there and meekly talked like a defeated, mumbling old man who just wanted to go home and go to bed because “shit happens” and that’s football. Those aren’t the messages you send your players after a game like that. Ask yourselves how Cignetti would’ve reacted in the post game if the tables were turned. We all know, but a lot of us are just blinded by KF’s cult of personality.
Amen
 




Back
Top