The Maddening 2019 Season

W

WinOneThisCentury

Well-Known Member
I don't know about the rest of you, but this season will always feel like the Championship Season that got away. The offense was always so close to putting it together...only to consistently fail in the big, big moments against the really good teams on the schedule. Even the upset of Minnesota, the offense could only muster 3 points in the second half.

I know the OL struggled with injuries and we lost Brandon Smith (a huge loss by the way), but if I look at the WRs we have, it rivals 2015 team with Tevaun Smith and Vandenburg...and it's a deeper group. Obviously, the TEs weren't as good with Reisner and Kreiger-Coble, especially in the run game....but they were coming on.

When I look back on it, the 2019 team just couldn't make it easy on themselves. It seemed like every time they had a chance to put a team away (think ISU, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, & Nebraska) they would shoot themselves in the foot. Always.

Critical drops, not just when the game was on the line, killed them. Tracy drops a perfectly thrown ball in the first half yesterday when we were about to go up 21-3...that killed a drive. Ojemudia drops an interception when we had the momentum...and could have put a stake in Nebraska. This type of stuff happened all year...hence the maddening thread title. Koener's drop of a wounded duck against Minnesota, etc. Throw in Stanley's inconsistencies and you just wondered how they would find a way to keep the other team in it.

2019 will be remembered for a Championship Defense, and an offense that just couldn't quite make the plays necessary in the big games. People who solely finger Nate Stanley weren't paying attention. He couldn't block and catch the ball too.

I really want to blame Brian Ferentz as this team averaged a meager 24 points...but the more I think about it...he can't make the plays for them. Did he put them in position to succeed offensively? At the end of the day...I think he did.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
I really want to blame Brian Ferentz as this team averaged a meager 24 points...but the more I think about it...he can't make the plays for them. Did he put them in position to succeed offensively? At the end of the day...I think he did.
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I have to lay some offensive woes blame on BF. You said it yourself the last 3 games the hawks came out of offense and scored TDs early only to go lame again. To me this is the OC not having a plan to counterattack the defensive changes that are going to come up.

Where were the deeper passes and passing to the middle of the field in the second half yesterday because it was sure wide open in the last drive. Instead BF mainly kept with the short sideline passes or at least those were the ones maybe Nate was told to throw to.

And the feel of the game watching it on TV was that the hawks were running the ball better than throwing it. It seemed that BF again went away from the run somewhat.

Right now I do not think BF is very good at making adjustments. I give him credit for the reverse call but I was not that impressed with NEbby's pass rush pressure and their deep coverage.

I love the skinny posts and seams routes that ISM runs. He is very good at giving that little head and body fake one way and then quickly turning it slight back the other way like he did on his only catch. That play needs to be used more often. We need B Smith back too but Tracy is really good on the sharper angle post routes.
 
Why can’t people just enjoy a season? We went 9-3 while playing a top 10 schedule having to face 5 top 25 teams with 3 being on the road. We had zero running game, we had a shaky at best interior OL play with tons of injuries, and still went 9-3, with a chance at a 10 win season.
 
Few thoughts

Brian doesn’t make adjustments and that may be in his blood or Kirk doesn’t allow for it

Stanley was horrible. For every NFL throw he’d make 10 bad ones. We needed a Nathan Chandler performance and got JC. He never developed

staff not playing our best playmakers. Goodson would have started for any other staff with these same players. His big play ability was / is a huge miss when he’s on sideline. The other RBs are serviceable at best

LaPorta is another one who isn’t as glaring as Goodson but imagine having his play early in the year.

overall just a poor performance overall for the offense. You expect more out of BF, and Stanley.
Now we go into next year having no idea what we have at QB and potentially OL

Does Iowa go even more conservative??
 
deanvogs said:
Why can’t people just enjoy a season? We went 9-3 while playing a top 10 schedule having to face 5 top 25 teams with 3 being on the road. We had zero running game, we had a shaky at best interior OL play with tons of injuries, and still went 9-3, with a chance at a 10 win season.
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says more about our opponents. We beat one team with a pulse
 
Iowa is just a flawed but very talented team. And that can be frustrating. 4, 6, & 15 made individual plays yesterday that most players at their positions that have played at Iowa simply can't make.

But those guys also miss wide open WRs, trip over their own feet on KO return, and get greedy on runs and instead of taking 2-3 yards they take 3 yard losses.

IMO most of it comes down to OL coaching and Kirk being too traditional instead of adjusting to his player's strengths.
 
Make no mistake, this was a GREAT SEASON...
-9-3--only team to play FIVE teams ranked in the BCS
-9 Game BIG schedule with 2 great Crossover games
-only 14 points from being undefeated
-lost FOUR absolute studs EARLY to NFL

If those 4 studs all came back, we WOULD be talking about a BIG championship and possible a NATTY. Blame KF and company for being TOO GOOD at developing talent so they leave early to the NFL!
 
With running game challenges...If stanley were horrible Iowa would have lost 6 or 7 games. Instead Iowa won 9 games in spite of a poor running game.

The loss of Brandon Smith did not hurt the team. Instead Tracey came in and reminded us of the Run After Catch. A concept we don't see illustrated much in Iowa football.

Overall, it was a good year. Better than most years at Iowa.
 
This season was a good season. If 10-2 but out of the Big10 CG then still a good season.

With Hooker and one of the TEs I think this season is a great season with a real chance to knock off OSU.

It all boiled down to the Wisconsin game just like we all said it would.

That is a must game in Kinnick in 2020. Must game.
 
All that matters to me is win the division and Iowa hasn’t even sniffed it since 2015.

Iowa can’t beat Wisconsin
 
DBAHawkFan said:
says more about our opponents. We beat one team with a pulse
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LOL, wow some of you have zero clue about college football.

-We have two wins over top 25 teams, only 2 teams have more (Georgia and LSU at 3).

-No other team in the top 25 had played 5 other top 25 teams.

I mean my God the stupidity on this board is breathe taking at times. Bama has 11 wins and NOT A SINGLE WIN OVER A TOP 25 TEAM. Clemson has not even played a single top 25 team all year long. They will have 12 wins and beat nobody with a pulse.

Who the hell do you think teams with 9+ wins are beating? They are NOT beating 5 top 25 teams and then 4 other bowl teams. They are beating 2 or 3 top 25 teams, 2-3 bowl eligible teams, and are beating 4 complete dog shit teams. That is how it works, how many times do I have to explain this to you f***ing idiots?
 
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WinOneThisCentury said:
I don't know about the rest of you, but this season will always feel like the Championship Season that got away. The offense was always so close to putting it together...only to consistently fail in the big, big moments against the really good teams on the schedule. Even the upset of Minnesota, the offense could only muster 3 points in the second half.

I know the OL struggled with injuries and we lost Brandon Smith (a huge loss by the way), but if I look at the WRs we have, it rivals 2015 team with Tevaun Smith and Vandenburg...and it's a deeper group. Obviously, the TEs weren't as good with Reisner and Kreiger-Coble, especially in the run game....but they were coming on.

When I look back on it, the 2019 team just couldn't make it easy on themselves. It seemed like every time they had a chance to put a team away (think ISU, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, & Nebraska) they would shoot themselves in the foot. Always.

Critical drops, not just when the game was on the line, killed them. Tracy drops a perfectly thrown ball in the first half yesterday when we were about to go up 21-3...that killed a drive. Ojemudia drops an interception when we had the momentum...and could have put a stake in Nebraska. This type of stuff happened all year...hence the maddening thread title. Koener's drop of a wounded duck against Minnesota, etc. Throw in Stanley's inconsistencies and you just wondered how they would find a way to keep the other team in it.

2019 will be remembered for a Championship Defense, and an offense that just couldn't quite make the plays necessary in the big games. People who solely finger Nate Stanley weren't paying attention. He couldn't block and catch the ball too.

I really want to blame Brian Ferentz as this team averaged a meager 24 points...but the more I think about it...he can't make the plays for them. Did he put them in position to succeed offensively? At the end of the day...I think he did.
Click to expand...

This was an excellent analysis.
 
deanvogs said:
Why can’t people just enjoy a season? We went 9-3 while playing a top 10 schedule having to face 5 top 25 teams with 3 being on the road. We had zero running game, we had a shaky at best interior OL play with tons of injuries, and still went 9-3, with a chance at a 10 win season.
Click to expand...

Because teams like this don't come along very often. This was a championship caliber team where the offense crapped the bed in huge games.

In most years I'd be fine with 9 or 10 wins but I'd like to see Iowa play for something more in my lifetime and this years team had that chance. I'm not usually a NN but I'm going to look back at this year and wonder what could have been.
 
Exactly. Next year the built in excuse is we have a new QB, and potentially losses to the NFL

but that goes back to this season and why we can’t finish higher than 3rd in our division with such “talent”

what are the expectations for Iowa football? 7 wins for a staff bonus ? A bowl game ? Or win the freaking division and maybe the conference championship!!??
 
ssckelley said:
Because teams like this don't come along very often. This was a championship caliber team where the offense crapped the bed in huge games.

In most years I'd be fine with 9 or 10 wins but I'd like to see Iowa play for something more in my lifetime and this years team had that chance. I'm not usually a NN but I'm going to look back at this year and wonder what could have been.
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This is fair. Can't argue with it. I will add that when you're sending guys early to the pros like Iowa has the last 2 years and will again this year, you better be winning 9-10 games at minimum. Iowa is a talented team by Iowa standards but they're not recruiting at a PSU/OSU/Michigan level consistently to handle those types of losses.

Particularly when you factor in their West rivals are not losing anywhere close to the same numbers Iowa is.
 
If
WinOneThisCentury said:
I don't know about the rest of you, but this season will always feel like the Championship Season that got away. The offense was always so close to putting it together...only to consistently fail in the big, big moments against the really good teams on the schedule. Even the upset of Minnesota, the offense could only muster 3 points in the second half.

I know the OL struggled with injuries and we lost Brandon Smith (a huge loss by the way), but if I look at the WRs we have, it rivals 2015 team with Tevaun Smith and Vandenburg...and it's a deeper group. Obviously, the TEs weren't as good with Reisner and Kreiger-Coble, especially in the run game....but they were coming on.

When I look back on it, the 2019 team just couldn't make it easy on themselves. It seemed like every time they had a chance to put a team away (think ISU, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, & Nebraska) they would shoot themselves in the foot. Always.

Critical drops, not just when the game was on the line, killed them. Tracy drops a perfectly thrown ball in the first half yesterday when we were about to go up 21-3...that killed a drive. Ojemudia drops an interception when we had the momentum...and could have put a stake in Nebraska. This type of stuff happened all year...hence the maddening thread title. Koener's drop of a wounded duck against Minnesota, etc. Throw in Stanley's inconsistencies and you just wondered how they would find a way to keep the other team in it.

2019 will be remembered for a Championship Defense, and an offense that just couldn't quite make the plays necessary in the big games. People who solely finger Nate Stanley weren't paying attention. He couldn't block and catch the ball too.

I really want to blame Brian Ferentz as this team averaged a meager 24 points...but the more I think about it...he can't make the plays for them. Did he put them in position to succeed offensively? At the end of the day...I think he did.
Click to expand...

we kept Hock and Fant we would most likely be undefeated. Stanley just never turned into a 4 or 5 star talent. And BF was completely outcoached in the Michigan game.
 
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