The Morning After NIU: I Found Some Silver Linings

I find way more to be concerned about. This was a young and bad NIU defense, we should of put up 50 on them. The fact they adjusted at the half and shut us down is very concerning. I'd be willing to bet we saw our highest point total for the year this game.

Also, the d is still lacking talent. The line is no better despite all the talk of Davis.

I don't expect any more close losses expect big losses from here on out.
 
someone said something interesting....it's always about exeuction - if you believe the coaches. SO coach, 7 straight games and your team hasn't executed well enough to win...who's that on? Oh well we know last year's O was lost.
 
One of my worst fears is our QB position. While Rudock wasn't terrible, he obviously doesn't have the strongest arm in the world. I just wonder if any of the other QB's will ever get a chance to show what they can actually do under the gun or if Ferentz will just assume that Jake is the best we got and stick with him through thick and thin (and there will be thin).
 
MisterLucky said:
One of my worst fears is our QB position. While Rudock wasn't terrible, he obviously doesn't have the strongest arm in the world. I just wonder if any of the other QB's will ever get a chance to show what they can actually do under the gun or if Ferentz will just assume that Jake is the best we got and stick with him through thick and thin (and there will be thin).
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I would assume will see them next week. I can also assure you that Rudock isn't light years ahead of his competition like we've been led to believe in years past. So that excuse can be thrown out right now.

I also agree 100% with NCHawker on the execution comment, it is on him and the staff. I will take it a step further and say that term is used so not to individually throw his players under the bus. He loves the comment "We just didn't execute". It makes his press conference go smoothly.. :)
 
Our secondary looked poor, we might have had better cornerback play with the backups in the game. Safeties kept letting guys get behind them for one reason or another, maybe good route design by NIU sucked the safeties up to guard receivers.

The defensive front seven played well enough to win, needed blitzes to get pressure, and not sure why we still have so many Lbkrs in the game when they have third and long.

The offense in the first half was above avg for KF team, the running game was pretty good the whole game and the passing game in the first half was above last year.

But, and I say but, the pass routes in the first half were short to medium to 20 yarders to long bombs.

I thought the second half the pass routes reverted mostly to shorter ones and no sit down routes that were working in the first.

Punting was below avg, punt gunners were great, kickoff coverage great cuz meier kept booming them.

I bet KMM wishes he would have done a return to the left after that last fair catch as he had half the field open (which proceeded the last INT).
 
Here is the silver lining IMO and I'm as anti KF as they come. The team as a whole looked better more competitive took shots down field had some rhythm so spark at times. Defense not so good. Still think going to be a long long year , but this team with a couple of breaks looks like they could shock a team IMO and that most certainly wasn't the case last year.
 
i just see too many dark clouds personally

only scored 20 points on offense.

only threw to CJF 2 times (one was a TD, but never went back to it)

RB's looked okay, but only a couple runs over 10 yards, IIRC. would have expected to see some bigger runs later in the game as the o-line wore them down.

DB's got burned a few times for big plays

throwing the ball on 3rd and short

the ******* bubble screens need to stop! IMO

don't put your inexperienced QB in the position to try to make an out throw all the way across the field at their best defender!

etc, etc, etc
 
Seth53 said:
I didn't see you mention where NIU was without their starting RB the entire game and their ball-busting best WR the entire 2nd half.

And they still overcame the ToP in the 2nd half and, of course, outscored us.
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naaah - their starting rb is not that good - and the WRs that played - had nice games. makes no difference - no story - nice try
 
JonDMiller said:
I really didn't have to go hunting too hard for them..I just had to sleep off the funk of that loss. There are several reasons for hope, IMO.

The Morning After: Northern Illinois « Hawkeye NationHawkeye Nation
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I agree, there were silver linings and the coaches deserve a lot of the credit. We look like a better team this year. The attempts, while not always executed, made sense and I really think it was a conscious effort by the coaching staff. I noticed in the kid's day scrimmage that all the QBs were making better downfield attempts.

I just think we didn't play our trumps enough, which consist of RB off left and right tackle in a rotation. We need to be 65% run, especially when we are that physically dominant over the opponent. The balanced 50/50 strategy plays to our opponents strength (with inferior opponents). Most good teams are closer to 65% run. It's the play mix. There must be more opportunities somewhere to run the ball but we are getting too cute, too often.

There were also some mistakes in the secondary that cost us but we are way ahead of last year already, imo.
 
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If it weren't for all the pain you might be able to find a bit of humor or irony in this loss. Billed by some as "The Most Important Game In Ferentz's Tenure".............we should have known that it would end with another close game loss. That's how the later Ferentz movies end.
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The only other morning after thought I have deals with play calling. Greg Davis was given a used Tahoo when he arrived in IC. He seems to continue to yearn back to his days of driving a Corvette thinking that applying some touch up paint and hanging some fuzzy dice from the window will return him to the good old days. He needs to realize that it's still a used Tahoo regardless and he should learn to drive it accordingly. It can be a very functional and productive vehicle.
 
ThunderHawk said:
Here's the dark cloud: that horizontal BS is the system and will continue until these talent-wasting coaches are run out on a rail.
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I have a dark cloud too. Our receivers had to stop and wait for any deep ball thrown down field. Better d-backs wouldn't get beat that bad were we could wait for the ball and would likely have been picked off since it wasn't caught at the highest point. Aka, I'm concerned with Jake's arm strength.
 
Biggusblockus said:
I did notice that, and the balls were both way under thrown. Contrast that with Lynch dropping balls into tight windows perfectly most the day and you can really see the gap in talent at QB. No wonder no team or coach respects the deep ball when they play Iowa. We can't execute it. That bomb on 3rd and 1 was about as bonehead a call as you can make with Weismann avg 5 YPC.
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If only we could find a 2* like Lynch to recruit.
 
DJL said:
BOWLING??? BOWLING? We just lost to a Mac team on our home field and you're talking about BOWLING? We have lost 7 straight games! BOWLING....BOWLING??
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jim-mora.jpg
 
I guess I can see the silver lining. All along I have predicted a 2-10 season. This game was not one of the 2 wins. After watching a lot of football Saturday I can now see us winning at least 5 games. ISU, Mo. St., W. Michigan, Minny , and Purdue. Also a good possiblity of at least one upset, maybe Wisky or MSU. Not saying it will happen, but I do see the possibility.
 
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