The next three weeks

[#1DieHardHawk]

Will define this season.

PSU has shown some weaknesses. Regardless, it remains an athletic dangerous team, especially at home. McSorley is as mentally tough as they come. He may hit on a few big passes, but, we can't let him break contain and gash us in the run game. He can be demoralizing, and, Sanders can look like Barkley if you let him get going. He needs to be contacted early.

Purdue is peaking. Brohm has the players firing on all cylinders. I expected it to have an explosive offense, but, the defense has really come around too. Moore is a beast, and, arguably, the best player in the conference right now regardless of position. Yes, he's that good. I don't know how Brohm got that guy, but, man, did he score big with that (I know they went to the same high school, but, still). We will need to be fundamentally sound in our gaps and on the edges to have a chance. The offense also will need to sustain long drives to keep Purdue's offense on the sidelines.

NU has always been a thorn in our side. Fitz will have them ready, as always. We have to make Thorsen uncomfortable. NU's offense is predicated on short passes, which, in the past, has hurt us. Fitz knows how to attack our zone. Pass rush is the key here. Offensively, we have to contain Gaziano. He's an under-the-radar player in the B1G. You have to account for him.

I'll be happy to come out of this stretch 2-1, but it's not going to be easy.

 

[Motigerhawk]

PsU does not worry me. We are bigger than they are and have anough speed to stay with them. They do not have a Barkley this year. Im not worried.

Purdue will be hurt by their lack of depth by the time we play them. I will admit, this team is the one I feel like has the best chance against us. But, again, they lack depth. Im not worried.

NW is average. They beat an average MSU team. They struggled with a crappy Nebby team. Im not worried.

 

[Iceman]

PsU does not worry me. We are bigger than they are and have anough speed to stay with them. They do not have a Barkley this year. Im not worried.

Purdue will be hurt by their lack of depth by the time we play them. I will admit, this team is the one I feel like has the best chance against us. But, again, they lack depth. Im not worried.

NW is average. They beat an average MSU team. They struggled with a crappy Nebby team. Im not worried.

Next 3 weeks will define our season. If we go 3-0, we will have earned a top 10 ranking and a trip to Tampa or Orlando January 1

 

[smhawk]

Stanely is a stud, but he pretty inconsistent. Iowa State, yesterday vs. Indiana, last year OSU.

Strange that someone so talented struggles at getting a spiral on throws at times.- But if the defense can keep it up there won't be a lot of pressure on him. He'll bounce back next week and hopefully he gets into consistent play following.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

Margin for error is very small.

 

[hawkinn3]

First off Northwestern is terrible. Throw past upsets out because they have no playmakers. Anything less than a blowout would be a failure.

I think we’re a better team than PSU but it’s at their place so it’s hard to predict. However, they barely beat us last time and we are better, they don’t have Barkley.

Purdue, OSU blitzed like crazy and got down and had to pass on offense. Iowa won’t blitz like crazy and will run much more. The biggest concern is that WR Moore, he’s a stud and a freshman. The best WR we’ve seen all year. As long as we don’t have LBs on him we should be ok.

 

[Iceman]

Margin for error is very small.

Just can't turn the ball over.....especially on the road. Really think we can control both line of scrimmage.....Stanley has to make enough plays when they stuff the box. I like our chances

 

[earlkoppelman]

Will define this season.

PSU has shown some weaknesses. Regardless, it remains an athletic dangerous team, especially at home. McSorley is as mentally tough as they come. He may hit on a few big passes, but, we can't let him break contain and gash us in the run game. He can be demoralizing, and, Sanders can look like Barkley if you let him get going. He needs to be contacted early.

Purdue is peaking. Brohm has the players firing on all cylinders. I expected it to have an explosive offense, but, the defense has really come around too. Moore is a beast, and, arguably, the best player in the conference right now regardless of position. Yes, he's that good. I don't know how Brohm got that guy, but, man, did he score big with that (I know they went to the same high school, but, still). We will need to be fundamentally sound in our gaps and on the edges to have a chance. The offense also will need to sustain long drives to keep Purdue's offense on the sidelines.

NU has always been a thorn in our side. Fitz will have them ready, as always. We have to make Thorsen uncomfortable. NU's offense is predicated on short passes, which, in the past, has hurt us. Fitz knows how to attack our zone. Pass rush is the key here. Offensively, we have to contain Gaziano. He's an under-the-radar player in the B1G. You have to account for him.

I'll be happy to come out of this stretch 2-1, but it's not going to be easy.

Series of Mts.to clear. Can be done. Cause Hawk Players rather TOUGH. Mvp for season so far #40?? Gets better each week.Still overall Team Mvp!

 

[EstronHawkKing]

Not sure if our pass defense will be able to stop Purdue's passing game

 

[ModebaSan]

One thing all three teams have in common is that they all beat us last year. So there is the revenge factor to be considered. I dont think Iowa will have any problem getting up for the challenge.

Penn St.- Lately their offense has been inconsistant. Our base defense should be okay here. Play tough against the run and keep McSorley contained. PSU’s defense has been leaky against the run and has been vulverable to deep passes. We get our signature win in a big way! Prediction: Iowa 42 PSU 30

Purdue- Although they put a thumping on Ohio St., it looked like they followed the Iowa gameplan we used in 2017. After that emotional win, it will be time for them to come back down to earth.
MSU will test them defensively, but by time they play us, they should be setup well for an Iowa beatdown.

Northwestern- I’ve been saying this all year. NW is just too damned slow for the style they like to play. They rely way too much on the passing game. That said, the Hawks are focused and take the lead in the West with this game!

Like in the movie The Godfather, these next three weeks, the Hawks take care of “family business.”

 

[clim3]

Nw is the best match up. Weather against Purdue will be key. Cold and windy would be good. They’re a tough match up and they’re quick passing takes our strength away. That freshman is really great. Wouldn’t mind him getting nicked up against MSU. I think we can beat psu but on the road will be very tough. If we get 2 out of those 3 I’d be satisfied.

 

[vork22]

These three will show us if we are contenders or pretenders. People started talking playoffs after beating Minnesota and Indiana which is hilarious but win these three and we are a top 10 team without queastion.

 

[GesterHawk]

Not sure if our pass defense will be able to stop Purdue's passing game

Doesn't need to stop them. Just slow them down enough.

 

[lightning1]

PsU does not worry me. We are bigger than they are and have anough speed to stay with them. They do not have a Barkley this year. Im not worried.

Purdue will be hurt by their lack of depth by the time we play them. I will admit, this team is the one I feel like has the best chance against us. But, again, they lack depth. Im not worried.

NW is average. They beat an average MSU team. They struggled with a crappy Nebby team. Im not worried.

Running QBs always worry me. It's the one thing this defense doesn't account for. We try and use a LB to spy on it but it rarely contains the problem. I like the fact that our DL isn't the "pin your ears back and meet at the QB" type of DL. They play their disciplines pretty well. That helps. PSU worries me the most. We are capable of losing all 3 games, however. NW worries me the least. We should truck NW but Fat P hates Iowa and always seems to get his troops pumped for the match up.

 

[teachercoach]

PSU - this will be the toughest game - still a much higher talent level & roster than Purdue and NW. PSU led Ohio St and Mich St at home until last minutes..... like Iowa did v. Wis.

Purdue - See what they do on the road at Mich St this week. Mich St did lose some pieces v. Mich yesterday.
NW - will be coming off home games v. Wis & NDame.

All 3 were losses from last yr - trust this coaching staff to have them properly motivated.

Best part - talking rankings and playing meaningful games in the 2nd half of the season - good watching hard work by players & coaches get rewarded - Go Hawks!

 

[lightning1]

Stanely is a stud, but he pretty inconsistent. Iowa State, yesterday vs. Indiana, last year OSU.

Strange that someone so talented struggles at getting a spiral on throws at times.- But if the defense can keep it up there won't be a lot of pressure on him. He'll bounce back next week and hopefully he gets into consistent play following.

I'm not gonna criticize any QBs throws in that type of wind. One throw and the ball floats. The next throw and the wind knocks it down. You can spend the entire game trying to guess what's going to happen with the ball, before you throw it. It's tough. It's pretty amazing that he completed 11 passes, honestly.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

Not sure if our pass defense will be able to stop Purdue's passing game

The hope is that our line does enough to set the back seven up for success.

 

[lightning1]

A closer look at Purdue is warranted. They lost their first 3 games of the season by a combined 9 points! Lost by 4 pts against NW and Mizzou and by 1 pt to E Michigan. They then won the next 4 games by 17 (#23 BC) , 14 (Neb) , 39 (ILL) and 29 (#2 OSU). That's pretty impressive. They are probably the best 3 loss team in the nation. They might be tougher to beat than PSU.

 

[Fryowa]

PsU does not worry me. We are bigger than they are and have anough speed to stay with them. They do not have a Barkley this year. Im not worried.

We can’t historically defend rushing quarterbacks well. Never have. Minnesota‘s wildcat package was the only thing that was effective against us and if they weren’t such a shitty team otherwise, it would have been a bad day. For the life of me I can’t figure out why they didn’t stick with it. PJ Fleck being an idiot is the only thing I can come up with.

Penn State is definitely the biggest problem from here on out. McSorley has over 550 yards on the ground which is more than all 3 of our RBs, and almost as many passing yards as Stanley.

If we are loading up because of McSorley’s run threat, then god help Moss and Hankins/Brents. How many times have we seen Hooker and Gervase bail Moss and Brents out because they’re out of position? We won’t have that option against PSU, and guess what...McSorley is going to hit those blown coverages that Annexstad and Ramsey didn’t. Michigan State beat them because of a single dumb play call by Franklin, and their corners playing lockdown D. Definitely not the zone prevent stuff that we have to play because of inexperience.

It’s also in State College which, if you’ve ever been there in person, is the most intimidating place at night (along with Kinnick maybe) in the Big Ten. It’s twice as loud as Kinnick and painful on 3rd down.

Beat Penn State and things will get interesting. Lose to them, and it’s an above average season that coulda, woulda, and shoulda been something special.

 

[earlkoppelman]

The hope is that our line does enough to set the back seven up for success.

Yup. And Hooker as lb'er at times.D-line continues to improve.Wisky was very tough.We are better know.Got Phil and Reece.Nothing better!