Thought that just occurred to me RE: PSU

H

homerHAWKeye777

Well-Known Member
Don't get me wrong ... I'm still on record thinking that Iowa would lose to PSU. What's more, I've been predicting a 3 point loss even before Vegas announced the spread.

However, I've just been struck by the following recognition:

- Many PSU fans were rather skeptical about how good their pass-D truly was. Those same PSU fans were counting on the Indiana game to give them some barometer for how their pass D was ... particularly seeing that the Hoosiers have a very good group of WRs ... and their passing number through the first 3 games was pretty good.

- "On paper" it would appear that the PSU pass D "passed the test" versus IU's passing attack. After all, IU only accumulated 250 total yards ... and only 180 of that was through the air.

Now the part that struck me ... I hadn't been really following IU very closely ... and thus I wasn't considering that Baker-Wright was the guy who was responsible for most of IU's passing yards. Consequently, I didn't realize that the PSU game was Dusty Kiel's first start! Furthermore, it was also Belcher's first game back from an undisclosed injury. Thus, NO WONDER Indiana's production on O was down a bit.

Another thing that occurred to me was that IU was also pounding the rock with a guy who is in his first year playing on the D1 level. Furthermore, IU's OL isn't a group of world-beaters!

FINAL REMARKS: While I still have plenty of respect for PSU's defense, I'm also confident that PSU hasn't yet faced an O that is as balanced as ours. What's more, we're easily the best passing attack they've faced this year ... by a margin. They know that too. Also, Iowa's zone-blocking has had surprising success against PSU's D through the past several years. Considering that PSU will have its concerns about Iowa's passing game ... I have growing confidence that Coker and Canzeri will at least have some success toting the rock.
 
I hope you're right Homer but this game has me worried. I'm hoping that some of the fodder about us being a "Wrestling School" will serve as added ammunition for our players to lay a beatdown on PSU.

This year is the first time I can remember going into Happy Valley with most of the fan base feeling confident in a W. Fortunately or otherwise, I guess it's nice that what we think, has no bearing on the outcome of the game.
 
If PSU scores more than 17 on us than I truely am afraid for how bad our D might be. I think Iowa wins 24-13.
 
I agree with you,Homer,that Iowa probably loses a close game,but I do think if PSU continues to struggle to pressure the qb,namely Vandy, then Iowa has a punchers chance to move the ball well in the air. Iowa better not pound their heads into the brick wall that is their d-tackles...forget that, throw early and often,then run to the edge later in the game. Still might overwhelm our interior guys on running plays,but hopefully they can protect Vandy. I suspect that Bradley knows this and will blitz like crazy early vs Vandy...so have those screen passes ready,KOK!
 
I don't understand some of you guys.....PSU scored 16 pts against Indiana. Indiana is not good on D.
 
you are honestly dumb and don't follow football or even understand it that well if you think psu could come close to winning.
 
the game was in Indiana too. I'm sure PSU will play a tad better on their home turf in front of their fans. Nothing would surprise me at this point. A 14 pt lose, a 14 pt win. Heck 21 points either way. Or a late FG could decide it.
 
They scored 14 points against Temple, and 16 against Indiana(also only 11 against UA but, their defense is off-the-charts good). One of the reasons we've been successful against PSU is that we both play a "predictable" or maybe more accurately put, simple, offensive scheme but, we annually "out-execute" PSU. I suspect that will continue Saturday. This year offensive line(as has been recently the case) of PSU is very "meh", their are QB's somewhere between extraordinarily bad and bad. They always seem to have a good back and do again this year. Our defense is not up to Iowa's typically high standards but is it not as good as Temple's(?), Indiana's(?).

Alabama probably has a better offense than we do, but they're pretty one-dimensional(BTW-while the SEC is the better conference again this year- who's QB's are better, the B1G's or the SEC's? Not in order of ability-Persa, Robinson, Vandenberg, Schelasse(sp?), Cousins, etc over a good but not exceptional John Brantley and a lot of terribly mediocre guys in the SEC?). I don't believe Iowa's running attack is mediocre. Yes, it's under achieved for a variety of reasons but, it's likely to improve(now with some playing time we have some more developing depth)with Coker getting more practice time and the freshmen getting more game and practice time. I think we win and although the score not big, we win with fairly comfortable ease. In the fourth quarter we wear them down. Yoda 24-14 Obi Wan.
 
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BlckNGldHwk said:
Iowa has lost plenty of games with their opponent scoring less than 16 points.
Click to expand...

Did I miss the sarcasm?

In the last 10 years, Iowa has lost games to teams scoring less than 16 points once. That team won without scoring a TD. There was one games where Iowa lost to a team scoring 16 points.
 
The same year (2008) that Iowa bludgeoned a pretty decent Wisky team ... we then also struggled against a pretty crappy Purdue squad.

In other words ... I wouldn't read too much into Penn State's game.

While IU's D isn't necessarily very good ... I'm willing to bet that they took more risks when defending PSU than Iowa will. As a result, PSU's QBs have a much better chance of getting in a rhythm against Iowa's D than they did against IU.

I know that sounds sad ... but on the flip side ... Iowa might have a greater likelihood of forcing PSU to turn the ball over.
 
I believe I heard somewhere that PSU's secondary is pretty beat up. Might bode well for our new found passing offense, assuming we employ it.
 
As the game draws nearer the predictions seem to be getting a little closer to the vest and less "out-there". My take is that we have only played one road game and we did not play well in that game. This is a real test for our young team to see how much we have grown over the past month. I see a low scoring game and we come up short, I'll say 17-13. I think our offense will struggle in this environment. I hope I am wrong.
 
PSU has only given up 6 tds all year,and three of those were in the Bama game,one of which was a pick 6.
So basically,they give up one td/game,and Iowa is going to put 30pts on them in the first half?...right.

Their tackles are NFL high draft pick types,so we will not go in the middle with success.

I think the key is to try to establish some offensive rythmn early with the no-huddle,and keep them off balance...then get the lead and try to grind it out. I do think the key to the success of the no-huddle has been the rythmn an offense can get into,which is rare for Iowa normally. Just play,don't think...
 
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