Unfortunately, in the end, this one's on the defense

Rawkhawk73 said:
Look, I understand we gave up a blocked punt, a KO for touchdown, a pick six and a blocked PAT......no excuses for any of that.

But the fact remains that we fought back from 27-7 to tie it up at 27-27. At that point, we had all the momentum. On TV, it sounded like Kinnick west, with all the Hawks going nuts and their fans in stunned disbelief. At this point, our defense had the chance to make a statement and stomp on their collective throats and give the ball back to our offense to put it away. They didn't.

So while it was our special teams that allowed the game to get out of hand and force our offense out of it's comfort zone......in the end, it was our defense that let us down and allowed Arizona to pull it out. That's probably why this stings so much. We've become so accustomed to having our defense come up big when it really matters that I think we're all still a little stunned that our defense gave up what it did on that last drive.
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Apparently you didn't watch the game. Our defense was the ONLY thing consistent in that game. Just one drive at the end. We held them to 2 field goals......you can throw out the first score since they started on Iowa's 8.

Defense looked fine. We've got some work to do with our young LBs, but I expect they'll be okay for Big 10 play.
 
Imlivingthedream said:
Greenwood was exposed last night. He missed a lot of tackles and didnt make a play on the ball all night. Just once I'd like to see him make a play on a ball in front of him or really hit someone. He's a drop off compared to Considine, Pagel or some of our recent FS. Usually hes get protected by our strong rush but last night that wasnt happening.
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I did wonder where he was on that long pass on the first play of AZ's TD drive. The only receiver on the left side of the field ran an out. It seems like he took a long time to get over to the only deep receiver on that play. One play alone didn't make the difference last night, but I'd still like to know what happened on that play.
 
Imlivingthedream said:
Greenwood was exposed last night. .
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What the hell does this mean?

My gosh the drama on message boards after a loss is about all I can take and this comment is just one example of hundreds..

Its all or nothing, and I pray people don't deal in their real world relationships the way they do here.

He didn't have a great game, but he's had a lot of great games. Exposed as what, exactly?
 
Do people not have ANYTHING else to do but point fingers and spread BS on message boards after a loss? Take a walk, enjoy your Sunday, but please stop the whining and step back from the ledge.
 
JonDMiller said:
What the hell does this mean?

My gosh the drama on message boards after a loss is about all I can take and this comment is just one example of hundreds..

Its all or nothing, and I pray people don't deal in their real world relationships the way they do here.

He didn't have a great game, but he's had a lot of great games. Exposed as what, exactly?
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I guess we was exposed as a non NFL caliber safety? Lot's of headscrachers on here today.
 
Seems to me a lot of the errors are correctable as they are mental and not physical.

On the other hand, it's a little unsettling that a senior dominated team did have so many observable key mental errors in just one ball game.

Had some of the players been little sharper mentally the Hawks probably would have won the game.

In a game like this you can point to several combinations of just two plays that made the difference. As previously indicated most of these plays were not successfully executed due to mental errors (lack of concentration, judgment, blown assignment type errors).
 
JonDMiller said:
What the hell does this mean?

My gosh the drama on message boards after a loss is about all I can take and this comment is just one example of hundreds..

Its all or nothing, and I pray people don't deal in their real world relationships the way they do here.

He didn't have a great game, but he's had a lot of great games. Exposed as what, exactly?
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my bad. I thought message boards where a place where you could critique performance.
 
The OP comment is valid and everyone seems to have missed the point. After all the bad stuff is put aside we tied the game and put the game in the hands of the defense. We had momentum, make a stop and we are in driver seat to win the game. The defense did let us down by giving up the go ahead TD late in the game. Yes it was a big time throw and catch a back breaking play. BUT that last AZ TD series falls on the defense alone.
 
Reading all the boards I've seen people blame KOK - Stanzi - running backs - WR's - Special Teams - Defense - and Kirk.

That tells me it was a team loss. Not sure if I find comfort in that.
 
HawkPhin said:
When its all said and done, I blame this loss on AZ. Though I don't think they are a better team, the were a better team last night. They took advantage of every oppertunity that we gave them. Ultimately that is the name of the game, taking advantage of your oppertunities, AZ did and we did not.
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Agreed, nobody is really giving AZ any credit, but they did what they had too and won the game. In some sports it doesn't matter what the other team does, but in football it does and AZ did what they had to to and limited their mistakes.
 
I am still not sure how the defense can be totally blamed anyway. In watching, the AZ game plan to get the ball out of Foles' hand quickly is what made their offense effective. How many points did the defense give up in the second half? There are many reasons why Iowa lost, but I still have difficultly pointing to one specific area, especially when they were put up against it so early in the game. Lets just admit that AZ is a quality team and quite frankly, one of the two best in the Pac 10. Lets see where they end up at the end of the year before people panic. Potential for a rematch in the Rose Bowl is realistic.
 
I did see tarp/neilsen pounding the ground with their fist a few times in frustration....Not really sure if the frustration was at themselves or someone else.

Maybe I am drinking the kool-aid, but I think if Stanzi hits Mcnutt on that long pass play on the opening drive it is a different ballgame.
 
Iowa's offense is not built to fling the ball all over the field all game long. Our poor special teams play and a bad drop by McNutt put us in a bad hole. All in all we did pretty good clawing our way back.
 
hwks1 said:
The OP comment is valid and everyone seems to have missed the point. After all the bad stuff is put aside we tied the game and put the game in the hands of the defense. We had momentum, make a stop and we are in driver seat to win the game. The defense did let us down by giving up the go ahead TD late in the game. Yes it was a big time throw and catch a back breaking play. BUT that last AZ TD series falls on the defense alone.
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Well, at least one person got the point of what I was trying to say....good to see I'm not entirely crazy!! :)

On the road, the ball has a funny way of bouncing sometimes and weird things typically happen. You'd like to think you can lean on a championship-level defense to come up with a stop when all the chips are down and the game is on the line. It didn't this time. That's not to say it won't in the future. But when you're playing for what you'd like to think is a National Championship-type season, your defense HAS TO stand up on the road and make a statement when given the chance.
 
Rawkhawk73 said:
Well, at least one person got the point of what I was trying to say....good to see I'm not entirely crazy!! :)

On the road, the ball has a funny way of bouncing sometimes and weird things typically happen. You'd like to think you can lean on a championship-level defense to come up with a stop when all the chips are down and the game is on the line. It didn't this time. That's not to say it won't in the future. But when you're playing for what you'd like to think is a National Championship-type season, your defense HAS TO stand up on the road and make a statement when given the chance.
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The old saying goes that Jim and Joe go across the street to the local tavern after work every day for 10 years. Jim buys Joe a beer each time. One day, Jim just orders himself a beer and Joe asks 'Hey...where's mine?'

IE: The Iowa defense does it and does it and does it...

The defense gave up a touchdown and two field goals against this offense. It took a throw where no one could catch the ball except a diving receiver to move the ball 38 yards on the first or second play of that drive. It was a freaking great football play.

Sometimes, the other team has great players too. Iowa didn't invent football, nor does a diving catch on a perfectly thrown football take away from the fact the defense more than did its part against the Arizona offense in this game.
 
I think the secondary got exposed a little last night, and obviously ST were atrocious. However, Iowa had to replace 2 great LBs and the best CB that Norm has ever coached at Iowa (his words) and the best in the B10. I'm sorry, but Iowa is not Oklahoma, Texas USC, Florida etc. and they just don't reload, it takes some time.

Also, if you look at it this way the D gave up 13 (not counting the 7 after the blocked punt). Should've been an Iowa victory, but this team isn't last years team. I still think they'll be good, but we can't expect what we had last year.

That being said. If you look at the last 3 defensive stands. Fumble, INT, and then AZ scores. That's a lot of time the D was on teh field straight. Get winded a little in the 4th quarter.
 
hawkfarmer said:
I think the secondary got exposed a little last night, and obviously ST were atrocious. However, Iowa had to replace 2 great LBs and the best CB that Norm has ever coached at Iowa (his words) and the best in the B10. I'm sorry, but Iowa is not Oklahoma, Texas USC, Florida etc. and they just don't reload, it takes some time.



Also, if you look at it this way the D gave up 13 (not counting the 7 after the blocked punt). Should've been an Iowa victory, but this team isn't last years team. I still think they'll be good, but we can't expect what we had last year.
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On the one hand you say the secondary was exposed, then follow it up by saying the defense gave up just 13 to this offense. Not sure how these two reconcile.

Iowa gave up over 200 yards rushing to OSU last year. Does that mean they stunk? Hardly. That was the best rushing attack Iowa faced.

Comparatively this will be the best passing attack Iowa faces this season, and Foles needed 39 passing attempts for his 303 yards. Stanzi had more yards per attempt. It's a good freaking offense.
 
one could also blame the loss on mcnutt or djk... one dropped a catch-able ball that was run for td and the other dropped a catch-able td pass. just sayin.
 
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