I have seen people blame Spearman for the long pass plays, He was responsible for one, but the others were one the MLB. In that zone the MLB is supposed to get a jamb on the back. Our current MLB didn't even sniff Johnson on those plays. I would have to think we have another MLB who could cover a little better than that. Morris at times struggled in pass coverage, but never to that extent. To say the least I am concerned, yes it could be a matter of experience. On the other hand it could be a matter of athleticism, and the reason he was a back up for so long. I say if we are going to struggle and have to break new people in then let's build for the future and put the most athletic people on the field. I hope getting Jewell back will bring us an upgrade at that position.
Why not give Another MLB a look?
- Thread starter Hawkcrush
- Start date
franstheman
Well-Known Member
He's a captain so I doubt that will happen. Alston will be fine. Just takes a few film sessions and tough practices to correct his problems.
SoliDeoGloria
Active Member
I think the David Johnson problems breaks down to 2 main things:
- Experience. Alson is a senior but very inexperienced, he will improve drastically as the season goes on. The MLB position is the one that was constantly referred to as settled but the other LB positions were more fluid. That tells me Alston is the best MLB we have and its not close
- Schematics. Most MLBs are not going to be able to stick with a stud RB on a fly type route. To me, this is as much on defensive call playing. Parker needs to be on alert that he'll need safety help over the middle. I expect this to be more common going forward. Now that we got burned by UNI, many teams will try to emulate
franstheman
Well-Known Member
I'd wager we'll even see it from Ball State this weekend, to the catdinals detriment of course.
This is why Alston wasn't able to overtake Morris over the years. People are seeing why Morris was the starter. Alston is great run defender but is a terrible pass defender. Hopefully he gets better but we are going to have to blitz because our lbs are not good coverage guys.
And 3. Johnson appears to be a rare athlete.
SoliDeoGloria
Active Member
I agree but a lot of teams have a speedy RB that can burn just like Johnson. Wimberly at ISU comes to mind. I definitely think we got exposed in that area and most teams will exploit if we don't make schematic changes.
franstheman
Well-Known Member
We either need safety help which would require great coverage from Mabin (we already know what King will do) or we need to blitz. Luckily our dline is able toget so much pressure from 3 or 4 I will only take marginal improvement for Alston to get adequate enough.
I thought John Kenney was a fairly highly ranked recruit, and had a lot of upside. I simply don't see how our current starter could be that much better, given what I have seen from him in his career. Why not give the young guy reps and build at that position. I think this is one of those 5th year senior deals. I'm not saying don't play him, but long term if we are going to struggle there I rather bring the young guy along. BTW in that defense he only need to slow him down force him wider outside, it could be as simple as positioning and it happened several times, so for a 5th year senior to f it up multiple times tells me it may not be in his toolbox. If it had been Bower that made that mistake I think we would all have understood it. Johnson is a good back, but lets not act like he is that next Marshall Faulk. He looked good because we made him look good.
HawkinGoferLand
Well-Known Member
We are trying to win now not build for the future and the guys playing apparently gives us the best chance
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WinOneThisCentury
Well-Known Member
Guys, get off Q's back. Let's say this, if that was the defense our coaches wanted in defending Johnson out of the backfield, then I blame them only in this situation. They are the morons, not the execution. Could Q have done better, sure, he could have been chasing him from 5 yards away instead of 10. I'd like to see any of you morons standing in a 30ft by 30ft area with Johnson running at you and see how you do. Could he have hit him, sure, but that's damn hard to do also. There isn't a middle LB in college football that stands a chance with the middle of the field that wide open and 4.5 speed and moves coming at you...they all get beat by that guy.
The reality is that we should have been playing a safety over the top somewhere with an eye to help in the middle of the field. We saw it once and we played the same damn defense...coaches problem, not players.
How about we give Q a few games to sort things out. We certainly gave Morris plenty of time...and the same morons were hard on him too. It's the first freaking game...let them make some mistakes and credit the other team for identifying weaknesses in our coverage. If we don't learn anything, then have your way with the rhetoric.
The reality is that we should have been playing a safety over the top somewhere with an eye to help in the middle of the field. We saw it once and we played the same damn defense...coaches problem, not players.
How about we give Q a few games to sort things out. We certainly gave Morris plenty of time...and the same morons were hard on him too. It's the first freaking game...let them make some mistakes and credit the other team for identifying weaknesses in our coverage. If we don't learn anything, then have your way with the rhetoric.
HawgEyeState
Banned
Just a question..........has John Kenny been mentioned? Is he in the 2 deeps at one of the LB spots?
Kenny was a pretty highly sought after LB recruit, from Indiana.
Kenny was a pretty highly sought after LB recruit, from Indiana.
So no MLB in CFB could manage to shade him to the inside and force him to the outside where his help is. Maybe we are not Morons, you need to understand the scheme of what the defense was trying to do. Yes, I think an average big ten MLb can force an FCS running back out wide. If that makes me a moron well, so be it. Q did some things well, but if we don,t bring someone else along we will be in this same spot next year minus 2 possible all big ten d linemen. This isn't just a rag on Q it's about what is best long term. I don't see the rationale for an argument that says he gives us the best chance to win when it was basically what gave UNI a chance to win the game. How much worse could it be than giving up 200 yards to a rb receiving. I don't see how one can make an argument it was an experience thing--5 th yr senior has some game experience already. In CFB you have to be comtantly thinking long term, and this isn't the solution.
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
Several questions...
1) Who do you want to put in there?
2) Are you familiar with the concept of attacking leverage (from an offensive player standpoint)?
3) You and Hawknick must be cut from the same cloth...do you know anything about David Johnson? Assuming yes, I would ask that if you think it's fair to pigeon-hole him as "an FCS running back" like he's second tier football player? Following up, you realize we recruited that guy, right? And that he's hovering amongst the top 10 or 11 running backs to be selected in next year's draft?
4) Give a guy (even your somewhat athletic next door neighbor who played HS football 10 years ago) about 10 yards to make a move, give him a two way go, and see if you can blanket him. Now, try to do that same thing against a guy who is going to be selected in the first 3-4 rounds of the 2015 draft. That's what Alston was asked to do. Do you have any idea how hard that is?
The posters who mentioned the play call nailed it. We can't continually ask our MLB to do that...hell, we wouldn't be able to get repeated success out of our DB's in that situation. If we are going to run that defense, we need to provide some sort of assistance over the top OR we need to get home with our blitz package. Phil did a great job in the 4th quarter of giving Alston the help he needed...he ditched the man blitz stuff and went with the zone blitz, putting athletic DE's in the short middle area with zone over the top while twisting our LB's on blitzes and they worked masterfully.
WinOneThisCentury
Well-Known Member
Dude, the help was on the sidelines where their man coverage took them. There was no one within 20 yards or more of both Q and Johnson. I'm sure Johnson had free reign to make what ever move he wanted. Q could have gotten more depth, but there was no way he was going to stay with Johnson in space like that...and there are maybe a handful of MLB in college that would stand chance of defending that situation. Johnson was the best player on that field offensively for either team. He's a legit NFL running back.
I love guys that know more than the coaches do by seeing guys play 50 snaps, 48 of which they do pretty well, but on the two they don't, it's got to be because the guy can't hack it and isn't our best option. If by game four or five, you see glaring mistake, then you may have something. The problem I have is that you think this is a player issue...it wasn't. It was a coaching issue...and ours got their butts handed to them by UNI. UNI knew exactly what they were doing and what they expected from Iowa's defense and they knew Morris, Q, Larry Station, Abdul Hodge, or Dick Butkus weren't going to be able to stop that without changing coverage. Which is what Iowa did and why you didn't see Johnson in the middle of the field one on one in the fourth quarter. K.
In the immortal words of another HN poster...Learn the damn game.
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
Also, the above is probably not emphasized enough. Those guys up there at UNI can coach and they deserve a lot of credit for picking those spots when to sneak him down the middle of the field after our safeties had split carrying out their coverage responsibilities.
Bret Meyer found Cyclones third-string quarterback Phillip Bates -- the freshman was playing wide receiver on the play -- isolated with Iowa linebacker Mike Klinkenborg downfield late in the fourth quarter. He hit Bates with a 38-yard pass that put Iowa State on the Iowa 17.
Watching Alston trail Johnson was a real déjà vu moment. Klink was a good run support MLB, but was very challenged in space.
Watching Alston trail Johnson was a real déjà vu moment. Klink was a good run support MLB, but was very challenged in space.
SamBrownlee48
Well-Known Member
Alston and Spearman are going to get another chance this weekend. But if either one of them doesn't show they can handle pass coverage, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jewell take their spot when he gets healthy.
Alston is a captain and been a leader of the team all offseason, so he probably has a longer leash than Spearman, but if he can't play his position better than he did against UNI, we'll see either Jewell or Perry take his spot.
I bet we see WLB - Jewell; MLB - Alston; OLB - Bower as the starters heading into the B1G season. It's kind of telling that Kirk started off his press conference with an update on a redshirt frosh's injury timetable. They think Jewell is like Bower, aka the real deal.
Alston is a captain and been a leader of the team all offseason, so he probably has a longer leash than Spearman, but if he can't play his position better than he did against UNI, we'll see either Jewell or Perry take his spot.
I bet we see WLB - Jewell; MLB - Alston; OLB - Bower as the starters heading into the B1G season. It's kind of telling that Kirk started off his press conference with an update on a redshirt frosh's injury timetable. They think Jewell is like Bower, aka the real deal.
