Why we really lost...

I agree with the initial post. I had no issues with the playcalling. There were actually some really good calls (the reverse comes to mind) and Coker had roughly 200 at halftime. That's ridiculous.

Sadly, execution in the red zone was abysmal. False starts, missed field goals, missed blocks (Rieff gave up a terrible and uncharacteristic inside sack), and missed blitz pickups.

Once again, Iowa's offense failed to do what they needed to win.

As a fan, this is how I view this season. It's one of those very rare years where Iowa's defense is not very good. Sadly, the offense, despite having lots of pieces at their disposal, is not coming close to compensating.

I don't see how anybody could blame the scheme, because the scheme put up 250+ yards at halftime, and the blocking for Coker was incredible. They were every bit as dominant between the 20's as I could have hoped for against such a terrible opponent. Coker's halftime line was straight out of a video game.

When it mattered, the offense didn't execute, and that killed them over and over and over again. Lots of mental breakdowns on O. Blame the coaches, blame the players, blame them both. I'm not in a position to know who is responsible, but it was as disappointing and ugly as I can ever remember.
 
I agree that the onside kick was a killer (no pun intended), but I disagree that it was "perfectly executed." That would assume Iowa had defended it. They were totally unprepared for the play (much the same as a certain fake punt against WI last year). My guess is that Kill was ready to kick it away had we come out in an onside coverage, but when he saw that we weren't defending it, heck, why not. Especially against a team desperate for a win, how KF and the coaches could not have foreseen this was flabbergasting. Sure, this didn't LOSE us the game in the sense that the empty red zone trips earlier, the two make-able missed FGs, the bend and also break D, and the "pass only to the TE" offensive scheme they called up on the last drive contributed mightily to the cause, but when the game was truly on the line, to not see this coming....wow.
 
aeischeid said:
Why is Coker even in the "excuse" discussion??????? Ridiculous. What more could you ask for out of him? I think our kicker needs his prescription checked.
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Agreed. The fact that he didn't touch the ball on our last drive (no need for a hurry up...only need a FG, 2:30 left on the clock, one TO) is pretty mind-boggling. This is one of several games in the KF era where we had the ball with plenty of time left on the clock to mount a game winning drive, yet we go exclusively to the pass. I get it if we only have a minute left, but there was plenty of time to run the football.
 
Did anybody besides the coaching staff not expect the onside kick? Is there anybody on the coaching staff that has any fire? It worked last week when Kirk ripped on the d-line, so why not try that this week? Coker couldn't be stopped so why not try running with someone else when Coker needs a break? I had a bad feeling from the beginning about this game and the missed field goal didn't help. Where's the team that won 55-0 to close out the dome? Actually, where's the emotion of that team and the killer instinct? Sigh.
 
Why do so many people's heart beat for KF on here...can you imagine if he was in the SEC? Did you see what happened to the Mad Hatter in LSU the last two years? Man too bad KF can't recruit like him and it took one year to turn the program around. Then maybe people would forget about losses like this.
 
DuffMan said:
The reality is we lost today because we had 3 empty red zone trips (plus another which we got inside their 40 and turned it over on downs) and lost the turnover battle (their PERFECTLY EXECUTED onside kick was essentially a turn over.

We didn't loose because of playcalling. We didn't lose because JVB is bad on the road (he completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and I counted at least 3 drops). We didn't lose because we played the wrong linebackers. We didn't lose because we killed the clock at the end of the half. We didn't lose because we were flat or unemotional. We didn't lose because we can't pick up blitzes.

Anything else....?
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It shouldn't have been that close. When playing a p*ss poor team like Minny it shouldn't have come down to missing field goals. We lost because we didn't make enough big plays. Coker had a couple of nice runs but I think the line did a pretty good job. No one stepped up and provided heroics on either side of the ball.
 
Uptempo offense? Ohhh you mean the offense that the coaching staff used before the B1G season began and were so successful with? Is THAT the uptempo offense you are talking about? I believe we used that offense in three quarters and it was highly effective.

The coaching staff probably didn't think it was fair to use an offense like that against their opponents because their opponents might not be ready for anything like that. It is much better to go back to our seven play playbook with an offense and defense that the opponents know exactly what you are going to do so they know exactly how to attack or defend.

Norm still thinks he is coaching defenses against offenses that played in the 80s. He has no idea how to defend a spread team or adapt during a game so that they might disrupt the opposition's offense. Simply time for Norm to go...he hasn't been able to defend against the spread for many years now. The game has passed him by. Oh you say...he knows more about football than all of us combined...that is probably true. Too bad he doesn't use that knowledge to benefit Iowa football.
 
I am ready to calm my misdirected anger and disappointment with video games and excessive consumption of booze, at least on PS3's NCAA 2012 the Hawks will rock!
 
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