Your (and many others) desire to place this solely on the coaches is incredible. The coaches made many blunders in this game. Abandoning the run game was certainly the biggest. However after going down by 17 they had no choice but to throw it. Had they stayed with the run to start the 4th quarter we'd likely be sitting here singing GDGD's praises (tongue and cheek). They didn't, and we went down big, and had to throw the ball.
With thy all that being said... The PLAYERS fumbled. The PLAYERS missed blocks/gave up sacks. The PLAYERS committed penalties. The PLAYERS took poor angles/couldn't tackle/gave up the edge/made CJ Brown look like an all-star. The PLAYERS share the blame of this loss.
Do yourself a favor and step outside your hatred for KirFer for one second and give it an objective look. You'll see things in a completely different light.
Objectively, KirkFer / Davus abandoned the run, long before being down 17. Even after the fumbles, penalties, poor tackling, etc, Hawks still had gobs of time and opportunities to overcome those mistakes and still win the football game had the
coaches chosen the strategy to continue to run the ball. In other words, good coaches would have seen the opportunity to put their team in a position to win
in spite of the players' mistakes by having them execute a game plan that continued to maximize their success and attack the opponent's weakness, namely, the rush.
From the time Iowa fell behind, 17-14, at the 6:47 mark of the 2nd quarter to the 1:46 mark of the 3rd quarter, Iowa ran 14 rushing plays for 110 yards and 1 TD (which put the game at 24-21); during that same stretch, the ran 25 passing plays (6 for 25 for 35 yards).
From that point on, in a 3-point game, it was about 90% pass:run ratio. It was the pass -- the pick=6 -- that stretched it to a 10 point deficit. It was 7 consecutive pass attempts over the next 2 3 & out drives, that allowed the deficit to stretch to 17 points. The only reason the game got to a 17-point deficit is because
the coaches fvcked over their team with a terrible strategy that put them in that position! They didn't need to choose that strategy because the game was out of hand. They didn't need to choose that strategy because of the players' mistakes up to that point.
Listen, Mary, I don't
hate KirkFer. Don't know him personally, therefore cannot hate him. However, not suprised you tried that tactic; it's like you Pollys' "race card".
I acknowledge the players' mistakes but, even in spite of them, Iowa was still in a position to win the game. From there, it is (and
was) on the coaches (as it has been so frequently since the mid-2000's). For whatever personal reasons you have, you just can't
objectively place the appropriate blame where it belongs.