WTF??????

I actually think the fake FG was in the cards all along, and running the clock down to :02 was part of the surprise.

I was very critical of the play-calling in the last 50 seconds or so -- especially two rushes when you've got a quarterback very capable to finding someone in the end zone. And I groaned when they ran the fake.

Watching the replays, however, I'm changing my thinking on the fake. The thing nearly worked and would have save for a missed block near the end zone. I like that he tried it.
 
Didn't have to run the clock down to 1 sec to sell the fake lol...

I see a couple people here arguing that that was vital... run it down to 10-7 secs and ISU isn't thinking they are faking it...
 
I feel like coach will get away with some fakes this year he had the element of surprise he's been do predictable over the years! I wasn't that mad at the fake! Some of the plays Isu made in the first we're just ridiculous and we were really starting to dominate the trenches just win baby! Not saying I prefer ferentz over another coach but he's our guy again this year no other option but to get behind him and these players! Go Hawks!!!!
 
As for running the clock down say the fake fails miserably stuffed behind the line of scrimmage Isu gets the ball with time on the clock not a lot but still have time to maybe get some lucky play to go their way! I like the confidence he had going into half simply knew he had the better team felt comfortable making the call!
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
Both our punter and kicker got some speed and wiggle.

Hopefully we see a few more fakes.
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Yeah, speed and wiggle until they get hurt on some gadget play.

At least get some athlete with speed and experience to run the ball (how many yards)? Is fulfilling a fake field goal in his contract, too?
 
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Hawkize31 said:
In hindsight, this was a head scratcher, but lets look at it from Kirk's perspective in real time:

2nd and 2 - Kirk assumed we could run for 2 yards to move the chains, stop the clock, and have a 1st and 10 from the ISU 20. Not the most aggressive call, but not terrible. I also assume we can run for 2 yards against ISU at will.

We only got 1 yard. 2nd timeout called with 40 seconds left. Obviously calling the timeout is a good decision.

3rd and 1 coming off a timeout. Kirk assumed we could run for 1 yard, stop the clock, and have a fresh set of downs from the 20 to try something. Maybe he even had the 1st down play called already. Again, this is conservative, but I don't think its terrible. We got stuffed, loss of 1 yard.

So now the clock is running, its 4th and 2, and I think calling a timeout with 2 seconds left is the right call.

Up until this point, I don't think you can really 2nd guess anything Kirk did.

The fake FG was the weird call. It got 16 of the 22 needed yards for a score, and I think I would have taken the 3 points, but whatever. It was fun, it was gutsy, and the team came out fired up in the 2nd half. Maybe that play contributed, maybe it didn't, but you're trading a high chance at 3 points for a slim chance at 7.

The thing I'm disappointed with on this set of downs is that 2nd and 2 and 3rd and 1 we couldn't run for a first down. That should be almost automatic, especially with 2 chances at it.
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1st or 2nd post...please note, this kind of logical thinking is not something this board is used to.
 
HomerChampless said:
Yeah, speed and wiggle until they get hurt on some gadget play.

At least get some athlete with speed and experience to run the ball (how many yards)? Is fulfilling a fake field goal in his contract, too?
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You are right. No more fakes dang it, somebody might get hurt out there.

btw, neither fake was a gadget play. Just a regular 'ol fake kicks.

I too didn't like the play/clock management, but I have zero issue with calling the fake, nor how they ran it.

And no, I don't believe his contract calls for fake kicks to be called.

I think it does matter that both fakes were very very close working. Execution baby, need better execution.
 
You guys just don't get it. KF is playing the long con here. He is setting up OSU for the B1G championship game. When we trot out the kicker to tie the game, they won't dare try to block the kick against KF the river boat gambler!
 
deanvogs said:
You guys just don't get it. KF is playing the long con here. He is setting up OSU for the B1G championship game. When we trot out the kicker to tie the game, they won't dare try to block the kick against KF the river boat gambler!
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It all makes perfect sense, now. Like B&G3 suggested ... this has been the gameplan, years in the making. The last decade has been intended to build the perception of conservative philosophy and predictability, only to catch everyone off guard this season!

ol' KirkFer is, like, Chinese or something. Screw the 3 - 5 - 10 year planning, those dudes scheme out entire generations, 30 - 50 - 100 year plans. Wonder if that was one of his "anti-predictibility" tour stops?

:rolleyes:
 
Bigtenchamp said:
One of the all time dumbest coaches at clock management...

I mean its just flabbergasting... I mean I get the element of deception in the clock run off.

But now you are betting your KICKER can out run the entire defense on the last play of the half.

It's mind boggling.
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12 SECONDS would have been enough for deception. AND given you enough time for another play.

Oh well, we are used to our coach NOT thinking ahead...

If Kirk Ferentz were a chess player, he wouldn't be able to think passed the FIRST move
 
The Fox color analyst, who was objective and very good in my opinion, analyzed the whole thing correctly. He wondered why Iowa wasn't throwing the ball, especially with CJ starting to get the hot hand. Or, at least give CJ a run pass option. The fake field goal made no sense at all. I have respect and admiration for Ferentz as a coach and as a man, but no one will ever accuse him of being a good game manager. I think he is very poor at it.
 
ChosenChildren said:
The Fox color analyst, who was objective and very good in my opinion, analyzed the whole thing correctly. He wondered why Iowa wasn't throwing the ball, especially with CJ starting to get the hot hand. Or, at least give CJ a run pass option. The fake field goal made no sense at all. I have respect and admiration for Ferentz as a coach and as a man, but no one will ever accuse him of being a good game manager. I think he is very poor at it.
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In my opinion, Kirk rarely does anything right in managing a game or a clock. But in that exact situation I would have called run on both plays. There was plenty of time on the clock and I would guess we would end up with 1st and 10 from inside the 20 about 90% of the time. It just didn't work out that time.
 
ChosenChildren said:
The Fox color analyst, who was objective and very good in my opinion, analyzed the whole thing correctly. He wondered why Iowa wasn't throwing the ball, especially with CJ starting to get the hot hand. Or, at least give CJ a run pass option. The fake field goal made no sense at all. I have respect and admiration for Ferentz as a coach and as a man, but no one will ever accuse him of being a good game manager. I think he is very poor at it.
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I see them as separate issues. First, the play calls on second and third down. I was surprised they didn't get a first down running the ball, as ISU had not stopped Iowa behind the line of scrimmage on run plays. Ferentz obviously thought Iowa could get a first down running the ball, as everything up to that time supported that they would.

However, I have no problem with someone calling for passes in those situations as well. If they go incomplete, they haven't burned up the clock so Iowa has time outs. They can still run the fake field goal and get the first down, with time outs to use.

But, once they decided to run the ball, unsuccessfully, I have no problem with them running it down to a last second. Calling a time out in that situation with 10 seconds, or so, to go, and you're signaling to ISU that there's a fake FG coming up - because there's no reason in that situation to call time out other than with 1 second to go. So, the decision to go with the fake when they did was dictated by the unsuccessful running plays.
 
Bigtenchamp said:
It wasn't the fake that made it a dumb call... its that they ran out the time completely.

That element of it made it dumb.
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Exactly and fake just made it Even more laughable. All the fake did was put the icing on a 50 second crab cake. It's over and done with, Iowa won lets move on..
 
I think where I come down on it was that Ferentz should have done one of two things: (1) Play for a field goal, which I would have had no problem with considering how good our field goal kicker is playing; or (2) Be aggressive and play for a TD, which would have involved passing the ball. Asking a field goal kicker to RUN it in from that distance didn't make sense to me (although he came darn close). The good news is that we won the game and the missed opportunity to score did not matter.
 
Another thing to think about is what a sack would have done for us. I think it's way to conservative to not pass simply because you're afraid of a sack. But when you figure the probability of running for a 1st with the risk of taking a sack, then factor in that there was still plenty of time left after running for the first, it was there right call.

Now if ISU had been stuffing the run up to that point, or if there was only 20 seconds left, it would be a different story.
 
Going for a fake FG in that spot is probably one of the single worse coaching calls I have ever seen. HOWEVER it was an extremely aggressive play call, and to me as long as you are playing aggressive, and not stupid all the time, that is forgivable.
 
cmonhox said:
The only way for a fake FG call to work is to let the clock run down to 2 seconds left. If a timeout is called right after the third down fell short, there would be too much time on the clock, and raise suspicion that Iowa would either be going for it on 4th down, or possibly running a surprise out of the special teams. By letting the clock go down to 2 seconds, calling time out, and running the field goal unit out... absolutely no one suspected a fake was in the works.

I'm not saying I liked the call; I would've preferred the 3 points at the time. But if you're going to call it, it needs the element of surprise where no one suspects it. And in that regard, the fake was handled pretty well, IMO.
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Hard to argue with that. In retrospect, it makes as much sense as anything.
 
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