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One important sign of improvement

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Cloned92

Member
Nov 9, 2010
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Ames, IA
in the football program this year will be eliminating blowout losses. Ultimately, wins are what matter but I think that staying competitive in every game is a sure sign that CPR really has things headed in the right direction.

09-10 season: Lost to Iowa by 32 points
10-11 season: Lost to Utah by 41 points; Lost to Oklahoma by 52 points.
11-12 season: Lost to Missouri by 35 points

One step to moving up in the conference is simply staying competitive every week. We are getting to a point where depth should give us the personnel to stay in every game regardless of injuries, daunting schedules or just fatigue.

I realize everything I just said is fairly obvious, but everyone is so focused on how many wins we have, whether we get to a bowl and how many stars our recruits have that this is being forgotten.
 
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Cloned92 said:
in the football program this year will be eliminating blowout losses. Ultimately, wins are what matter but I think that staying competitive in every game is a sure sign that CPR really has things headed in the right direction. I realize everything I just said is fairly obvious, but everyone is so focused on how many wins we have, whether we get to a bowl and how many stars our recruits have that this is being forgotten.
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This was a key factor in beating Oklahoma State. We controlled the ball early and didn't let them explode to a big lead early in the game.
 
We have to have the offense rolling early to have a chance. They don't necessarily have to score every time, but leaving the defense on the field early will spell trouble for us late, no matter how much depth we have.
 
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Cycsk said:
This was a key factor in beating Oklahoma State. We controlled the ball early and didn't let them explode to a big lead early in the game.
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Good point, the maturity that team displayed in that game has been missing for quite some time. Even when things weren't going great in the beginning, the team did what it needed to do to just stay in the game and keep it from getting out of control. Then down the stretch the team once again showed the maturity to fight their way back into it. That in itself was a big sign of growth in the program.
 
djcubby said:
We have to have the offense rolling early to have a chance. They don't necessarily have to score every time, but leaving the defense on the field early will spell trouble for us late, no matter how much depth we have.
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And punts rather than turnovers would be a factor in this. Kirby is a great weapon but only when the coaches get a chance to use him. You can't use him if you've already given the ball to your opponent, and a lot closer to your endzone to boot.
 
I agree with the OP. The blowout losses the past several seasons were wearing thin on people. I can appreciate when a team is outmatched but still giving it their all in a loss. Games like last season at Mizzou are so deflating, it was awesome to see the team rebound.
 
djcubby said:
We have to have the offense rolling early to have a chance. They don't necessarily have to score every time, but leaving the defense on the field early will spell trouble for us late, no matter how much depth we have.
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Quick starts largely will depend on the QB play. They absolutely cannot take the first 1-2 quarters to finally start making good passes. Of course, the receivers have to make the catches but I would like to think that those days are behind us.
 
Cloned92 said:
Good point, the maturity that team displayed in that game has been missing for quite some time. Even when things weren't going great in the beginning, the team did what it needed to do to just stay in the game and keep it from getting out of control. Then down the stretch the team once again showed the maturity to fight their way back into it. That in itself was a big sign of growth in the program.
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IIRC, we controlled time of possession in the first half. Their halftime lead came from a lucky Pick 6 by a player who was recovering from being way out of position. So, not only did we show maturity and not cave in, but we kept the problem from getting any worse right from the outset (which is the OP's main point).
 
Cloned92 said:
Good point, the maturity that team displayed in that game has been missing for quite some time. Even when things weren't going great in the beginning, the team did what it needed to do to just stay in the game and keep it from getting out of control. Then down the stretch the team once again showed the maturity to fight their way back into it. That in itself was a big sign of growth in the program.
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Exactly. The overall evolution has been slow but steady. If you look at ISU's past scores against top 25 teams they are far from competitive. Take the OU and KSU games. How many times was ISU ever in a game let alone in position to win on the road against a top 10 team? Sure ISU stubbed their toes last year against MU and BU but towards the end of the year the team was getting better, and stronger. Not quite sure that can be said in the past
 
Cloned92 said:
in the football program this year will be eliminating blowout losses. Ultimately, wins are what matter but I think that staying competitive in every game is a sure sign that CPR really has things headed in the right direction.

09-10 season: Lost to Iowa by 32 points
10-11 season: Lost to Utah by 41 points; Lost to Oklahoma by 52 points.
11-12 season: Lost to Missouri by 35 points

One step to moving up in the conference is simply staying competitive every week. We are getting to a point where depth should give us the personnel to stay in every game regardless of injuries, daunting schedules or just fatigue.

I realize everything I just said is fairly obvious, but everyone is so focused on how many wins we have, whether we get to a bowl and how many stars our recruits have that this is being forgotten.
Click to expand...


I totally agree, and I think the way to do that is to avoid 3 and outs. The defense is good when it has a chance to breathe. The blow out losses almost always came in games where the offense couldn't produce any YARDS, let alone points.
 
I think the key to those blowout losses is turnovers, and three and outs. You can't expect the defense to always make a stop when their on the field 75% of the first quarter
 
Agree totally. I've said that to lots of folks. Obviously we want wins, but we also want respect. Remember Baylor 10-15 years ago? I don't think anyone was worried.

I think teams legitimately worry about us now...and it's starting to show in less blowouts (which I think really hit a team hard in terms of emotion/confidence).

The flip side of this is we also need to start doing some blowing out. I don't like when we squeak out vs UNI, etc. We need to be in a position that in the 4th quarter backups are getting some good playing time, not going down to the final horn.

Great signs of progress and I look for it to continue (because these guys DO have a chip on their shoulder). Like they say, can't let your highs get too high or lows too low either.
 
I believe it was Mike Leach who said there are four steps to building a program.

-Lose big
-Lose small
-Win small
-Win big

I think we have seen progression of eliminating blowouts. Yes we still had them Against Mizzou, Baylor and Texas to an extent last year but there is a difference in how those games looked with the exception of Mizzou. Against Baylor and Texas we didn't look athletically out matched. We just messed way to much stuff up. We saw against Oklahoma and KSU who were both good teams with talent, that we can compete a little better than we could 3 or 4 years ago. I expect this to continue to progress as we keep hearing about the infusion of talent. This year, I only honestly see two chances for blowouts and that's WVU and OU. I think the days of getting **** pounded by Colorado in 2010 are over.
 
MJ271 said:
I think the key to those blowout losses is turnovers, and three and outs. You can't expect the defense to always make a stop when their on the field 75% of the first quarter
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This is one of the biggest things that always bothers me. I know we need to put more points on the scoreboard but another thing that would help would be if we could cut down on the 3 and outs to at least soak up the clock and give our defense a rest.

I'm not sold our offense will improve much this season to the point where we put all that many more points on the board. I'm at least hoping we can improve enough where we can keep them on the field and also cut down on turn overs. Both of those things alone should equate to at least 3-6 more points per game.
 
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Baffan said:
This is one of the biggest things that always bothers me. I know we need to put more points on the scoreboard but another thing that would help would be if we could cut down on the 3 and outs to at least soak up the clock and give our defense a rest.

I'm not sold our offense will improve much this season to the point where we put all that many more points on the board. I'm at least hoping we can improve enough where we can keep them on the field and also cut down on turn overs. Both of those things alone should equate to at least 3-6 more points per game.
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And don't forget who is on the field all that time our offense is on the field. OSU's defense was gassed and totally disheartened in both OT's. In addition to the O doing the D a favor (time to rest) by staying on the field, they also do themselves a favor that will pay off in the 4th Q.
 
CLONECONES said:
the Utah OU games killed me
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I even stayed past halftime for the Utah game, and when we had that great first drive and scored I decided to stay. Then they ran the kick back for a TD IIRC and that was all I could take. Earliest I've ever left an ISU game and I consider staying that long my greatest act of fandom. Woof.
 
Baffan said:
This is one of the biggest things that always bothers me. I know we need to put more points on the scoreboard but another thing that would help would be if we could cut down on the 3 and outs to at least soak up the clock and give our defense a rest.

I'm not sold our offense will improve much this season to the point where we put all that many more points on the board. I'm at least hoping we can improve enough where we can keep them on the field and also cut down on turn overs. Both of those things alone should equate to at least 3-6 more points per game.
Click to expand...

Keeping the defense off the field ideally should be helped this year, as Mess goes to run first more than Herman did
 
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