Another big day for Breece Hall — and the guys blocking for him. Here's the road recap with quotes via the Cyclone Radio Network: https://cyclonefanatic.com/2019/10/...me-big-blocks-help-isu-beat-texas-tech-34-24/
ROAD RECAP: ISU 34, TEXAS TECH 24
- Thread starter The Rob Gray
- Start date
Nice write up......nicer than I would be talking about OPI. I would probably snark about our 3rd and long stat on defense....but I think we might have been better today.
We are only 1 game from bowl eligible. Every year we were cheering and figuring out how we can eek out 6 wins. Good times these days.
Defense looked like a screen door on a submarine much of the second half. That bend, bend, bend scheme is just ugly.
Isn't the 'key stat' thing dug up in a close loss, not a 10 point win on the road?
As much as many of us fanatics have liked to geek out over the years about the potential of TEs in our passing game (heck, I would even go back as far as our high hopes for Bibbs), it’s CW eggplant emoji-level happiness to see play calling and execution like the following, having both Kolar and Allen with clean looks for a TD on the same play.
Good road win. 1st half looked really sharp and prepared. Saw a lot a great intensity from players most of the game. We were better than the score shows.
Not sure what happened in the second half with the offense.
Couple things still concerned about as we get closer to TX and OK.
- Bend, Bend some more, then Break defense with very little full blitzes. I think this is going to fail us against TX and OK. I hope Heacock is holding back / saving some pressure packages for those games, but feeling like not.
- Run game variation. Love that Breece is doing so well, and man is it fun watching those bigger runs, get Troy Davis flashbacks. Seems like it is easy for defense to key on him though. Some more runs to the outside or sweeps with Kene would help?
- The defense giving up the short yard plays and screens to Tech all game. As many pointed out, they were running mostly the same play over and over, and we kept playing with a lot of cushion and giving them those plays. Why didn't we adjust or do something to counter this?
- When we rush 3 / drop 8, many many times there is no pressure on the QB and people are still getting open and completing passes. Although 3rd down seemed a little better this game, so maybe they are working on this?
Not sure what happened in the second half with the offense.
Couple things still concerned about as we get closer to TX and OK.
- Bend, Bend some more, then Break defense with very little full blitzes. I think this is going to fail us against TX and OK. I hope Heacock is holding back / saving some pressure packages for those games, but feeling like not.
- Run game variation. Love that Breece is doing so well, and man is it fun watching those bigger runs, get Troy Davis flashbacks. Seems like it is easy for defense to key on him though. Some more runs to the outside or sweeps with Kene would help?
- The defense giving up the short yard plays and screens to Tech all game. As many pointed out, they were running mostly the same play over and over, and we kept playing with a lot of cushion and giving them those plays. Why didn't we adjust or do something to counter this?
- When we rush 3 / drop 8, many many times there is no pressure on the QB and people are still getting open and completing passes. Although 3rd down seemed a little better this game, so maybe they are working on this?
Kolar has serious NFL potential. Think Jimmy Graham, Jeremy Shockey, Tony Gonzalez. He has a ways to go with his body to get to the next level of his potential but his ability has been really impressive this year, this game being the best so far.
For everyone complaining about the defense giving up all the under neath passes yesterday, hear me out.
ISU was playing with a lead the entire game and has 2 talented, but younger CBs starting. It's hard to watch, but it makes sense to play back and give up the short routes because it forced Tech into long drives rather than quick strikes. Rather than press and potentially give up a long TD pass, the defense dictated the pace and therefore shorted the game. It's frustrating to watch at times as a fan, but it was absolutely the right call.
ISU was playing with a lead the entire game and has 2 talented, but younger CBs starting. It's hard to watch, but it makes sense to play back and give up the short routes because it forced Tech into long drives rather than quick strikes. Rather than press and potentially give up a long TD pass, the defense dictated the pace and therefore shorted the game. It's frustrating to watch at times as a fan, but it was absolutely the right call.
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It seemed like Tech blitzed our offense the whole second half and was pretty effective - was there anything said about that in any post game interviews?
So, on like 4 plays?
We only had three stalled drives and those offensive penalties were the killer. There weren’t many opportunities for adjustment, as we so became focused on the clock.
Yeah the defense is doing exactly what it's supposed to both overall and on a game by game, drive by drive situation. We've got 2.5 seasons of holding pretty much everybody below their season averages. Forcing TTU to dink and dunk and chew up big minutes to with a big lead worked well.
I get what you are saying and agree it works great against teams we are better than or when in the lead. But in the 3rd quarter Tech ran 30+ plays or something like that. Our defense was out there almost non stop.
Don't you think our defense is gonna get tired against better opponents doing that and then give up lots of points as the game goes on?
I hope you are right and playing that way is on purpose based on game / opponent, and we have an "aggressive - get a stop" mode that we just haven't seen. But it sure seems like this year, we just have the bend and bend mode. You may be right in that Heacock thinks with the young corners he has to chose to mostly run the 3 drop 8 mode and it is the lesser evil.
Didn’t we have the lead? So what’s the question?
That was a 10-7 quarter. In taking little risk, the defense did what we needed.
Our offense not sustaining drives was a bigger issue, but really due to a few plays.
Pretty effective? Maybe in slowing down Purdy - but they gave up 150+ yards to Hall in the second half alone.
