Game Thoughts Cincinnati

[cyclone1209]

I thought we could grind out a W, but it was shocking to see a borderline blowout yesterday. The team is playing with more confidence, cohesiveness, and has unlocked a swag that is fun to see. I did not like the crew on FS1 much. Seemed less complimentary to ISU but whatever. Here are my game thoughts in no particular order.

- The road to a bowl: if we win at Baylor in two weeks and can beat BYU there's 6. I think TX and Kansas will be difficult, but Kansas just lost to OSU. KSU is playing a freshman QB who looks very good so that could be tougher than I thought two weeks ago.
- 3-1 in league play. (this is a huge if), but IF we finish 3rd in the Big 12, this is hands down the best season Campbell has had coaching. Losing Hutchinson, Will M to the NFL, then losing 5 starters this is wild what he has done this year. He has maximized the talent on this roster.
- Stevo Klotz can be a major asset to the team moving forward. We all knew he could block, but that TD grab in the endzone was a thing of beauty and he has some hops. Love this guy, he's a better version of Sam Seonbuchner to me.
- Rocco is continuing to play "Purdy like". No I don't think his ceiling is as high as Brock but I think this guy is clearly the future. He is accurate enough, smart with the ball, he can rush it for 5 yards when he needs to. A couple of his throws to Higgins on the sideline showed me too he can rifle a ball in when appropriate.
- I continue to love to see Trent Jones and Ike Ezeguo on the d line. Ezeguo in particular had a great move at the line to get a sack with Jones towards the end of the game, the offensive tackle guarding him lost his jock strap on the move.
- Jordan Langs on special teams: I don't know what we pay him, but he's worth every single dollar. Great hire.
- The OL is starting to play more freely, with more confidence, this is credit to Scheelhaase opening up the offense and not playing like the hawks, the pass game looking better, and I'm sure Clanton is really coaching them up too.
- Ben Brahmer when all is said and done I think can be better than Charlie Kolar at TE, and that's saying something
- Will McLaughlin continues to ball out at LB and think he's our best LB'er, he is strong against the run and pass.

 

[Cyched]

Remember when Cincy let 7-3 after the 1st? Those rascals.

 

[2122]

For such a young team, these guys really execute well. Coaches deserve some credit.
We're looking good if we keep winning the turnover battle.

 

[Cyched]

For such a young team, these guys really execute well. Coaches deserve some credit.
We're looking good if we keep winning the turnover battle.

This has been the standout change to me. Outside of the OU game, have we turned the ball over in conference play yet?

 

[AirWalke]

It was a great game to see. The last two wins ISU was favored to lose by 4-7 points each time and roundly surpassed those expectations.

Just gotta keep things going. No opponent will be a push over but the next three going into the Texas game are winnable. My confidence that this team can get that done has improved significantly.

 

[Aclone]

I did not like the crew on FS1 much. Seemed less complimentary to ISU but whatever.

There’s a reason I prefer to listen to John and Eric—even when it’s not perfectly synced.

Matter of fact, I actually had the sound on for the Iowa game yesterday—figuring it was better than being subjected to Gary Dolphin—and I was shocked at how bad those broadcasters were.

No I don't think his ceiling is as high as Brock…

Going to take a bit of exception here. Perhaps this is true in terms of “49ers starting QB Brock”, but that’s not really a fair comparison. It seems more apt to compare current Rocco with “‘18 freshman Brock”, when both were closer to the same stage of development. Aside from the true freshman vs redshirt freshman difference, at this stage of his career, Brock had just finished his first start.

It’ll be interesting to compare their freshman years, when all is said and done.

That said, one clear advantage I see Rocco having right now is that he’s usually hitting open receivers right in stride, where with Brock, they often had to jump or wait for the ball.

Perhaps I’m misremembering?

- I continue to love to see Trent Jones and Ike Ezeguo on the d line. Ezeguo in particular had a great move at the line to get a sack with Jones towards the end of the game, the offensive tackle guarding him lost his jock strap on the move.

Ezeogu’s rising presence is an element the defense has been missing, complementing the production of the other two DL spots. An emerging Will McDonald—plus twenty-odd pounds.

- The OL is starting to play more freely, with more confidence, this is credit to Scheelhaase opening up the offense and not playing like the hawks, the pass game looking better, and I'm sure Clanton is really coaching them up too.

Can’t forget the impact of five guys not playing where they did a year ago getting more time to get comfortable together—or Brendan Black’s physical emergence.

- Ben Brahmer when all is said and done I think can be better than Charlie Kolar at TE, and that's saying something

With Stephen Cooper (hopefully) arriving right behind him. This TE room is absolutely loaded!

- Will McLaughlin continues to ball out at LB and think he's our best LB'er, he is strong against the run and pass.

With true freshman Jack Sadowsky starting. And true freshmen JJ Jean-Louis and Kooper Ebel also shining. Plus redshirt freshman Carson Willich. Soph Zach Lovett. Talk about loaded rooms![/QUOTE]

 

[ClonerJams]

I was as down as anyone after the Ohio loss, but I'm quite excited about the future. We are playing lots of underclassmen, and with OUT gone after this year its a pretty even playing field in the conference. Hoping we can go bowling this year; looking forward to next year regardless.

 

[CyState85]

Our two deep loses 7 players and I would argue that all 7 are easily replaceable except for Tampa.

 

[Clone Head]

That said, one clear advantage I see Rocco having right now is that he’s usually hitting open receivers right in stride, where with Brock, they often had to jump or wait for the ball.

Perhaps I’m misremembering?

You are not misremembering. It seems like most Iowa State quarterbacks have thrown passes off their back foot and have been late on delivering their passes.

Rocco has a quick release and is throwing off his front foot with on time passes.

 

[ZRF]

Special teams were great, Rocco was inconsistent (for him...conditions weren't the best) and the OL showed us more, at times. Higgins was the major relegation as he played a fantastic game. He wasn't just loading up on easy catches and YACs, he made some very good plays out there. That was great to see.

Again, a lot of the posters don't seem to want to hear or admit it, but we didn't play particularly great and smoked a REALLY bad team on the road. While I do agree with McLaughlin, our LBs have been atrocious as a positional group all season. Time and time again you will watch them shoot and miss their gaps, get trucked by an LB, or struggle to drop back in coverage. Vaughn is NOT good and the reason we even have 2 freshman starting isn't because they are great, it's because we are thin/terrible at the position.

Our defense has been underwhelming which is easy to understand when you realize the LBs suck and the line also struggles to make plays. Having both co-exist is problematic for a Heacock defense as QBs have time, and receivers then have time to allow for coverage breakdowns or best the LBs between their drop coverage and the secondary. Watch the film, there have been a lot of openings, but few have exploited us as the QBs we've played have been between suck and subpar. Cinci had ONE ******* thing they could do and that was the QB runs, either on a read option, RPO, or a play breakdown/scramble. But one you eick an effective spy on him, something we DID do fairly well in the 2nd half, that goes away. Cinci had open guys and OSU had (tons) of open guys but the Qbs simply fail. Without major i.provements (or more likely) adjustments we will have difficulty against QBs that perform (even average).

On offense I thought we called a better game...until the 4th quarter. This particular game wasn't as important as Cinci was inept (mostly) on offense. I'm bringing this up as we've done it before in games where it is much more significant. We simply can't hand the ball off on first and second down, putting Rocco and the OLine in a predictable passing down. Our line is NOT good enough to handle pressure and we are putting Rocco in a position to fail. We need a much better mixture in the 4th quarter, especially in close games. I don't have the stats but I'd venture to say our 3rd and long conversion percentage is abysmal, and that's relative to general averages.

Far and away I think the positives were on special teams (best comprehensive units I've ever seen from an ISU team) and the offense, where there are glimpses. Even when he struggles I generally like Roccos decisions and you can tell he is a natural gamer and a leader out there.

But the defense? The secondary IS good and somehow we are making more plays INTs without really forcing teams into early throws. I think that's a testament to talent and a little bit of luck. But if you watch the unit as a whole it has NOT been playing at a very high level. The LBs are unreliable and the DL only gets a handful of pressures an entire game. We won't keep getting lucky where we face atrocious OLs (Cinci created no running lanes) and poor QBs (Cinci and Bowman...at least in the OSU game). We are playing with major fire here as the combination of familiarity (playing against Heacock and the higher usage if his system across football), the DL, and LBs have us prepping to be torched in the near future.

This Cinci team was almost on the level of the joke KU teams of 5 or so years ago. Great to get a road win (always is) but I'm keeping it I perspective. Cinci is terrible.

 

[CYCLNST8]

On offense I thought we called a better game...until the 4th quarter. This particular game wasn't as important as Cinci was inept (mostly) on offense. I'm bringing this up as we've done it before in games where it is much more significant. We simply can't hand the ball off on first and second down, putting Rocco and the OLine in a predictable passing down. Our line is NOT good enough to handle pressure and we are putting Rocco in a position to fail. We need a much better mixture in the 4th quarter, especially in close games. I don't have the stats but I'd venture to say our 3rd and long conversion percentage is abysmal, and that's relative to general averages.

This Cinci team was almost on the level of the joke KU teams of 5 or so years ago. Great to get a road win (always is) but I'm keeping it I perspective. Cinci is terrible.

I'm okay with being super conservative and pounding the rock when we have a fairly safe lead in the 4th quarter. Gotta learn to suffocate a defense on the ropes. The defensive line isn't terrible; they're consistently in 3-on-5 battles. The QB spy bringing a delayed blitz is fantastic with the right linebacker. Vance was inconsistent. Lanning was a natural probably because he could read the opposing quarterback's mind. Lovett may have found his niche.

Fortunately we have Baylor and BYU left on the schedule. Wish they were home games.

 

[AuH2O]

Special teams were great, Rocco was inconsistent (for him...conditions weren't the best) and the OL showed us more, at times. Higgins was the major relegation as he played a fantastic game. He wasn't just loading up on easy catches and YACs, he made some very good plays out there. That was great to see.

Again, a lot of the posters don't seem to want to hear or admit it, but we didn't play particularly great and smoked a REALLY bad team on the road. While I do agree with McLaughlin, our LBs have been atrocious as a positional group all season. Time and time again you will watch them shoot and miss their gaps, get trucked by an LB, or struggle to drop back in coverage. Vaughn is NOT good and the reason we even have 2 freshman starting isn't because they are great, it's because we are thin/terrible at the position.

Our defense has been underwhelming which is easy to understand when you realize the LBs suck and the line also struggles to make plays. Having both co-exist is problematic for a Heacock defense as QBs have time, and receivers then have time to allow for coverage breakdowns or best the LBs between their drop coverage and the secondary. Watch the film, there have been a lot of openings, but few have exploited us as the QBs we've played have been between suck and subpar. Cinci had ONE ******* thing they could do and that was the QB runs, either on a read option, RPO, or a play breakdown/scramble. But one you eick an effective spy on him, something we DID do fairly well in the 2nd half, that goes away. Cinci had open guys and OSU had (tons) of open guys but the Qbs simply fail. Without major i.provements (or more likely) adjustments we will have difficulty against QBs that perform (even average).

On offense I thought we called a better game...until the 4th quarter. This particular game wasn't as important as Cinci was inept (mostly) on offense. I'm bringing this up as we've done it before in games where it is much more significant. We simply can't hand the ball off on first and second down, putting Rocco and the OLine in a predictable passing down. Our line is NOT good enough to handle pressure and we are putting Rocco in a position to fail. We need a much better mixture in the 4th quarter, especially in close games. I don't have the stats but I'd venture to say our 3rd and long conversion percentage is abysmal, and that's relative to general averages.

Far and away I think the positives were on special teams (best comprehensive units I've ever seen from an ISU team) and the offense, where there are glimpses. Even when he struggles I generally like Roccos decisions and you can tell he is a natural gamer and a leader out there.

But the defense? The secondary IS good and somehow we are making more plays INTs without really forcing teams into early throws. I think that's a testament to talent and a little bit of luck. But if you watch the unit as a whole it has NOT been playing at a very high level. The LBs are unreliable and the DL only gets a handful of pressures an entire game. We won't keep getting lucky where we face atrocious OLs (Cinci created no running lanes) and poor QBs (Cinci and Bowman...at least in the OSU game). We are playing with major fire here as the combination of familiarity (playing against Heacock and the higher usage if his system across football), the DL, and LBs have us prepping to be torched in the near future.

This Cinci team was almost on the level of the joke KU teams of 5 or so years ago. Great to get a road win (always is) but I'm keeping it I perspective. Cinci is terrible.

It's a good thing, but it's definitely crazy how high our standards are for this defense.

The defense has given up 17.7 ppg on the season. NCAA stats don't discount these, so it's hard to know exactly who has given up defensive TDs, but I suspect this would be somewhere around 20th among FBS with these points given up on the offensive side accounted for.

Also, as a change to the defense of the past, ISU is turning teams over. Tied for #2 in the country in INTs!!!

 

[MartyFine]

 

[OscarBerkshire]

I'm gonna take the opposite tact. I think the offense left a lot of points on the field. And it was a combination of poor execution and (occasionally) suspect playcalls. This game could've been over a lot sooner if we didn't leave so many points on the field. I'm glad we won but I think against Kansas, K-State, and Texas (which is a winnable game if its at night) we need to be scoring touchdowns when we get great field position. Regardless, glad we hit the field goals today

 

[Sousaclone]

That's just weird to look at in terms of overall teams.

 

[ZRF]

I'm okay with being super conservative and pounding the rock when we have a fairly safe lead in the 4th quarter. Gotta learn to suffocate a defense on the ropes. The defensive line isn't terrible; they're consistently in 3-on-5 battles. The QB spy bringing a delayed blitz is fantastic with the right linebacker. Vance was inconsistent. Lanning was a natural probably because he could read the opposing quarterback's mind. Lovett may have found his niche.

Fortunately we have Baylor and BYU left on the schedule. Wish they were home games.

Here's where that part fails and is inconsistent. So we "pound the rock" so to speak, for those first two downs. Then we get to third and long and what do we do? Throw the ball. So the point is is if you ultimately willing to throw for a first down, as we've proven time and time again we are, why the **** are we running it up the middle for 1-2 yards the first two downs and getting in a position where we have to throw the ball, and one where we will have less success (because teams are in that defense). If you go back and look Cinci was loading the box as we were so predictable. I'm not saying we need to be throwing the ball deep or making risky throws, but damn they were basically daring us to throw early. Yet we ran it, predictably. And it's not the first time we've done that either.

I'm well aware of what our general premise is on the DL. In general their job is to eat up space and create lanes for the LBs to make plays. The problem is our LBs generally aren't making plays and the reason that didn't hurt us (much) this game was because Cinci's oline was inept at creating lanes (they were bad) and their QB sucked at throwing the ball. Back when we had guys like Rose, who was a ball hallhawk, rarely missed tackles, and rarely shot the wrong gap (and was great in coverage) we could get away with things like that. We also had Bailey, Mcdonald, and Anderson who are/were much better and productive than anyone we have on the line now.

Basically we are playing with the weakest front 6 (ooops....edited from 7) we have had since Campbell's first or second year. It may actually be the worst. The talent in the secondary has masked some of those problems but that can't be expected to hold up. So if the LB's aren't naturally good at shooting their gaps, making plays, and being astute in coverage, I'd rather see more (a lot more) blitzes where we are utilizing these guys to create more pressure and take some of the load off the secondary.

The spy was a great adjustment for THIS particular game (and can be in others), but can often fail if the QB (and offense) are smart enough to drag right behind the LB. If he comes, the QB dumps the ball off as it's one less guy that's really in coverage. Often the QB will act like he's taking off, drawing the LB up, then dump off to a TE, or RB who's went out into the flat/behind the spying LB. The reason it worked so well was because Cinci's QB couldn't hit open receivers and the spy took away the runs that were hurting us earlier in the game. Overall thought I don't think that's a strategy that will work in many (probably most of our games).

 

[ScottyP]

There’s a reason I prefer to listen to John and Eric—even when it’s not perfectly synced.

Matter of fact, I actually had the sound on for the Iowa game yesterday—figuring it was better than being subjected to Gary Dolphin—and I was shocked at how bad those broadcasters were.


Going to take a bit of exception here. Perhaps this is true in terms of “49ers starting QB Brock”, but that’s not really a fair comparison. It seems more apt to compare current Rocco with “‘18 freshman Brock”, when both were closer to the same stage of development. Aside from the true freshman vs redshirt freshman difference, at this stage of his career, Brock had just finished his first start.

It’ll be interesting to compare their freshman years, when all is said and done.

That said, one clear advantage I see Rocco having right now is that he’s usually hitting open receivers right in stride, where with Brock, they often had to jump or wait for the ball.

Perhaps I’m misremembering?


Ezeogu’s rising presence is an element the defense has been missing, complementing the production of the other two DL spots. An emerging Will McDonald—plus twenty-odd pounds.


Can’t forget the impact of five guys not playing where they did a year ago getting more time to get comfortable together—or Brendan Black’s physical emergence.



With Stephen Cooper (hopefully) arriving right behind him. This TE room is absolutely loaded!



With true freshman Jack Sadowsky starting. And true freshmen JJ Jean-Louis and Kooper Ebel also shining. Plus redshirt freshman Carson Willich. Soph Zach Lovett. Talk about loaded rooms!

[/QUOTE]
Brendan Black is our most physical offensive lineman and he is just a true freshman.

 

[Statefan10]

Special teams were great, Rocco was inconsistent (for him...conditions weren't the best) and the OL showed us more, at times. Higgins was the major relegation as he played a fantastic game. He wasn't just loading up on easy catches and YACs, he made some very good plays out there. That was great to see.

Again, a lot of the posters don't seem to want to hear or admit it, but we didn't play particularly great and smoked a REALLY bad team on the road. While I do agree with McLaughlin, our LBs have been atrocious as a positional group all season. Time and time again you will watch them shoot and miss their gaps, get trucked by an LB, or struggle to drop back in coverage. Vaughn is NOT good and the reason we even have 2 freshman starting isn't because they are great, it's because we are thin/terrible at the position.

Our defense has been underwhelming which is easy to understand when you realize the LBs suck and the line also struggles to make plays. Having both co-exist is problematic for a Heacock defense as QBs have time, and receivers then have time to allow for coverage breakdowns or best the LBs between their drop coverage and the secondary. Watch the film, there have been a lot of openings, but few have exploited us as the QBs we've played have been between suck and subpar. Cinci had ONE ******* thing they could do and that was the QB runs, either on a read option, RPO, or a play breakdown/scramble. But one you eick an effective spy on him, something we DID do fairly well in the 2nd half, that goes away. Cinci had open guys and OSU had (tons) of open guys but the Qbs simply fail. Without major i.provements (or more likely) adjustments we will have difficulty against QBs that perform (even average).

On offense I thought we called a better game...until the 4th quarter. This particular game wasn't as important as Cinci was inept (mostly) on offense. I'm bringing this up as we've done it before in games where it is much more significant. We simply can't hand the ball off on first and second down, putting Rocco and the OLine in a predictable passing down. Our line is NOT good enough to handle pressure and we are putting Rocco in a position to fail. We need a much better mixture in the 4th quarter, especially in close games. I don't have the stats but I'd venture to say our 3rd and long conversion percentage is abysmal, and that's relative to general averages.

Far and away I think the positives were on special teams (best comprehensive units I've ever seen from an ISU team) and the offense, where there are glimpses. Even when he struggles I generally like Roccos decisions and you can tell he is a natural gamer and a leader out there.

But the defense? The secondary IS good and somehow we are making more plays INTs without really forcing teams into early throws. I think that's a testament to talent and a little bit of luck. But if you watch the unit as a whole it has NOT been playing at a very high level. The LBs are unreliable and the DL only gets a handful of pressures an entire game. We won't keep getting lucky where we face atrocious OLs (Cinci created no running lanes) and poor QBs (Cinci and Bowman...at least in the OSU game). We are playing with major fire here as the combination of familiarity (playing against Heacock and the higher usage if his system across football), the DL, and LBs have us prepping to be torched in the near future.

This Cinci team was almost on the level of the joke KU teams of 5 or so years ago. Great to get a road win (always is) but I'm keeping it I perspective. Cinci is terrible.

I don't think you're entirely wrong that the defense has been a bit underwhelming but we're still ranked in the top 30 in the country in total defense. I think there are some individuals that have struggled at times but as a whole, we've done pretty well. We've had what, two bad defensive games, one was @ OU with one of the best offenses in the country, and the other was in a win against OSU.

I do not agree with your sentiment that Cincy is an absolute joke of an offense. They actually are rated one spot above KU's offense this year. Emory Jones is just not a great passer. He is an effective runner though, and they've ran the ball pretty effectively this year averaging 202 ypg. We held them to 115 on Saturday.

Our defense is very young in a lot of areas and we are subbing in young guys for young guys. I think the defense is only going to continue to get better this year and I think we're starting to figure a lot of things out at both the LB and DL position.

 

[stewart092284]

I do not agree with your sentiment that Cincy is an absolute joke of an offense. They actually are rated one spot above KU's offense this year. Emory Jones is just not a great passer. He is an effective runner though, and they've ran the ball pretty effectively this year averaging 202 ypg. We held them to 115 on Saturday.

Our defense is very young in a lot of areas and we are subbing in young guys for young guys. I think the defense is only going to continue to get better this year and I think we're starting to figure a lot of things out at both the LB and DL position.

Cincinnati's offense is not good. They have some good players but they are not a good offense. Those ratings are incredibly inflated from the opening game where they scored 66.

27-24-21-6-35-10. Outside of hanging 66 in the opening, they've hit 30 points once. By contrast we've hit it 3 times now. Other than BYU they are very clearly regressing there.


Agree on the defense. And I can't remember, did Orange play a lot defensively? I don't remember seeing him, is he hurt or just Singleton better atm?

 

[isufbcurt]

Cincinnati's offense is not good. They have some good players but they are not a good offense. Those ratings are incredibly inflated from the opening game where they scored 66.

27-24-21-6-35-10. Outside of hanging 66 in the opening, they've hit 30 points once. By contrast we've hit it 3 times now. Other than BYU they are very clearly regressing there.


Agree on the defense. And I can't remember, did Orange play a lot defensively? I don't remember seeing him, is he hurt or just Singleton better atm?

Singleton is running with the 1's and Orange is running with the 2's. Singleton has been playing really well lately.