ISU leads the nation in percentage of 1st down plays that move the chains over the past 3 years. As much as people ***** about the offense, that seems pretty good.
1st Down Production
- Thread starter besserheimerphat
- Start date
Tom Manning is a high quality Power 5 coordinator. This is good data.
Him and Matt need to figure out how to beat Iowa, but the offense has had mostly good years under Campbell. I will give them the credit that they tailor an offense to what the team has: mostly spread and run and shoot under Jacob Park, Lanning with a lot of zone read, Brock Purdy with lots of shorter throws and runs to Breece.
Tom has been effective at finding a core group of strengths, and sticking with it. Fascinating to see what he does this year with Dekker's and some more unknowns. I'm excited.
I feel like this is twisting the stats some. As in, we have less of a % getting first downs on 2nd and 3rd down. Which probably makes sense...we've been horrible picking up 1st downs on 3rd and short since forever. I feel like Manning has done a good job with what he has, but what he really needs is an OL that can grind out first downs with the run when the opponent knows you're going to run it. We have not had that yet under Campbell, despite 2 NFL RBs getting a majority of the carries and NFL TE's sealing the edge. The OL has been a glaring weakness since Day 1. Hopefully that starts changing this year.
A more meaningful stat would be what percentage of first down plays result in a first down. Compare that nationally and I doubt ISU is first. As previous poster pointed out, this particular stat could just mean ISU sucks at picking up first downs on 2nd and 3rd downs.
This is saying we have a higher share of our first downs come from 1st down plays than any other team. Which can be interpreted as good or (how I am viewing) that Manning gets ultra-conservative if a 1st down play is not successful.
Our inability to convert 2nd and longs into first downs because we run the ball for a short gain then are forced to pass from a more difficult position is what's at play with this information.
Our inability to convert 2nd and longs into first downs because we run the ball for a short gain then are forced to pass from a more difficult position is what's at play with this information.
I wouldn't say that Manning gets conservative. I think it's more indicative that we are boom/bust and either have a big gain on 1st, or get behind the chains and can't make it up.
ISU was last in the conference at converting 3rd downs.
... because we try to run on 2nd and 10 and place all our chips in the 3rd and 7 basket.
The only problem I've had with our offense is short yardage conversions. I think it's a problem with the offensive line not being dominant enough vs. scheme and play calling though.
The o-line has been and continues to be a problem. I mean, overall since campbell started they've improved from "really horrific and I feel bad for the QB and RB" to "meh", so there's that.
Our options are way lighter than other teams because of this factor.
100%. It's better than it was. The frustrating part is that they went from a horrible DL to a nearly dominant one in 3 years. They went from average LBs to really good ones in 2 years. OL has been making incremental (if not steady) improvement over 6 years. They've went from pretty much worst OL in the country to bottom half B12 over a span of 7 years. I think that they're trending the right direction, but it has been a SLOW process. The biggest issue is that the hoks snap up every really good OL prospect in the state. We're getting everyone's leftovers, in-state and out of state. Pretty hard to roll out a dominant OL doing that unless you are elite at evaluating. And this staff has not proven that they evaluate OL prospects particularly well...especially compared to most other positions.
Staying in shotgun on 3rd and short also continues to be a head scratching move. Hopefully that changes this year.
This is maddening to a lot of us. Maybe since Dekkers is a little bigger than Purdy, they'll do some more under center stuff. The QB sneak with the push from behind by the RB has been really effective for other teams. But there's also the exchange...pretty sure Dekkers was in shotgun in HS. If you don't practice that exchange a ton, then it makes no sense to do it in a game.
Some people want to blame Manning for that, but you can bet if the HC wanted to run some plays under Center, they would practice it and do it.
We've gone under center many times with no better results. Going under center only helps if you are going to run a QB sneak. We tried that with little success.
Good point, if I don’t see Dekkers being allowed to make plays with his feet on those 3rd and 3-7’s like they did to Brock I will be really disappointed. And obviously in super short yardage 3rd downs we better sneak him until we can’t anymore. No more ******** in those situations. We’ve git the QB with prototypical size and a penchant for running so we better use it.
Hopefully the way the NFL is trending combined with losing all of our TE production will show the staff that it’s okay to let a QB with good running skills follow his instincts instead of locking them in to their full progressions. That TE safety valve became a problem last year. BP was looking for it and waiting for it far too much.
This stat seems unimportant. I'd be much more interested where we rank in attaining a 1st down on any given set of downs, regardless of attained on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
Anyone have the stat on where the D ranks in giving up first downs on Third and long?
It looks to me like he gets ahead of things like he's trying to outsmart the D when it's not needed.
Or a bigger play is dialed up than what the situation calls for. 2nd and 4 doesn't need a 30 yard 50/50 ball.
Either that was not acknowledged or QB1 didn't accept it.
Manning and Campbell need to change their strategy to beat Iowa. Our 2 and 3 TE power sets have been effective against Big 12 opponents but not Iowa. The Hawks are a very physical team in the front 7 every year and they play a conservative scheme that stays in position. We’re not going to outmuscle them. So you have to beat them by putting more speed on the field and spreading them out. I’d like to see more 3, 4 and 5 WR sets and make their LBs chase in coverage. It also helps vs Iowa to have a mobile QB who can throw to all parts of the field. Dekkers is our best combo of mobility and arm strength since probably Seneca.