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4 weeks in - improvements?

ISUFan22

ISUFan22

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
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Usually should be able to see marketable improvements from week 1 to week 2. That did not happen but I think a lot of that can be "blamed" on facing such a good team in week 2.

But between week 1 and week 4 - the differences should be obvious - especially when a person could make the claim we played a tougher team week 1 than in week 4.

I do think special teams has gotten better. The punter didn't show it Saturday night, but last weekend in KC averaging 50 yards a punt was nice. A good personnel change - hope he can get back on track. Mahoney has done well as of late.

I think we should have seen a drop-off in defense when losing a starting linebacker. Instead, we're seeing improvements, especially from this group. Gave up too much to K-State - but a shut out Saturday against any team is commendable. Good work Wally & Co.

Offensively I will keep it short - there is no single unit on the offense that has shown me even a remote inkling of improvement. I can't blame our running backs, I think ARob and even Woody/etc are doing everything they can when they get opportunities. But the offense has been a big, huge, giant, extreme disappointment. What should be the strength of the team is clearly the glaring weakness.

- In Week 1, the defense out performed the offense.
- In Week 2, both units sucked equally
- In Week 3, a case could be made for either side, I think it was a push
- In Week 4, it's not even close, defense was much better, even outscoring the offense.

The frustrating/worrisome part - there are no signs the offense is going to get better this season.

I am thankful for the defense (who would expect anyone would say that?) - otherwise we would be 1-3 and possibly 0-4.
 
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Kick offs and FGs look really, really good compared to week 1.

-keep
 
This is just my observation and I am not bagging on the defense because as a defensive person I think the defense is performing really well thus far.

But I think one of the problems with the offense is its hard to get into a rhythm when the defense is on the field for such long periods of time. I like that the defense is being opportunistic but they are on the field for long periods of time before they get a turnover or a defensive stop and when this happens the offense has a hard time coming off the bench and getting in a good rhythm.

JMO
 
Kick coverage is still sloppy at times. Mahoney saved a TD last Saturday. The defense seems to be tackling better. It's really hard to gauge this team because of the schedule we've played. We cleaned up against UNI and Northern Illinois, but neither had any QB play. We got torn up at Iowa and played about even with K-State.

I think we'll learn quite a bit this Saturday. Texas Tech is pretty much on the level of K-State and we're at home. The offense was miserable the first 4-5 games last year but seemed to turn the corner at Kansas. Hopefully this is our "turn the corner" game for the offense.
 
ISUFan22 said:
Usually should be able to see marketable improvements from week 1 to week 2. That did not happen but I think a lot of that can be "blamed" on facing such a good team in week 2.

But between week 1 and week 4 - the differences should be obvious - especially when a person could make the claim we played a tougher team week 1 than in week 4.

I do think special teams has gotten better. The punter didn't show it Saturday night, but last weekend in KC averaging 50 yards a punt was nice. A good personnel change - hope he can get back on track. Mahoney has done well as of late.

I think we should have seen a drop-off in defense when losing a starting linebacker. Instead, we're seeing improvements, especially from this group. Gave up too much to K-State - but a shut out Saturday against any team is commendable. Good work Wally & Co.

Offensively I will keep it short - there is no single unit on the offense that has shown me even a remote inkling of improvement. I can't blame our running backs, I think ARob and even Woody/etc are doing everything they can when they get opportunities. But the offense has been a big, huge, giant, extreme disappointment. What should be the strength of the team is clearly the glaring weakness.

- In Week 1, the defense out performed the offense.
- In Week 2, both units sucked equally
- In Week 3, a case could be made for either side, I think it was a push
- In Week 4, it's not even close, defense was much better, even outscoring the offense.

The frustrating/worrisome part - there are no signs the offense is going to get better this season.

I am thankful for the defense (who would expect anyone would say that?) - otherwise we would be 1-3 and possibly 0-4.
Click to expand...
  1. Mahoney- As someone that has been tough on him, he is greatly improved this year. I wish whe was a little longer on kick offs
  2. Defense is a surprise again this year. It will be interesting to see how we fair against the more finesse teams because I just don't think we are built to defend agaisnt power running teams.
  3. Disagree on RBs. I have thought ARob has been slow to the hole all season until UNI. CPR said it this morning when he said UNI was Arobs best game. he just hit holes quicker.
 
isufbcurt said:
This is just my observation and I am not bagging on the defense because as a defensive person I think the defense is performing really well thus far.

But I think one of the problems with the offense is its hard to get into a rhythm when the defense is on the field for such long periods of time. I like that the defense is being opportunistic but they are on the field for long periods of time before they get a turnover or a defensive stop and when this happens the offense has a hard time coming off the bench and getting in a good rhythm.

JMO
Click to expand...

There really isn't a good excuse about the offense. They just have been woefully disappointing. I wouldn't say its a rhythm thing. I don't know what it is. I do know that we just aren't good enough to overcome any penalties and we've had a ton. If we can just eliminate those, our offense will look much better.

Tiller isn't the answer either. He had some terribly inaccurate throws. Now, he hasn't turned it over, but he's also not being asked to do much on offense. He looks at his primary receiver and if its not there, he runs. I think he's quicker and shiftier than Arnaud, but also goes down a lot easier. I might even like him running the read option better, but I'm not sure.

I'm sure they'll both get some PT the rest of the year, but Arnaud will remain the starter if healthy and he should.

I was really impressed with the defense. I know UNI's oline is new and that probably a big reason we got more of a pass rush, but it was still nice to see. I also thought we blitzed more than we had. Its probably something we're going to have to do the rest of the year to get a pass rush. We do need to teach some blitz skills though. Benton blitzed one and ran right into a Dlineman who was being blocked.

UNI hooked up on a couple of long passes, but I was pleased with the CBs on both of them. I think it was Reeves and then Young who got beat, but on both plays they were right with the receiver and just weren't able to turn and spot the ball. Reeves pass was underthrown and the receiver adjusted before Reeves could. Young stayed with his guy the whole time, but just couldn't find the ball and make a play. I was no DB, but I have to imagine that has got to be one of the tougher plays to figure out. Its not like you get a lot of real game reps chasing a receiver full speed and having to turn and make a play on the ball. In both of those cases, a young DB now has some real game experience on that type of play. Plus, I'd rather have the problem on not finding the ball and making a play rather than being out of position and getting burned.
 
a kicker like mahoney (ie: accurate on FGs, but usually only kicks it to the goal line)

is better than a guy like Tony Yelk who could kick it 5 yards out of the back of the endzone and onto the top of the jacobson building on extra points, but couldn't make a 35 yard field goal more than 50% of the time.
 
isufbcurt said:
This is just my observation and I am not bagging on the defense because as a defensive person I think the defense is performing really well thus far.

But I think one of the problems with the offense is its hard to get into a rhythm when the defense is on the field for such long periods of time. I like that the defense is being opportunistic but they are on the field for long periods of time before they get a turnover or a defensive stop and when this happens the offense has a hard time coming off the bench and getting in a good rhythm.

JMO
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying and I don't think it's completely invalid - but I do think it is a big stretch. Our defense could be one of the better in the league and IMO - our offense would still clearly struggle. These are reasons why...

- Penalties, penalties and more penalties
- Inconsistent blocking
- Weaknesses at receivers (NEED to have Franklin be our go-to guy)
- Inconsistent passing

A note on the penalties - we were keeping track of this in the stands. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but in the 3 drives our offense scored points, we committed zero penalties. In every single other drive (and this is where I could be slightly off), we committed at least one penalty.

There is no headway being made in the penalty department. In fact, I think Saturday was one of our worst games there - anyone have stats handy on that?
 
I do not know what to say about the oline. All I see is false starts and holding. I see some running lanes. I saw a lot of panther jerseys chasing Tiller last week that maybe should have been blocked. Maybe the tight end has been our best oline blocker.

For us as a team to be better, the oline has to play smarter than it is right now and not get shoved as much into our backfield.

I would like to see the punter become more consistent.

Some of Grants short kicks have barely been inside the upright.

The tackling is improving. Sims, Johnson and Young looked good last week. Parker had his best game.
 
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Penalties

NIU: 5 for 60
Iowa: 5 for 40
KSU: 8 for 64
UNI: 8 for 60

So not our worst performance. At least it is consistent...?

As for the penalties on drives we had a false start on the drive with Mahoney's first field goal and did not have one on the drive where Tiller punted.
 
Penalties: The false starts gotta go. Got to get more menatlly tough down there in the trenches.

The O has to play a very solid game to get this W on Saturday.
 
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Good post 22. I agree with a lot of your analysis. We heard how much Arnaud and the offense had improved under Year 2 of Tom Herman but we've taken a giant step back so far this year. The offense has put the ball in the endzone 3 times in the last 3 games...that is going to win us around 0 conference games.
 
ISUFan22 said:
I hear what you're saying and I don't think it's completely invalid - but I do think it is a big stretch. Our defense could be one of the better in the league and IMO - our offense would still clearly struggle. These are reasons why...

- Penalties, penalties and more penalties
- Inconsistent blocking
- Weaknesses at receivers (NEED to have Franklin be our go-to guy)
- Inconsistent passing

A note on the penalties - we were keeping track of this in the stands. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but in the 3 drives our offense scored points, we committed zero penalties. In every single other drive (and this is where I could be slightly off), we committed at least one penalty.

There is no headway being made in the penalty department. In fact, I think Saturday was one of our worst games there - anyone have stats handy on that?
Click to expand...
We had a false start on KO in the first drive that resulted in a FG. That is the fifth time this season KO has had a penalty inside the red zone that pushes us out. We also had a illegal procedure on the second feild goal drive. Both times we were in the red zone

Every single time we have been in the red zone and do not get a penalty, we score a TD. We have overcome a penalty once this season to score a TD. Otherwise 90% of the time we have a penalty we end up with a FG or no points.
 
Drive4cy said:
Kick coverage is still sloppy at times. Mahoney saved a TD last Saturday. The defense seems to be tackling better. It's really hard to gauge this team because of the schedule we've played. We cleaned up against UNI and Northern Illinois, but neither had any QB play. We got torn up at Iowa and played about even with K-State.

I think we'll learn quite a bit this Saturday. Texas Tech is pretty much on the level of K-State and we're at home. The offense was miserable the first 4-5 games last year but seemed to turn the corner at Kansas. Hopefully this is our "turn the corner" game for the offense.
Click to expand...

This is a really good point that I haven't seen brought up anywhere else. We were never a great offensive team at any point last year but we were good enough to win games the second half of last season. If we can get one game where the offense finally clicks then I could see the offense taking off. It could just be one great drive against a good team (like TT) that gets the ball rolling.
 
tazclone said:
We had a false start on KO in the first drive that resulted in a FG. That is the fifth time this season KO has had a penalty inside the red zone that pushes us out. We also had a illegal procedure on the second feild goal drive. Both times we were in the red zone

Every single time we have been in the red zone and do not get a penalty, we score a TD. We have overcome a penalty once this season to score a TD. Otherwise 90% of the time we have a penalty we end up with a FG or no points.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the accurate facts. My message was the same as yours, just not as accurate.

This team does not have the ability and mental toughness to overcome adversity. Yet they continue to put themselves in adverse situations.
 
d4nim4l said:
Penalties

NIU: 5 for 60
Iowa: 5 for 40
KSU: 8 for 64
UNI: 8 for 60

So not our worst performance. At least it is consistent...?

As for the penalties on drives we had a false start on the drive with Mahoney's first field goal and did not have one on the drive where Tiller punted.
Click to expand...

Now go back and tell me of those penalties/yards - how many are on the offense? :)

If the over/under was 75%, I'd bet the over.
 
I think on the drive that Mahoney ran the fake field goal, we had a penalty. With the conversion of the fake, I believe that was the driv ARob scored the TD on.
 
dualthreat said:
a kicker like mahoney (ie: accurate on FGs, but usually only kicks it to the goal line)

is better than a guy like Tony Yelk who could kick it 5 yards out of the back of the endzone and onto the top of the jacobson building on extra points, but couldn't make a 35 yard field goal more than 50% of the time.
Click to expand...

FWIW- Mahoney did not have a great FG% before this year. he was at 65% last year with most of those misses coming between 30-50 yards. He also missed 4 PATs. Yelk was more of a long field goal specialist. He wasn't even our regular FG kicker most years.
Mahoney is much better this year, knock on wood.
 
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