NW ran the spread and that is what causes Iowa so much problems. Same as Purdue. Iowa is good against the straight ahead teams.
Can Someone tell me why...
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NW ran the spread and that is what causes Iowa so much problems. Same as Purdue. Iowa is good against the straight ahead teams.
NW also often had mobile/running QBs. At least a guy that if he saw 7 yards open he would always take it. I’ve been hearing a lot about this “hidden yardage” thing across the CF platform this season. That’s great, but what about the hidden lost yardage? Like a QB with 10 yards of space that chooses to throw an incompletion? A misread on ZR’s? A player falls down with nothing but open field ahead?
and that opens up so much more since the defense backs have to be honest and be ready to come up and tackle. If we have a QB who won't run they can just stick to their guy and not worry about us taking off down the field.
Iowa's offense goes 3 & out too much to help their defense. If anything they hang their offense out to dry.
Now they may want to be a ball control offense that bleeds the clock and rests their D but I want to 6'5, 240 lbs with <10% body fat but that doesn't mean it's actually true.
Look at the TOP for their games, rarely do they not have more. That is helping out your defense. Even their 3 and outs they burn more clock than a lot of teams who pick up a first down.
The announcers were ripping it hard during the game too
To be fair to the coaches a little here too though, our WR 2 is Jaylin Noel. When you have that little at the position I'm not sure what route trees would work with them. That's not saying it shouldn't be better, but that I can understand at least. That room needs a lot of attention
One of X's biggest negatives on his draft card was route tree running, or rather lack of designed route trees. It's been a known "feature" of our offense for a long time. I think some of it is talent, a lack of OL pass protection, and just being too conservative.
What he is saying is that they huddle up and take as much time off the clock each time they have the ball. Instead of going quickly like a team in the spread offense does. With EIU there is not much hurrying to the line and hiking the ball. Even when you are getting 3 and out, you are burning clock, which shortens the game.
Northwestern's offense hasn't been a problem for Iowa in awhile. Purdue has, we played them in like 40 mph winds last year. One of those games where a 30 yard punt was great if you were against it
NW played like 5 different QB's last season, which can lead to problems. They really haven't been good since 2018.
Even when they've beaten us recently it's been because of the offense. Back around early 10's when we were more bend but don't break they knew how to expose the defense
Yeah. this is spot on and all that really needs to be said here. Iowa State can and has exploited Ferentz's defenses in years past. They need the playmakers for one, which don't appear to be abundant thus far this year, and secondly, they need to run a system that doesn't play right into what Iowa defends best.
Any time Iowa has to play a team willing to spread it out and take medium to deep shots on them, they look a lot more pedestrian. There just aren't a lot of offenses like that in the Big 10, and none at all in the Big 10 West. Then they get to their bowl game and play teams like Georgia Tech and Kentucky, teams that are offensively challenged in ways similar to Big 10 West teams and Iowa State. It is criminal that they consistently get to play teams that are vulnerable at the one thing they are vulnerable defending against.
You have to go back to 2019 for the last time they averaged over 30 minutes in ToP per game. Here are their national ranks in average ToP since then. All of which were below 30 minutes per game.
2023(so far): 76
2022: 108th
2021: 63rd
2020: 74th
The Iowa defense has always been susceptible to two things:
1) getting burned by stud receivers/playmakers because they don't tend to move their best cornerback around.
2) mobile quarterbacks who are better passers than runners. The Dennard Robinson/Adrian Martinez types didn't bother them as much as the guy who was a pretty good passer who could also pick up 10 yards if the protection broke down.
#1 has been the real killer. If you look back at the games where the Iowa defense has been torched it's almost always been one guy doing the ass kicking. Whether it's McCaffery getting matched up on a safety for Stanford, David Bell lighting up the #2 corner.
1) getting burned by stud receivers/playmakers because they don't tend to move their best cornerback around.
2) mobile quarterbacks who are better passers than runners. The Dennard Robinson/Adrian Martinez types didn't bother them as much as the guy who was a pretty good passer who could also pick up 10 yards if the protection broke down.
#1 has been the real killer. If you look back at the games where the Iowa defense has been torched it's almost always been one guy doing the ass kicking. Whether it's McCaffery getting matched up on a safety for Stanford, David Bell lighting up the #2 corner.
I am going to botch this stat, but one of the CF or Iowa Everywhere pods said Iowa has only given up 30+ points twice in the past like 4 years or something like that. So yeah, their defense is really freaking good aside from when they play the absolute elite teams like Ohio State, Michigan, etc. Those teams just have the athleticism and players to beat them.
There will be some 'but B1G West' responses when it's still a pretty significant stat.
For sure, and there is merit there. However, most teams are just good, average or below average to bad. So their defense works against 90% of FBS opponents. That's just being smart. Will they ever win a conference title or make the playoffs/win in the playoffs? Not sure, but again, they know who they are and they don't shy away from what gets them 9 and 10-win seasons.
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You just cannot overstate the fact that playing in the Big Least West division has been a huge benefit for EIU. Outside of Wisconsin, there is just not a decent team that EIU has to play on a yearly basis. It's strange division because the supporters can show you that Minnesota, NW and others have had one or two year records of being very good, but overall, it's just a poor division.
I saw a stat today that said over the past X number of years, EIU is 4th in the conference in total victories, one behind Penn. State, what that fact leaves out is the other three teams are in the East and play each other every year, while a team like EIU has played Ohio State once in the last 8 seasons, counting this one. Imagine how much better ISU would be if we missed Oklahoma 7/8 past seasons, and played someone like Kansas or TT those years instead?
I saw a stat today that said over the past X number of years, EIU is 4th in the conference in total victories, one behind Penn. State, what that fact leaves out is the other three teams are in the East and play each other every year, while a team like EIU has played Ohio State once in the last 8 seasons, counting this one. Imagine how much better ISU would be if we missed Oklahoma 7/8 past seasons, and played someone like Kansas or TT those years instead?