Can Someone tell me why...
- Thread starter mark82
- Start date
These kind of thoughts are interesting to me. In fact how similar these fans bases are and the things they complain about are shockingly similar.
Iowa st has a stellar Defense, even though we too have fans that live to prey like they don’t. So much so I made a point to tag a couple Iowa St fans on our site to tell them as much. In fact I went as far as lauding their talent. Not Heacock. But their defensive talent!
Based on NFL drafts and free agents sticking I’ve always Pooh poohed the thought we have similar talent, but that defense has NFL talent.
I think too often fans have a tendency to laud a Guru, like Heacock or Parker, when in reality it still takes the players to make it work. They still have to be able to shed blocks and run to the ball.
The guy who mentioned NW had it right. They have out uglied us and out executed us many times. Nothing magic, just outplayed us…
The comment, however, about Iowa State winning most plays, makes no sense whatsoever. If they won most plays, they’d have won. Maybe vs our offense they did but here’s a stat you likely didn’t look out that disproves that immensely.
Iowa ran 49 plays for 235 yds @ 4.79 yds per play.. so if you take off the 59 yard run & the 35 yard pass play like fans love to do when they’re trying to Cherry pick a point. Sure Iowa States Defense outplayed our offense.
But here’s the rub, Iowa State ran 79 plays, 30 more plays than us and had 55 more yards to the tune of 3.67 yards per play!
That’s the winning number… And why we won.
So for most of 49 plays you out performed us, and for the other 79 we outperformed you.
Again it’s about the players and executing your plan. Both teams are hard to get over the top on, every fan ******* about their dumb offensive coaches, so clearly it must be way harder than 90% of our fans, yours, mine, everyone’s thinks!
I don’t mind giving Phil Parker plenty of credit, but quite frankly in my mind, the real credit goes to our defensive recruiting and your defensive recruiting. We have put a **** ton of D backs, and various defensive players in the NFL, yes, including cornerbacks, and yes, plenty of times those CBs turn into safeties, but all the same The talent matters know how matter good the scheme is!
Your defensive talent is very good!
Well let’s remember we have seemingly played about 50, 10-14 games vs NW so I’m not sure the spread is that meaningful.
As for Purdue, they have a very good offensive minded coach, who always had big armed quarterbacks @ at least 1 NFL caliber receiver, usually 2 and they seem to have our number.
Let’s not pretend like we haven’t had plenty of difficulty with Wisconsin over the years who is about as straightahead as they come… Just between you, me and the fence post. I’m glad as hell they have a new head coach!
I agree with this….when Iowa loses DL gap integrity, like the did vs Utah St or other teams, they have issues. But don’t all teams?
Yes I have struggled with this too…. however, I will say this, and this is how jaded I am about offensive football in the state of Iowa… (See what I did there…LOL) …Because both of ours suck… I often hope for one first down… If we get a first down and get out past the 35 I’m pretty comfortable thats there’s no way in hell they’re going to get a touchdown and maybe not even a field goal .
That’s literally the kind of fan I’ve become, however, I do love defensive football so there’s that!!
Agreed, we have way more speed and athleticism now. Plus the cash has helped!
Pretty much agree with this with a couple caveats…Every team struggles with that, especially a good mobile quarterback, that is a terrific passer… That’s everyone’s kryptonite.
As far as the cornerback… I’m pretty much at peace with whatever Phil Parker wants to do but it is interesting. He rarely switches cornerbacks. Now to be fair both CBS playing in the game usually are eventually going to the NFL, but we have been torched with a third or fourth cornerback with little experience, having to play in that game…
One being Riley Moss, who turned into one hell of a cornerback, got roasted by PU one year.
Because it works against average and below average teams and can be decimated against above average talent and/or teams.
Basically Iowa football just wants to be better than average, but not great. High floor, low ceiling.
Per usual, it’s always more nuanced than that…
1st your 5-5 vs TT the last 10 and we are 2-4 vs PU the last 6…
2nd over the last 10 , it’s actually tOSU ( one of about 3 absolute powers in college Fball) then Wiscy, then Iowa, Then UM, Then MSU, Then PSU!
MSU has been quite poor to at best avg since 2016 when they were 3-9.
The east has 3 teams IU, Maryland and Rutgers that have won 33% of their games since 2013, the west has 2, one of which is PU who we have struggled mightily with and NW who is sub .500 and also struggled mightily with…
Imagine how pissed you’d be if we didn’t have that going against us. We’d have at least 5 more wins…
We also play one of the best out of conference P5 teams (ISU) of the whole league and as it turns out every year.
Yes we have historically not played tOSU much, but we have ACTUALLY played UM, 4 times, 5th was canceled, and PSU 6 , so again…..
Much more to it than the poor old west!
Also UM has scored 27, 42 (I doubt our putrid offense had much to do with that) 10 & 13…
PSU…20, 21, 17, 30, 21 & 41…. I don’t have much issue with our defense versus anybody… On the other hand, our offense fence, everybody lol.
It’s pretty true. They obviously can win against a really good to great team once in a blue moon because many programs can. But they are better than you’re good to average and obviously below average teams because of their defense. 95% of college football is not elite so they are just playing smart where they know they can beat 90-95% of who they play with that defense alone. Then just hope to catch Ohio State like they did a few years ago. Most years they won’t be competitive with Ohio State though.
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I hate when everyone tries to definitively say THIS is how you beat the defense when the truth is there are multiple ways to beat the defense and both the slow, methodical, 15 play drives can and the spread it out Purdue style can as well.
The problem is we have a young QB, a first time OC, new OLine coach and essentially a whole new offense (even if it is functionally the same the players are all different, and so are the position coaches). So a new offense isn't going to be good and completely disciplined to be super effective at the methodical style. But you also can't switch the style for one game. So it was always going to be rough for our offense.
The other thing, and people have already harped on it enough, is the other way this style can stress the defense is with the QB run. That would force the dline to have to focus on another gap or safeties to play closer which allows more space for the offense to work, plus another option for 4-5 yards to stay ahead of the sticks. But I also understand not stressing a first year QB with that as well.
The problem is we have a young QB, a first time OC, new OLine coach and essentially a whole new offense (even if it is functionally the same the players are all different, and so are the position coaches). So a new offense isn't going to be good and completely disciplined to be super effective at the methodical style. But you also can't switch the style for one game. So it was always going to be rough for our offense.
The other thing, and people have already harped on it enough, is the other way this style can stress the defense is with the QB run. That would force the dline to have to focus on another gap or safeties to play closer which allows more space for the offense to work, plus another option for 4-5 yards to stay ahead of the sticks. But I also understand not stressing a first year QB with that as well.
Brother there are about 3 super elite teams in the country. One is tOSU and they have only won 2NCs this century and only 2 in 50 years really.
It is super hard to beat any team consistently let alone those teams. I am always very confident when we take the field vs most teams. In particular if we have a pulse on offense.
I focus on NFL talent on your roster at any given time. That’s why I say the Ohio State, Georgias, Alabama’s are way past everyone else, including Michigan or Oklahoma.
There are only 10 to 15 teams in the country that field rosters, more talented than Iowa regularly…I am exceedingly confident in our defense every time they take the field vs anyone if they can move the ball on offense at all and that is what this thread was about.
Our defense…
The offense, not necessarily or even rarely
Its all nuance as you say, but Rutger and Maryland play Michigan, Ohio State and Penn. State every year, that does tend to influence their record a little bit more than playing in the West. Not going to look it up, but it sure seems like EIU has played Rutgers and Maryland a lot more than the three better teams in the east division.
The west has never won a conference championship with the current set up and most have been blow outs. EIU just like 2015 has a very good chance of winning 8 to 10 games while only playing PSU that looks like they are going to be decent. Its the very reason that national media call the school the Fake ID of College Football. Lots of wins beating a group of nobodies.