Game Thoughts: UNI

This is kind of a futile exercise, but I can't help but wonder how this game would have turned out if Dekkers had started.

I'm not saying Dekkers would have done worse, but Becht was 10/13 with 2 TD passes, 1 TD rushing, 0 interceptions, and an overall QB rating above 200. Pretty hard to beat that.
 
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To my uneducated eye the offense didn't look any different under NS then under TM. To those that have more knowledge did the play calling, play structure seem any different?

The contact wasn't sustained but zi thought the Oline had more push and passes looked more complimentary.
 
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This is kind of a futile exercise, but I can't help but wonder how this game would have turned out if Dekkers had started.

I'm not saying Dekkers would have done worse, but Becht was 10/12 with 2 TD passes, 1 TD rushing, 0 interceptions, and an overall QB rating above 200. Pretty hard to beat that.

Who?
 
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Wish Rocco would have gotten ALL the snaps. Nothing against JJ, i think we just need our best young QB to get as much experience as possible early in the season.

I get the idea of giving the backup some game reps, but I’d rather give Rocco a chance to really get rolling.
It is good JJ got some snaps. It is good that Rocco played well. But we need to develop both QB’s. JJ is not going to redshirt. Rocco is. #1
 
Very good
D looked like it hasn’t lost a step. In fact, the secondary looked elite. I can’t recall any receptions where the receiver was wide open, and only a couple where there was even a window. Pretty much every pass was contested, and most receptions were just great catches or lucky catches (i.e the deflection to a non-targeted UNI receiver who had already given up on the play and had it fall into his hand on the sideline).

Special Teams: you could tell there’s been dedicated coaching there all camp.
- Actual strategy on punts and punt coverage (Perkins and Porter were quite the duo out there).
- Noel looked way more comfortable receiving punts. He consistently made the right call on returning/fair catching/letting it drop inside our own 10
- Actual blocking scheme on punts. On Noel’s big return they set up with a wall and allowed him to use his speed to get to the outside

Tight Ends looked like they’ll be productive safety valves all season. Brahmer is big and has good hands (albeit that’s based on a sample size of one catch)

Bad:

The offensive line. I think some are sugarcoating them because we won handily, but they were pretty poor in all aspects.
- Pass protection: we didn’t give up any sacks only because we only passed 18 times and our QBs had some nice scrambles. UNI consistently got push, and even on Brahmer’s TD pass, #66 completely whiffed on his block and Becht was dead to rights. Luckily Brahmer ran a great route and Becht got the ball to him before he got hit.
- There were very few holes for the RBs to run through. If you take away our QB scrambles, RBs had 22 carries for 103 yards (4.68 YPC). Not awful, but I felt like the RBs had to make a lot of guys miss to get those 4 yards.
- Penalties: Both Hufford and Simmons had holding calls. Simmons’ happened on a would-be first down.

The Big 12: It’s just the first week, but the league struggled. TCU’s loss wasn’t awful. But Texas Tech and Baylor’s losses were really bad. And Oklahoma State looked less than impressive against Central Oklahoma. On the flip side, maybe that means there are more winnable games for us this year.
 
Positives:
D-line dominance
Secondary was as advertised
TE room showed out
Becht short passing game
Punt and punt coverage
We made a 56 yard freakin field goal!!!!

Negatives:
OL was bad against a very undersized DL
Becht was 1/3 to wide open receivers for deep balls.. Against P5 you have to hit those layups, even if they aren't in stride as our offense will have limited big plays by design
 
Only one pass from our QB was questionable yesterday (threw to TE in triple coverage), quite different than last year!:eggplant:
 
If you're looking at offensive stats from yesterday, you're going to be disappointed. As CW said in his reaction podcast, the game script that unfolded let Matt and Nate keep the offense vanilla in the second half and avoid showing too much. The playbook will open next week. Also, a huge punt return and a pick 6 will always make your total yardage look weak. That's another 125+ yards we didn't have to gain to get to where we wanted to be.
I’ll never understand this. Plenty of great teams score 40, 50, 70 or 80 points in week 1 each year. And go on to have great seasons. I’m not sure I buy the “keeping it vanilla” story we tell ourselves
 
If you're looking at offensive stats from yesterday, you're going to be disappointed. As CW said in his reaction podcast, the game script that unfolded let Matt and Nate keep the offense vanilla in the second half and avoid showing too much. The playbook will open next week. Also, a huge punt return and a pick 6 will always make your total yardage look weak. That's another 125+ yards we didn't have to gain to get to where we wanted to be.
I always hate this for a couple different reasons.

#1 they're going to see plenty on film about tendencies. Does the LG struggle to block to his right? Does the RT have poor footwork that can be exploited? Can the OL handle twists and stunts or get into the right protections? Where do they most consistently get push? Is a certain receiver hesitant over the middle? Coaches are looking for matchups to schematically take advantage of. 3, 41, 3, 17, 17, 10. Even with a 41 point game we have averaged 15 points in Campbell's tenure against Iowa. Parker owns Campbell's offenses. Change the play caller but the principals are still the exact same. We're still a power running spread offense that will have all the same wrinkles basically any other power running spread offense has because almost everyone copies someone else.

#2 Both sides coaches for the most part have seen about everything. There isn't going to be some mystery wrinkle that comes out from either team they haven't seen before. It isn't like Campbell hired a new OC running the air raid. Even if he did they would just go back to the previous film of that coach's offense.

#3 Does the same principle apply for Iowa then? The outcome of their game was never in doubt. McNamara HAS to be more skilled than Petras. Was Ferentz just holding him back? Just having someone with any skill taking the snaps would automatically make their offense significantly different.
#1: This is why keeping things secret is important. Any advantage was can gain is vital.
#2: It's not about creating a brand new concept they've never seen before. It's about catching them off guard with any new plays or wrinkles that they weren't expecting. If you can surprise them, you have the advantage.
#3: Maybe to an extent. But we've seen Brian call plays before and he's not likely to change a whole lot.
 
With the player turnover, new OC, new line coach this game had the potential to a real dud. We had the built in excuses.

We came out a performed pretty damn well for a for a first game. Especially a CMC first game.

Watching on TV the announcers said several times that the UNI D Line is one of their best in years. We will see what that means for our O line moving forward.

Happy for the W and what looks like a great foundation to build up.
 
I’ll never understand this. Plenty of great teams score 40, 50, 70 or 80 points in week 1 each year. And go on to have great seasons. I’m not sure I buy the “keeping it vanilla” story we tell ourselves

Didn't ISU put up 70 in 2019 in like week 3?

It really doesn't matter.
 
I always hate this for a couple different reasons.

#1 they're going to see plenty on film about tendencies. Does the LG struggle to block to his right? Does the RT have poor footwork that can be exploited? Can the OL handle twists and stunts or get into the right protections? Where do they most consistently get push? Is a certain receiver hesitant over the middle? Coaches are looking for matchups to schematically take advantage of. 3, 41, 3, 17, 17, 10. Even with a 41 point game we have averaged 15 points in Campbell's tenure against Iowa. Parker owns Campbell's offenses. Change the play caller but the principals are still the exact same. We're still a power running spread offense that will have all the same wrinkles basically any other power running spread offense has because almost everyone copies someone else.

#2 Both sides coaches for the most part have seen about everything. There isn't going to be some mystery wrinkle that comes out from either team they haven't seen before. It isn't like Campbell hired a new OC running the air raid. Even if he did they would just go back to the previous film of that coach's offense.

#3 Does the same principle apply for Iowa then? The outcome of their game was never in doubt. McNamara HAS to be more skilled than Petras. Was Ferentz just holding him back? Just having someone with any skill taking the snaps would automatically make their offense significantly different.
Nah, why risk injuries and show anybody anything? CMC played it right. Game was never in doubt after half. Sucked to watch, but I like the W and keep Iowa guessing as much as possible.
 

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