Game Thoughts: UNI

[ScottyP]

Listening to Ben Bruns on Iowa Everywhere. He seemed happy with what the o-line is trying to do and thinks there will be a big improvement the next couple of games.

 

[isufbcurt]

I had to "watch" the game this morning. Watched the first 3 quarters, which seems more pertinent anyway given the dynamics at that point and the lead we had. On the overall I was extremely pleased with what I saw save for the OL. That (sadly) continues to be a work in progress.

GOOD

- Rocco was great. Juuussssttttt missed on a couple of deep throws but they were accurate (in line with the route...not off "line"), just a tad overthrown. Very quick release and he definitely sees the field (as he sould) much better than JJ. At this point Rocco needs to be the clear cut starter and get the reps. JJ needs another year of seasoning (the freshman "lock on" was apparent on several snaps). I think I feel better about QB than I did before the game.

- The defense was outstanding. I think we are better up the middle than we were last year....which is needed since we don't have the edge rushers we had. Both Orange and Onyedim showed some big flashes.

- The secondary showed it was every bit as good as I thought it was. Coverage was outstanding. Guys made plays all over the field and almost every completion was only a few inches out of hand's reach. This group will do great things all year long.

- Heacock DEFINITELY showed he wants, and is willing, to put guys in position to make more plays. Yesterday's game was EXACTLY what myself and some others were clamoring for. Okay, your defense is good and isn't "the problem" but we don't attempt to nearly make enough plays. We wanted to see more calculated risks given down and yardage situations and he delivered. More blitzes...more front variations....and not just at half but from the start. Big shoutout to coach Heacock here.

- Our LB situation is so much better than it was a year ago. I saw the freshman fall for some misdirection and get caught out of position a few times but man, we are so much more athletic here. Given it was their first game I thought they played very well. With the LBs and the tackeles we are SO MUCH STRONGER up the middle defensively, in my opinion.

- RB room is stocked. Not sure how many holes they'll have this year to show it. More on that later.

- Nate was a 50-50 bag for me, on the play calling and design, but I want to give the shout outs here. One is he seems much more open to the idea of play action, and it was shown (with effectiveness) throughout the game. We also ran the QB sneak in a situation where we would have snapped it 5 yards into the backfield and took a 2 yard loss on 4th and short. I also thought Nate didn't call quite as many plays the team couldnt' block for. That was a plus.

- Sorry it's so far down but SPECIAL TEAMS WERE GREAT!!! nOT sure what that extra point botch was about but given the rest: a 56 yard FG bomb, deep kicks, great punts/coverage, great returns. Couldn't have asked for much more, after all we are Iowa State.

BAD

- Alright CMC, I'm going to hit you real hard right off the bat here...STOP WASTING ******* TIMEOUTS WITH THE WE "MIGHT GO FOR IT" ********. Want to go for it, that's fine, do it. Want to kick it, that's fine, do it. But wasting numerous timeouts, and timeouts that have often come back to bite us, when he CLEARLY has no intention of going for it, needs to stop. Off hand I'd have to guess we did this at LEAST 5-6 times last year. I'm sure I'm not the only one that was pissed when they saw that play.

- The offensive line did not look good. They didn't fire off the ball very well and struggled to control the line of scrimmage. I think most would agree this was the biggest negative of the game and doesn't bod well for the offense. It's just "one game" but it wasn't a good one. Clanton has his work cut out for him.

- I wasn't super impressed with Nate sticking with the WR screens (that **** has got to go...we don't have the athleticism or physical dominance outside for those to consitently work) or the receiver trees. Other than Dean releasing down the seam we did little to attack the middle of the field. We ran the receiver screens and targeted the outside of the field. We challenged deep (a plus). At some point we are going to need more crosses, slants, and quick hits over the middle, especially if the o-line is as "good" as it looks. I also think we could use more misdirection. It's a different league, but Getsy with the Bears made a very untalented offense look competent with play design. I think Nate will have to do similar things here.

- Penalties. Too many sloppy and ill-timed penalties. It was the first game of the season so hopefully we clean things up. The roughing call in the 3rd quarter was a terrible call and should be stricken from the record.

Final Thoughts

With where this team was/is, I thought it was pretty close to a best case outcome. Rocco looked great, STs had one of their best overall games in recent memory, and the defense looked outstanding. By far the most concerning thing was the play of the offensive line. If we want to keep Rocco upright and effective Nate will need to evolve the offense a bit more with misdirection, route trees, etc.

It was nice to have this game finally look like an FBS vs an FCS opponent but Iowa should provide a much stiffer test. With that said I feel much better about the season that I did going into the game.

Nice of John Wooden to grace us with his FB expertise as well as his BB expertise.

 

[ZRF]

Nice of John Wooden to grace us with his FB expertise as well as his BB expertise.

Awesome response. I always appreciate your contributions to threads. Could have sworn I was in the football thread but must have been mistaken.

 

[isufbcurt]

Awesome response. I always appreciate your contributions to threads. Could have sworn I was in the football thread but must have been mistaken.

I'm just saying you are spewing the same coaching "expertise" now in the FB thread as you do in the BB threads.

 

[ZRF]

I'm just saying you are spewing the same coaching "expertise" now in the FB thread as you do in the BB threads.

Just put me on ignore then and be done with it. No sense in you ******** like a school girl, and incessantly at that, about a poster (myself or otherwise). It's a game thoughts thread and (like it or not) those were my thoughts. If you have no interest in reading or posting either stay out of the tread or put people on ignore. It really isn't that hard.

 

[isufbcurt]

Just put me on ignore then and be done with it. No sense in you ******** like a school girl, and incessantly at that, about a poster (myself or otherwise). It's a game thoughts thread and (like it or not) those were my thoughts. If you have no interest in reading or posting either stay out of the tread or put people on ignore. It really isn't that hard.

Thanks Coach!!!!

 

[HFCS]

It most certainly did but not in its entirety. We actually ran play action, something we rarely did with Manning. We also attempted a QB sneak and appeared more willing...and possibly capable, at taking shots down the field.

On the negative side I wasn't super impressed with the over route trees, especially on 3rd down. Quite a few times I saw 3-4 guys running down the field, not even into their breaks, when Rocco needed to throw the ball. The lone valve was often Dean but if he's covered that puts a young QB in a very tough spot, especially when our "pass protection"

Nate also stuck with and called WAY too many WR screens. That crap has never worked (consistently) and it's a complete waste of downs. Can that crap already.

Those wr screens Rocco threw weren’t great plays but when Kohl threw them a second slower they were pretty high risk, low reward situations. At least they didn’t look risky with RB, just waste of down like you said.

 

[Malty Flannel]

Noel had 4 catches with 6 yards.. I don't know, I recognize a lot of people are high on him.

He has a lot of outings like this though. He also has a lot of 3 yard receptions. The production just is not there (not in every game but in lots of games)... I'd almost prefer some others get touches at WR like Bitter/Higgins or others.

Noel was a couple slight overthrows away from 5 catches for 110 yards and 2 TDs

 

[bosco]

Listening to Ben Bruns on Iowa Everywhere. He seemed happy with what the o-line is trying to do and thinks there will be a big improvement the next couple of games.

Propaganda.

 

[ZRF]

Those wr screens Rocco threw weren’t great plays but when Kohl threw them a second slower they were pretty high risk, low reward situations. At least they didn’t look risky with RB, just waste of down like you said.

We aren't good enough to be throwing downs away like that. Or timeouts. Which is why we should can the WR screens (they have been low yield plays since CMC got here) and the "we're going for it" ******** that results in us wasting a timeout.

On the latter, I think that's worked ONCE that I can recall, but the dozen plus other times it's simply resulted in us wasting a time out. Several of those times that TO proved to be useful later in the game.

If something hasn't worked, isn't working, and isn't likely to ever work I wish they'd just quit doing it.

 

[madguy30]

Noel was a couple slight overthrows away from 5 catches for 110 yards and 2 TDs

But it didn't happen in the first game so the offense is bad, always and forever.

It just 'is'.

 

[ZRF]

Propaganda.

I didn't see enough from the OL to be enthused. For perspective I'm often viewed as being pessimistic and viewed yesterday very positively on a unit by unit breakdown. OL was a clear black eye and did not perform well. I also see little reason for us to expect it to be demonstratively better.

If they improve I think that mostly will be because of Clanton, his eye for talent, and some of the technique/mentality changes he's trying to implement.

 

[madguy30]

I didn't see enough from the OL to be enthused. For perspective I'm often viewed as being pessimistic and viewed yesterday very positively on a unit by unit breakdown. OL was a clear black eye and did not perform well. I also see little reason for us to expect it to be demonstratively better.

If they improve I think that mostly will be because of Clanton, his eye for talent, and some of the technique/mentality changes he's trying to implement.

So there's little reason to see them improve except for the guy in charge with the good rap sheet for coaching O-line?

 

[Cyched]

So there's little reason to see them improve except for the guy in charge with the good rap sheet for coaching O-line?

 

[ZRF]

So there's little reason to see them improve except for the guy in charge with the good rap sheet for coaching O-line?

He's had a full offseason to work with what's there. We pretty much know Clanton isn't he problem. That leads me to believe we are a bit short in the talent/development department. It's possible some of the really young guys make strides but it just feels like we don't have talent in the room, which was maybe the biggest part of the problem to begin with.

If you are going up against UNI and struggle to control the line of scrimmage it DOES NOT BODE well for the season. Believe it or not there is a lot of precedent here.

Sorry, but I'm not buying the optimism on this unit (this year). I will be giddy if that's proven to be (hopefully wildly) incorrect.

 

[RagingCloner]

Nice of John Wooden to grace us with his FB expertise as well as his BB expertise.

For what it’s worth, I appreciate the analysis and the post. @ZRF will be the first to tell you, he was not exactly bullish on the team this year. The two of us have had many a few “spirited” debates the last few weeks. Lighten up

 

[HouClone]

Dekker's first game last year he was 25/31 for 293. 4 TDs and 1 INT.

If I remember, he was zipping balls in tight windows getting away with it. It cost him later during Big 12 play.

 

[bosco]

I didn't see enough from the OL to be enthused. For perspective I'm often viewed as being pessimistic and viewed yesterday very positively on a unit by unit breakdown. OL was a clear black eye and did not perform well. I also see little reason for us to expect it to be demonstratively better.

If they improve I think that mostly will be because of Clanton, his eye for talent, and some of the technique/mentality changes he's trying to implement.

It's all talk until we actually see it with our eyes.

 

[madguy30]

If I remember, he was zipping balls in tight windows getting away with it. It cost him later during Big 12 play.

He was sling the ball over the top pretty well but SEMO's secondary was really bad.

Becht will have some tough outings but I thought he seemed more patient.

 

[isutrevman]

If I remember, he was zipping balls in tight windows getting away with it. It cost him later during Big 12 play.

Yeah, he was really good that fist game.