They'd be the Big 10 west favorite and a Big 10 title contender if they had an average offense. That's fair. But yeah, title contender, no.
Iowa Beat Writers
- Thread starter CyTwins
- Start date
They'd be the Big 10 west favorite and a Big 10 title contender if they had an average offense. That's fair. But yeah, title contender, no.
What makes all this even more hilarious is someone that covered Iowa for the Gazette for a while covers LSU now. She showed up late to Brian Kelly's press conference yesterday and he said he was going to fine her, she shot back with 'if you won I'd be here on time'. Can you imagine one of these ball-washers doing that to Kirk?
Right. This was the MO of a lot of Rhoads teams. I think we actually had some solid defenses those years, though to Iowa's credit, nothing like what they currently have. Problem was, our offense would routinely go 3 and out. Recipe for disaster, especially considering it was back in the run'n'gun days of the spread'em out Big 12.
She fit in better with the TOE media. She was one of the many media members actively and demonstrably celebrating the supposed demise of the Big 12 when it was announced OuT was leaving.
Their defense is good but it's not THAT good.
This is where I love that we aren't running multiple TE sets. Spread them out and take the easy throws.
Eickholt seems like the kind of beat reporter who would wear an Iowa jersey in the press box
Iowa's defense is good, but it also benefits from playing other Big 10 offenses stuck back in their 60s and 70s mindset of getting into rock fights rather than playing football. Purdue is the only school they play that isn't afraid to be different and it's a struggle for them each year.
If Iowa had Ohio State on the schedule more often, or played teams more willing to challenge their defense rather than play straight to its advantage, I don't think their defense would be considered 'elite'. Still good, like you said, but not THAT good.
Ehhh the only teams that fit that criteria really are Wisconsin and Northwestern, two schools with decent success against Iowa.
Throwing the team under the bus is hilarious. I mean Petras certainly deserves criticism but yeesh.
Fine, the rock part thing might have been a blanket statement. But the other offenses, instead of being plodding and slow like Iowa, Wisconsin, NW, and I'll throw Minnesota in there too, are just plain bad. Basically talking about Illinois and Nebraska if looking solely at Big 10 West teams
I think the difference between the last 3-5 years of Iowas defense compared to the last 6-10 or beyond has had a ton to do with their special teams.
Shocked we’ve come to this but I didn’t think we’d be getting David hoping it rains so Iowa has an advantage in Kinnick lol.
Totally agree with that. All I was getting at is, much like Big 12 defenses have been denigrated for years because they've had to be tested by spread-em-out, no huddle, and air raid Big 12 offenses, the Big 10 has garnered this praise of having grueling hard nosed defenses. In both cases, I believe it has more to do with the offenses that these defenses are playing against than it is to the credit or discredit of the defenses.