The Takeaway: Maine
by Adam Jacobi on Aug 31, 2008 9:30 PM CDT
in Iowa Hawkeyes Football
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PrintSure, Iowa just throttled a wildly overmatched Maine team, 46-3. But how much do we really know? What was really important about beating Maine? What does it all mean, Basil? The Takeaway has the answer.
- There is no answer at quarterback yet. Both quarterbacks looked decent at times and brutal at others. Jake Christensen doesn't appear to have any touch on his throws, but when he's got time and an open primary receiver, he's lethal. The interception was a poorly thrown pass, and Iowa was lucky to come away with 15 yards off a pass interference penalty when he badly underthrew Brodell on a post.
But Stanzi, while appearing more "poised," threw some absolutely brainless passes yesterday. One ended up being a first down on an out to DJK, but a I-A defensive back would have taken it the other way for six. The other was a softly-thrown jump ball to a walk-on TE in the back of the end zone. In double coverage. Again, a real team picks that. Past that, while he was mostly steady in the pocket, the Iowa offense sputtered under Stanzi until the 4th, when even Maine had given up on using starters.
Neither player distinguished himself yesterday, and it's safe to assume Ferentz will be using both QBs in a similar rotation over the next few weeks until one proves to be substantially more effective. - Adrian Clayborn is every bit the nightmarebeast we expected, and then some. Clayborn was all over the field yesterday, stuffing runs, harassing the Maine backfield, and making effective reads all game long.
Clayborn ended the day with eight tackles, leading all Hawkeyes. He also broke up two passes and, in one particularly telling instance, discharged his babies on Maine QB Adam Farkes' face.
Get your own fucking towel. - Welcome back, Andy Brodell. Anyone who doubted Brodell's impact on Iowa's success no longer has an excuse for their ignorance. Brodell only caught one early pass for 16 yards, but he took an end-around 24 yards on the opening drive and registered 81 return yards, constantly placing Iowa in favorable field position. Again, this is just Maine, so he probably won't be averaging 15 yards per return. But he's very effective in space, a shifty runner who maintains momentum toward the goal line at all times. He'll have plenty of bigger days in the stat book than yesterday, but just seeing that he was the Andy Brodell of old was exciting enough for us.
Oh, and he's a vicious blocker.
That's nice too.
[Both photos credited to Matthew Holst, Iowa City Press-Citizen]
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I agree...
I’m pumped that Brodell is back too, but I’m also very nervous with him returning punts. I like the emphasis on special teams, but it seems like we could be one late fair catch call away from disaster.
Fear does not guide success!
Cast aside your trepidation and let our warriors fight!
"This cream cheese story is good .But we can add some other story about the cream cheese." - Dr. Retarded
Brodell on Punts
Granted, he had a very good day on punt returns Saturday, but I’ve always wondered why it is exactly that Brodell is back there returning punts, my personal opinion is that it doesn’t play to his strength/speed. Obviously, Brodell is fast (though he does look about 1/2 step slower than I remember), but the problem with him is how tall he is (6’3" officially I believe). That’s a slight problem because he needs a long stride/first step to get up to speed. On kickoffs, that kind of space is obviously there; but on punts, its often the case that it gets really congested around the point of the catch. I’ve noticed in the past that this often means that Brodell can’t get going and ends up taking a tackle for little/no gain on some punts. I just wonder if he would be more useful on kickoffs and using DJK or Chaney on punts. Of course, I no jack and shit about coaching, so I will defer to the actual coaches.
One thing on the JC/Stanzi debate: clearly no one separated himself as clearly better. But one thing I saw Stanzi do, and liked, was he would take off and run it if there was no open receiver. Unfortunately, he’s slower than me (not really, no one is THAT slow) and didn’t exactly motor it. But I liked the recognition that there was nothing open, might as well get something out of it. I wish Christensen would make that decision a little more often, rather than just waiting and praying that someone will eventually get open, especially since he has decent speed for a QB.
I ate the blue ones ... they taste like burning.
N/S and watch the feet.
Brodell is there because he a) doesn’t drop punts; and b) runs up the gut, north and south, every time (like the RB he was in high school) to get 10-15 rather than go crazy and wide trying to go all the way. This fits Iowa’s philosophy: don’t FU; get something, then get something again. They are beyond buttoned down, these coaches. It’s NFL conservatism all the way. Dwight’s histrionics might have been coached out of him.
Watch Stanzi’s feet. They’re a lot quieter in the pocket. There’s one fewer stride (=almost one second) before he releases. Personally I thought the offense had more energy with Stanzi (just overall crispness and evidence of “let’s play ball and have fun”) with Stanzi, but how subjective an observation is that? I imagine that JC is an incredible practice player, but his brain is second-guessing his arm in games (cf. the three winged ducks that he forgot to release Saturday — he was fly-fishing, not surf casting, on some of those throws). Jake needs to grip it and rip it, with gusto, or we’re going to be watching Stanzi. If I could make any change to this team, besides changing the university president, it would be to hire a strong, ballsy QB coach who has thrown for 3-4000 in the NFL.
The big news for me in this [scrimmage] game, wasn’t so much Jewel as the fact of only one dropped pass. I can’t watch another DI game with six dropped balls, which is what we’ve averaged for the past three years. Is it our new reality?
Mr. Boh Knows ...
Good Observations
Especially with regard to Stanzi’s footwork, hadn’t noticed it. Definitely looked more calm in the pocket than JC (which is somewhat understandable).
In regards to dropped passes, yes I was glad there were a lot fewer; but that may have been because we only threw to Brodell twice (and one was the pass interference call), and DJK had at least two drops that I distinctly remember, largely because I was screaming at the tv “YOU’RE NOT ANDY BRODELL!! YOU’RE BETTER THAN THAT!”
I ate the blue ones ... they taste like burning.
It's Podolak who saw it (the feet not taking the extra stride), actually,
and Hlas who reported Podolak saying that he saw it. I think BHGP should figure out how it can provide Podolak sufficient … refreshment … that he guest-blogs each Friday.
I do think JC had quieter feet this year. But he does take that extra hop.
It’s not plagiarism if you link to it, etc.
Mr. Boh Knows ...
Brodell has very flexible hips.
He doesn’t have the super-quick juke moves or cuts back-and-forth-and-back of a smaller a guy, but he can shift his hips side to side while keep his center of balance and momentum going forward better than normal. Think of using a hula-hoop.
Defenders are usually coming in at awkward angles and at full speed (as opposed to being more in control on, say, a running play from scrimmage). And an extra couple of inches of movement in the hips makes the solid hit an arm tackle, the arm tackle a finger grab, a finger a tackle a whiff. It doesn’t seem like much, but in returning, keeping his speed (mostly) while maintaining that kind of “shiftiness” is what, I think, makes him so effective going up the middle.
I know, I know...
It’s all true. Getting him more touches (especially if tacopants is in town) is a good thing.
Side note: That picture of him putting his forearm through a Maine defender’s face is priceless.
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