The Takeaway: Wisconsin

I was really surprised how well Gettis played in relief of MacMillan on Saturday. Last season (in very limited appearances) and even this season, Gettis looked like a clear step down from MacMillan (who has bee surprisingly very good). This may be in large part to lingering effects from the injury Gettis suffered in camp, but he looked like a different player out there Saturday. Which certainly bodes well for next year as Vandevelde is the only starter graduating. It would be great to basically plug in one of Gettis/MacMillan in his spot and have a line, all of whom have significant playing experience.

Tarp/Johnson and Nielsen being not as good in coverage as Angerer and Edds factors into the Dline not getting as much pressure just as much as the other way around. Receivers coming across the middle are getting open quicker on us this year than last, thus the pass rush doesn’t have as much time to apply the pressure. The Dline has been as dominant as we thought it would be, but the problems and their causes go both ways.

Obviously their good. But certainly not the invincible line many people (including myself) thought they would be at the beginning of the year. It’s pretty clear that against a good to excellent O-line- such as we’ve seen the past two weeks- they’re not going to annihilate guys.

What we saw Saturday was the most dominate O-line vs the most dominate D-line. And for the most part the D-line did as well if not better than any other D-line that’s faced Wisky’s O-line – certainly since they started to jell just before the OSU game.

You have to remember that the front four have been having to pick up the work load for most of the front 7. This is where we really, really miss Angerer and Edds.

What we were expecting to see was an absolutely dominate front SEVEN but in the form of just the front four. This is why so many of us are disapointed. Yeah, our expectations were out of whack. But as for how the front FOUR have been doing they are absolutely dominate for what the front FOUR are supposed to do – and then some.

His timing hitting the holes seems much better.

I kept saying it during the game…if we can stop them at or near the 20…I like our defense’s chances. When we stopped them at something like the 15 yard line…I was ecstatic. Then the penalty…oh the penalty…it hurt for so many reasons…it pushed us back 5 yards which makes a big difference for a freshman kicker who is still struggling with the balance between kicking it high and kicking it far…it made our special teams unit go back and line up again and run right back down the field…and it was just plain deflating…the first of many deflating plays to come.

you can’t play the if X happens then Y doesn’t happen. You can do that on TONS of plays throughout the game. None of know how the next few series would have played out had we made that field goal. I don’t think you can look at it in anyway other than a missed opportunity.

What frustrates me the most about our punt coverage is that I don’t understand what we’re trying to do out there. We’re clearly not attacking the punter. As someone mentioned (Ross, maybe?) we were, at best, in a two-on-four matchup on the fake punt and everyone else had their backs to the kicker.

If the goal is to set up a return I can understand that except that our return game is kind of a disaster too. The NCAA stats show that we’re in the top 30 in return yardage, but that considers the PAKIBOMB as a 42 yard punt return for a TD. When you eliminate that we’re averaging nine yards a return, which would tie us for 49th in D-I.

What’s really amazing is that the last time that Iowa returned a punt for a TD (not counting the PAKIBOMB) was the Brodell return against ISU in 2008.

we made plenty of mistakes…but I would say there were no more mistakes made in this game than many if not most teams get when playing against a top-tier opponent that Wisconsin clearly is. It was more than we’re used to…but it just goes to show that most of Iowa’s big wins and great seasons have been predicated on mostly mistake-free football and have needed to be.

and one of them (EIU) was in a situation you would never expect.

While I’ll say, our kickoff coverage has been near-disastrous, I can’t say the same for our punt coverage.

That being said, we should absolutely be ready at all times for MSU’s patented fake FG.

it’s that he recognizes holes in his program and fixes them. See bowl preparation. We get burned pretty bad in a few bowl games (i.e. Orange Bowl 2002), Kirk recognizes it as a problem of preparation, takes steps to fix the problem and effectively does so. Moral of the story, I think Kirk is well aware of special teams flaws and will make sure to fix them over the coming week. The situation this week is much different than last in that Iowa knows to expect some trickery from MSU while they weren’t expecting it from Wisky. Expect special teams to be prepared.

I couldn’t agree more about all the ARob talk. I just love this kid. I hope he doesn’t get overlooked for all the credit he deserves, in terms of end-of-the year honors and general hype. I hate to say it, but I still even find myself underestimating him, saying things like, “Yeah, it would be nice to get Coker some touches, but ARob’s a better pass blocker and he doesn’t fumble.” And then I slap myself and say, “Shut up, you moron, he’s just a great fucking football player, all the way around.” And you’re right, he’s the picture of a Ferentz football player. Overlooked, hard worker, team-oriented.

If the ST don’t let an XP get blocked and have the kicker pull a Lucy due to a bad snap.

Because it sounds like you’re making a completely different point than the one you quoted.

ARob: the new Tom Matte.

Level-headedness is one of the best features about BHGP, especially its head honchos. I can find panic elsewhere, it’s good to have real perspective and rationality (and dick jokes and bad MS Paint and…)