Worries about the Michigan game

is that KF understands that there is a fundamental difference between a RichRod team and a JoePa team. I believe he understands that you take the foot off the gas on a JoePa team, because JoePa would do the same, and they aren’t likely to burst out for 45 points.
I could be wrong. I hope I’m not.

field position and the PSU defense dictated the second half play calling more than a desire to “go conservative.” You’ve got to credit PSU for that, I think. Will we against Michigan, unlike last night, be able to run the ball more effectively? I think/hope so. That keeps Denard off the field, and opens up PA more for us. We should be able to better stretch the field against Michigan.

Of course, I’m also dying to see what Norm and this D can do against Denard. Should be very interesting.

You can blame Ferentz but blame should be focused on him letting KOK call the plays. If I see us in a 3rd and 13 situation again and we run off tackle to the short side of the field I am going to hang my head a cry like a baby. I can just hear the conversation between KOK and his brain trust…“Let’s see, I bet they won’t be looking for an off tackle to the short side, let’s run it and tell the punter to get loose”.

We have the WMD’s…fucking use them and bury the bastards please. Go for the fucking hog kill, make them fear you offense like they fear you defense!

Too many Iowa fans have one. But let me qualify something first…

While I’m certainly not thrilled at KOK’s complete lack of creativity or testicular fortitude when it comes to games like the one last night, this Penn State team we played was absolutely unable to do anything against our defense. The time of possession was nearly equal between the two teams, yet the Hawks won by 21. That’s on the defense, and while it pains many, I think the coaches realize this and savor the experience, confidence and conditioning the defense can gain from completely shutting down a team throughout the entire course of a game even when they’re in total control.

Now, to my point… we didn’t see this team able to offensively squash teams last year because of how many close games there were, and the ISU game doesn’t count, because Arnaud was playing offense for us. But this year, against ISU and the other popcorn farts we’ve played, this offense continued to put points on the board. Granted, that should be expected. But in 2008, there were several times when this team continued to put up points late in games. Most of the time, these points come on the ground. The game plan seems to change game to game, but it really doesn’t. KOK essentially keeps the same game plan with a solid lead, no matter how many points we’re up.

Now, no team with a 14 point lead should really be going into “meh…” mode offensively at the beginning of the third quarter. The point I’m making, however, is that if the run game were working a little better later in the game last night, nobody would be making a big deal of this. Instead, the run game sputtered and we punted a fair amount, and allowed the D to dominate instead.

In the end, I see this as crying over spilled milk. Every situation is different. I wouldn’t worry about this kind of thing hurting us when it comes to Michigan.

Actually, it looked to me like that’s exactly what Iowa did.

We’ll be fine against Michigan. The game plan will be adjusted accordingly on both sides of the ball. Georgia Tech had a terrifying offense too.

they have not played anyone who can tackle yet. Also, depsite playing teams they are vastly superior to in terms of talent, their defense is ranked 102 in total defense. They are 120th against the pass. And no teams waste time running on them since the pass is so open and the games are played as shootouts, but they allow 125 yards rushing per game. We allow 63. UMass had over 200 yards rushing against them. They are 73rd nationally in scoring defense, allowing 25 points a game.

 And while, yes, they are #2 in total offense consider who they have played…their top shelf team is Notre Dame.

Had a house guest over the weekend. She walked into the room somewhere early fourth quarter Penn State and asked, “How’s your team doing?” I said, “Pretty good, except they’re sitting on a lead.” I was maybe a little frustrated. She replied, “I can think of a lot worse things to sit on.” Her name’s Beth.

I figured Captain Kirk shut down the O for three reasons. 1. The D was getting the job done (Did they look like they were from another planet, or what?). 2. Why open the play book for anyone to see if you don’t have to (open the playbook). 3. Ground game grinds up clock.

Next week Robinson has to do that run-for-his-life routine against Michigan State. Chances are he’s going to be hit so hard it will alter his DNA. Then he gets to show up at Iowa, a step slower, and run-for-his-life from the Hawks.

A game at a time. Bring it on.

And if so, in advance, sincere apologies.

I was feeling a little giddy about our win last night, and I wore my throwback jersey to the Urban Cow 5K this morning… anyway, while I was waiting to run, I saw two Michigan fans wearing Michigan hats – man and wife, a little older than I am (I’m 49 next month), and I good naturedly came up to them and said “You guys are finally going to play a real defense in two weeks, Iowa!” They smiled, and were very nice, and, in fact, noted that there are periodic all Big 10 gatherings in the Sacramento area, and they’d had trouble finding Iowa fans (I suspect most of us are down in the Bay Area) to attend the gatherings. The guy gave me his business card and they invited me to watch the Michigan game with them in two weeks… I doubt if I’ll be able to because my kids are visiting from CT the entire week before the game (I’m taking them to Disneyland for 4 days) and that will be my focus, but I’ve probably totally screwed us with premature swagger. So, I apologize in advance.

When I finished the 5K (and I had my best run in two years, coming off a persistent left IT band injury – my PR for a 5K is 24:57, I ran around 29:09 – not amongst my fastest but I felt decent during the race and didn’t feel destroyed at the end in a bad way – its going to be a long path back to running decent 5K times for me (there was some 9 year old boy that – I am not shitting you – ran a 6:55 mile and was in the top 20 finishers or so), I was walking back to my car, and a group of four local Fleet Feet team runners were cooling down after the half marathon, and one of the guys yelled “Nice win last night Iowa!”

Me: “You recognize the throwback jersey?”

Guy: “Oh yeah! I love Iowa City. Its my favorite place in the world.”

So maybe we’re not fucked. I dunno.

I think the reason our playcalling WAS so conservative its its not in KF’s nature or our design to take risks unless its necessary. Why would we open up the playbook, when, in all likelyhood, we are going to need to throw some stuff at Michigan and Indiana that they’ve not seen… I don’t think its reasonable to expect our defense to hold either of those clubs to any less than 14 points… so we obviously are going to need 30 or more points of offense to beat those teams. Which, unless our running game turns into the bully Nebraska of the 1990s – remember when they’d run on 3 and 10 and regularly get the first down? – we are going to need some of the playbook to beat those teams.

There’s a method to the madness, but I’m not concerned about a letdown vs. Michigan. Its lets our LB corps get healthy, and it gives us time to practice a few schemes specifically for Michigan that they may not be expecting… and isn’t that a good thing?

After the debacle in the desert, I doubt if this team is going to practice or really be flat for any of the remaining games.

The definition of strength is the ability to show restraint.

What you saw last night was classic restraint. I wanted another “comfort score”, too. On the other hand, seeing our team win with such command (evidenced in their restraint) was truly impressive. Far less sexy in an obvious way, but impressive to a connoisseur of competition.

1) with chosen method of playcalling – very high

2) with more aggressive playcalling – still high, but lower than option 1.

Clearly, Ferentz agrees with me.

And against OSU last year as well (but replace “high” with “around 50%”)

or has much to do with the second half of PSU.

No one has stopped Denard. Period. Either our front seven is strong enough and quick enough to contain the dude, or we lose. He’s having one of the more remarkable seasons in college football history.

I don’t think it helps to get into shootout mode: that’s Michigan’s personality, it is not our personality. If we are in shootout mode, it’s because we’re desperate.

We need to contain Denard, and by that, I don’t mean shut him down. He will get his yards. I mean, get him on the ground before he breaks second level contain. I think if we do that, they will have to shift gears and play an unfamiliar game.

That’s because I think that their offense is better between the 20’s than in the red zone, so again, if we can keep him in front of the second level, and they do pile up some drives (unlike at IN, where they skipped the drive part and just broke big plays for 6), they’ll be kicking field goals.

For me the primary difference between defending GT and Michigan is that GT’s triple begins with the fullback dive. It begins with the interior. Michigan’s begins with a superhuman guy running 1958-style QB sweeps. Michigan isn’t even bothering to block the backside DE’s. If we can just slow down those plays a little bit, we will have more Nic Grigsby-AC highlight clips.

The question in respect of this game? Is he still, when Clayborn and Ballard are on the field? I don’t know. Implied in Davie’s praise for Iowa’s two “first-round pick” DEs is maybe not.

Too, RichRod has his own thinking cap, so we should assume that they’ve shown no more of their book than necessary.

Occasionally in D-III or D-II someone shows up who puts up the numbers of Denard. I do not recall anyone approaching what he is doing in D-I. I read one piece that said there were only two D-I QBs who passed for 1000 and ran for 900, over an entire season. Denard’s already done it in 5.

Good news: if Norm can’t scheme for success, over four weeks time, with this defense and personnel, we don’t have to feel bad. That means that no one can, and no team will stop them. I’m not blustering. Norm knows how to stop QB sweeps with numbers at the POA, because they simply outrun the backside. For example, and I am blowing smoke, it might be very interesting to see what happens if they simply cut Daniels loose to get in the backfield at any cost. He might be quick enough to cost them their edge. Put another, I’ll bet Daniels is as fast as Denard, on the first five steps.

Anyway, pointless speculation. I have no idea how you stop Denard, but it certainly seems to be impossible if your DEs are controlled, your linebackers get blocked, and your safeties take the wrong angles. In this sense it’s not so different than the high-level objectives with GT. Or, as Norm would say with a shrug, “No, we’re not going to do anything special. It’s just football, and there’s nothing really new in football.”

one thing Michigan can do is score a lot of points. Well, one thing that Iowa can do (and can do well) is prevent teams from scoring points.

As the saying goes, the best offense is a good defense. Well, Iowa has a pretty damn good defense.

the more I think you have to treat every snap like a punk/kick return. That is to say, he’s so fast that if you’re out of position or over pursue in the least, he’s by you. Hold your lane and cut off his options. Don’t chase. If he runs, happily give up 4 yards to prevent giving up 15.
Luckily, we do that.