The Takeaway: Indiana

and so many people have mentioned it, but every game we appear to be missing scores of tackles because the guys are out of position with respect to the ball carrier, and so are reaching and trying to arm tackle. When they’re squared up, they’re still hitting people well, but that’s not happening nearly as often as it should.

The late game collapse thing gets pinned on the defense, which isn’t entirely fair. They were routinely put in bad spots by an offense that was wildly ineffective after Halloween. If they provide the defense with even an average number of points (or even just sustain some more drives), the defense doesn’t look quite so bad.

I don’t know enough about defense schemes to know why, but I suspect we’re doing The Usual Iowa Thing without making adjustments to account for our talent level and the type of players we have available.

I’m just not sure there were many options between injuries, attrition, and inexperience. We’ve tried out about every available body at DL (minus a few true freshmen). Ditto at LB and DB. I suppose we could play a bit more nickel, but even that’s complicated by the fact that our third-best corner (Lowery) has been hurt until the last few weeks.

Maybe with a few tweaks from the usual approach, this defense could perform a little better… but if, at the end of the day, you’re still rolling out walk-ons like Tom Donatell at OLB and Joe Forgy at DL and true freshmen like Quinton Alston at MLB… well, there’s a ceiling on how good your defense is going to be. We lack a lot in the way of horses this year.

We’ve had so many players on both sides of the ball leave the team….and that probably has something to do with it, too.

But there’s no real reason to think that he has little to no potential or won’t be solid or even great once healthy.

But his potential won’t be fully realized with Iowa.

in Keith Jackson’s voice? HEEE’S JUST A SOPH-O-MOOORE.

But the blocking was really good on that one.
after watching Hester last Sunday I was shocked it didn’t go to the house.

He hasn’t been healthy much this year, but according to the coaches, he is just as good as Edds.

Not sure if its been injuries, but after watching the kid last year fill in I had high hopes. This year…he’s constantly being caught out of position, over-pursuing, getting blasted off the line or just plain missing tackles. Some of that may be accredited to the d-line, but yeesshh…

He needs to put in work this summer and put on another 10-15lbs.

but we still find a way to get a healthy LB in pass coverage on a speedy WR. Funny how that works out.

Maybe he’s getting frustrated at the lack of action and gets too aggressive and subsequently getting beat. The targeting penalty was horse shit.

We should beat Minnesota and Purdue, I think we’re clearly better than either team.

Michigan is beatable at home. Robinson hasn’t really played much at Kinnick, I don’t think, and the hostility of the environment is worth a few points. I don’t think Michigan State is as good as their record, and I think they come into Kinnick and Iowa once again puts together a season-defining game and crushes them. They’ve got a psychological blind spot when it comes to us after the epic 2009 game, and we ground them into burger last year. I’m not sold on Michigan’s offense, I think it’s erratic and turnover-prone. I’m also not sold on Cousins. I think if we blitz a bit more and stuff the box and make Cousins throw, we’ll get some picks.
 
Both games are at home. The key game to win is Michigan, it gives us some swagger and gives MSU something to think about. Right now, Iowa is off everybody’s radar screen, and that’s a place Iowa very much likes to be. If we beat Michigan, we’re Top 25, and if we beat Michigan State, we’re top 20. That’s a classic Iowa story line.
 
I think, though, that if we sweep Michigan, we have a letdown loss at Purdue, which then leads to an implosion in Lincoln. If we go 1-1 against Michigan/MSU, I think we go 1-1 against Purdue Nebraska. And if we’re 0-2 against Michigan/MSU then … well. By God we’d better beat Purdue and MN just to make a bowl game.

 I just can’t see a way through this season that doesn’t involve at least two more losses. The D needs a sound performance at the Bank to build some momentum going into the Michigan home stretch.

So still typical Iowa D in ranking better in points allowed than the defensive component stats. And also worse than in years past where they were in the top 20 or 10 in scoring defense.

the first game a QB starts they often look a lot better than they will in subsequent games.

I am not sure what to make of Morris.

you have to remember he was always considered the 4th or 5th best lineman though.

Morris is a true sophmore. he stepped up last year on an experienced defense, and this is a learning year for him. im not about to abandon him yet this year though.

Morris has had some rough games, but he’s been hurt a lot. He should really probably sit and try to let that ankle heal up because I’m not sure he’s doing us any favors by trying to play on a bad ankle. We might be better off taking our lumps with a true frosh like Alston in there instead.

Calling him “in no way a good MLB” is a bit of hyperbole, though.

to catch the fade pass which Vandy has proven quite adept at throwing. KMM is just not quite tall enough but he can burn and has good hands and is just a true freshman.

I think its more personel issues

And now – Kirk has some freedom on the recruiting trail for Rudock’s clipboard holder, too. We’re officially thin at QB after next year. Pass it on to Gunner Kiel?

I think that has a lot more to do with the switch than the injury/PT situation. If AJ were really a solid # 2 for the future, he wouldn’t have switched.

I also think that guys that punch out bus windows aren’t QBs by nature either.

Michigan State was out to avenge their lack of Rose Bowl bid last year. They did that against an evenly matched opponent. I can imagine that their trip to Iowa City will have a similar revenge factor and Iowa is, on paper, nowhere near as good as Sparty this year. This game scurrs me.

The great auk of offensive play calls.

but I’m pretty sure I could beat the Bears’ left tackle more often than not.

The D-Line should take up all the 5 or 6 O-line blockers, leaving the Mike LB free to shoot the gap and get the tackle at or behind the LOS. This D-Line isn’t eating their blockers quite as well as past incarnations, so Morris may be fighting off blockers more than he’d like. I can’t say I’ve studied film close enough to know that’s how it’s going down, it’s just speculation on my part.

I’m also reminded of comments made about Jacody Coleman a few years ago. If I recall, Coleman was an ultra-high-energy LB who, when he got in, made about 50% awesome plays and was out of position the other 50%. Norm said something to the effect that he prefers mistakes being made at full speed to playing tentatively because you don’t know where to go. Maybe Morris is in that same style; Jacody transferred before he totally “got it,” but I bet Morris just needs to get up that learning curve. He has been here a while now, so hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.