The Takeaway: Minnesota

Sure, Iowa just lost to Minnesota, 22-21. But how much do we really know? What was so important about losing to Minnesota? What does it all mean, Basil? The Takeaway has the answer.

Minnesota has the pig for two straight years, for the first time since a three-year stretch from 1998-2000. Well, you know, that's certainly not what this team wanted, and we're going to have to look at our game preparation and see what we're not doing right. But that's Big Ten football, you know, and you can't dwell on results in the past, you just have to get back up and stick to your gameplan and just be ready to out-execute the next team in front of you.

Seriously, Minnesota lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota. No question, we wanted to get this win, and we thought we had the game plan in place to do it. But hats off to Minnesota, Jerry Kill's a great guy, and they just executed better down the stretch and found a way to get the win. That's just football. 

This is a team that either isn't talented enough or can't be motivated to prepare enough to beat Minnesota. Well, I think the most important thing is that we just keep this game in perspective. It's just football. And you know, to get all bent out of shape about a football game, I don't think it suits us very well. We're going to address the problems we saw there on Saturday, and there was a few, no question, but we're not going to go overboard and lose our heads over just one game.

After the first half, Marcus Coker looked like he was legitimately ready to break the Iowa single-game record for rushing yards. He didn't even come close, and Iowa tried instead to put the ball in the hands of Jason White and Jordan Cotton on the last drive. I don't think this is a team that's focused on stats, I think that's a bad way to manage a ballclub, and once you start setting quotas, you know, you're coaching to the stats and not to the win. No question, we did a great job of getting Coker loose in that first half, we saw a lot of good things from him there,

We just had to deal with Minnesota's gameplan in the second half, they did a real good job of limiting our ability to get the ball to the guys we like the most, and that led to some really quick drives which is what we wanted to avoid. And, y'lnow, we'll evaluate that on a week to week basis and maybe start looking to slow the game down some more and get back in our comfort zone. Y'know, you career guys, you've been covering this team long enough, you know we're confident enough in our gameplan that we're not going to go changing things week by week.

Iowa has shown a clear disinterest in doing three things now: covering a fake punt, covering an onside kick, and covering a mobile quarterback: Both teams played hard. Both teams played hard. Both teams played hard, my man. Both teams played hard.  

(Written in the style of my faaaaaavorite coach in the world, and undoubtedly your favorite coach too.)