2 Elephants

[hexumhawk]

1) Punting- My god we are awful right now. I dont understand how you cant find someone on that campus that can hit it 40 yards consistently. We are getting destroyed in the hidden yardage category. 25 yard punts with no hang time = awful field position. KF having a good punter is as important as a LT with the way we play.

2) Offensive tells- If we audible, we are running a stretch play to the weak side....EVERY TIME. Our unwillingness to throw the ball against single coverage cost us the game imo and that is on the coaches. If you told me we hold PSU to 21, we should have been able to win.

 

[HawkNole09]

1) Punting- My god we are awful right now. I dont understand how you cant find someone on that campus that can hit it 40 yards consistently. We are getting destroyed in the hidden yardage category. 25 yard punts with no hang time = awful field position. KF having a good punter is as important as a LT with the way we play.

2) Offensive tells- If we audible, we are running a stretch play to the weak side....EVERY TIME. Our unwillingness to throw the ball against single coverage cost us the game imo and that is on the coaches. If you told me we hold PSU to 21, we should have been able to win.

And the play that’s missing from the arsenal is — stretch left, rollout and hitting Hockenson or Fant for 8 yards on the cross.

 

[OILCHECKER]

As far as punting goes, Rastetter obviously doesn't have a strong leg but I believe another posted provided a stat that showed his net punting avg is right on par with or even slightly better than Coluzzi's last year. In addition, they mentioned during the PSU game that Iowa had given up zero punt return yards thus far this year. So, although he doesn't have a strong leg and doesn't provide much hang time typically, for the most part he has been effective when doing his rugby style punts. I can't imagine if he wasn't our best current option that the coaches would leave him in. Also, just because true freshman Gersonde isn't punting right now doesn't mean he won't ultimately pan out or be the answered next year or down the road.

 

[Titanhawk2]

Rastetter is best when he does that roll out punt. It seems he always gets a 15 yard or better roll after it hits. I can't remember him straight on punting until Saturday and don't know what he did it. His best punt was on the roll out.

 

[toddhawkwi]

Actually Saturday night Rastetter FINALLY hit a VERY GOOD traditional punt that traveled over 50 yards. It was the first time that I thought he showed that he wasn't just terrible

 

[David1979]

Yeah punting has been bad so far. every once in awhile he hits a good one, then it is followed by 4 bad ones.

Don't agree on the second thing.

 

[Rustys Dad]

Punting: Yes, that was ugly. He was better off doing his running punt ...

 

[DavenportHawk8]

I would say another Elephant in the room is the play of our Safties. I realize we started a young gun there Saturday night and I thought he did good. The other guy not so much. He missed on a few tackles and if you go back and watch the game, PSU picked on him on 3rd and long 2-3 times. The last play of the game, was his man who did a stutter move and got open. Sucks, because he was a dominating force in 2015 for our defense. Now he seems to be struggling.

 

[hexumhawk]

I would say another Elephant in the room is the play of our Safties. I realize we started a young gun there Saturday night and I thought he did good. The other guy not so much. He missed on a few tackles and if you go back and watch the game, PSU picked on him on 3rd and long 2-3 times. The last play of the game, was his man who did a stutter move and got open. Sucks, because he was a dominating force in 2015 for our defense. Now he seems to be struggling.

Yeah he has had a rough start to the year and taking some bad angels on run stops. He has always been a below average pass D safety but above average run D. Hopefully they get it figured out but defense as a whole was really good. Held them to 21 pts and in my mind before the game, that should have been enough,.

 

[Tacticalhawk]

1) Punting- My god we are awful right now. I dont understand how you cant find someone on that campus that can hit it 40 yards consistently. We are getting destroyed in the hidden yardage category. 25 yard punts with no hang time = awful field position. KF having a good punter is as important as a LT with the way we play.

2) Offensive tells- If we audible, we are running a stretch play to the weak side....EVERY TIME. Our unwillingness to throw the ball against single coverage cost us the game imo and that is on the coaches. If you told me we hold PSU to 21, we should have been able to win.

Agreed. However there was a really good post about punting in another thread. It shows the true numbers and they include an over 40yd avg on the year and above the national avg. It also included 2 punts of over 50 yards vs penn st.

 

[hexumhawk]

Agreed. However there was a really good post about punting in another thread. It shows the true numbers and they include an over 40yd avg on the year and above the national avg. It also included 2 punts of over 50 yards vs penn st.

Yes his overall numbers so far have been ok but mostly because returners are like WTF was that? They are lined up 15 yards too deep. Wait until they start noticing the film and putting their guys further up to catch it in the air. Maybe he just needs to settle down and be more consistent because he has had a couple legitimate, non rolling, good ones.

 

[DodgerHawki]

As far as punting goes, Rastetter obviously doesn't have a strong leg but I believe another posted provided a stat that showed his net punting avg is right on par with or even slightly better than Coluzzi's last year. In addition, they mentioned during the PSU game that Iowa had given up zero punt return yards thus far this year. So, although he doesn't have a strong leg and doesn't provide much hang time typically, for the most part he has been effective when doing his rugby style punts. I can't imagine if he wasn't our best current option that the coaches would leave him in. Also, just because true freshman Gersonde isn't punting right now doesn't mean he won't ultimately pan out or be the answered next year or down the road.

Rastetter punted 7 times for an average of 41.1 yards per punt. 1 punt returned for 4 yards. He had 2 bad kicks I believe, but overall was okay. Yes, it would be great if we had a kicker who blasted 50-yard, high hanging punts every kick, but we don't. I've watched Gersonde in warmups, and I can see why Rastetter is the punter now.

For the play-calling, not sure what to make of this. The field position, drops and overthrown passes to open players in the first half all combined to have a half with 54 yards. Who knows what happens if Stanley just puts the ball on open guys or the drops don't occur. Iowa is definitely going to see the same aggressive overloading against the run until it makes teams pay throwing the ball.

 

[bigfridaynite]

This is possible could be another Belichick thing he always has a left footed punter and claims it's more harder to field

 

[SLarew]

I will repeat what I said in another thread. Our punter doesn't look good but he has a 40yard average and at one time no return yards. PSU may have returned one punt

Those results are nothing to complain about. I will take results over appearances

 

[Birky]

I will repeat what I said in another thread. Our punter doesn't look good but he has a 40yard average and at one time no return yards. PSU may have returned one punt

Those results are nothing to complain about. I will take results over appearances

That is true, but having seen every single punt, it doesn't seem likely to continue. To say there have been some fortuitous bounces, would be putting it nicely. I would hate to have to rely on luck in the punting game for an entire season.

 

[terrehawk]

I will repeat what I said in another thread. Our punter doesn't look good but he has a 40yard average and at one time no return yards. PSU may have returned one punt

Those results are nothing to complain about. I will take results over appearances

Yes. Well he hasn't been booming punts like people like to see and he's had a few that he's kind of shanked, the most important part of this is that he hasn't had any blocked and they have allowed almost no return yards. Which is pretty impressive

Combine that with the fact that he can do both Sidewinder rugby Punting and traditional Punting it keeps the punt return team off balance and guessing.

I'm mostly satisfied. It certainly looks like he has a pretty long drop which I think adds to the difficulty in being consistent as a punter

 

[JMNSHO]

That is true, but having seen every single punt, it doesn't seem likely to continue. To say there have been some fortuitous bounces, would be putting it nicely. I would hate to have to rely on luck in the punting game for an entire season.

The whole point of his punting style is to produce fortuitous bounces. It is not luck or an accident, it is by design.

 

[Scott559]

I thought he had a lot of room to run on a couple of his rugby punts, just sayin.....eye to the future.

 

[Birky]

The whole point of his punting style is to produce fortuitous bounces. It is not luck or an accident, it is by design.

On rugby punts, yes. That is not how he normally punts. If he starts doing that regularly, then I agree. If they are going to have him continue to punt traditionally, then a change is probably worth a try.

 

[Birky]

I thought he had a lot of room to run on a couple of his rugby punts, just sayin.....eye to the future.

Also true.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

I love it when we complain about the punter. Everything else must be working ok.

 

[And1Hawk]

There will come a point where teams are going to start playing an extra return guy short to advance these 25 yard punts and prevent these kind rolls he has been getting. Can't believe other teams have not picked up on that yet.

 

[iahawks10]

Question:

Iowa had a good punt that was called back (5 men in the back field).

I rewound it and couldn't see the fifth man in the backfield. I assumed the wide out wasn't on the line, because I couldn't see him. I only saw four in the backfield.

Anybody know for sure?

 

[hexumhawk]

I thought he had a lot of room to run on a couple of his rugby punts, just sayin.....eye to the future.

Yes, havent rewatched it but remember 1 in particular that he rolled left and there was nobody there. Think it was 4th and 4 or something and looked like he could have easily picked it up.

 

[Hawk fan in MN]

And the play that’s missing from the arsenal is — stretch left, rollout and hitting Hockenson or Fant for 8 yards on the cross.

I was thinking the same thing during the game with the linebackers biting so hard on the run, just a tight end pass where the linebackers vacated. If nothing else maybe it keeps the linebackers home the next time

 

[Birky]

I love it when we complain about the punter. Everything else must be working ok.

There is validity to this. It's like when Iowa football is the biggest stress in life, life is pretty good.