Blown out in big games

[BigAssTurkeyLeg]

Rose Bowl, 2021 B1G championship, 2022 OSU and Michigan games, 2023 Penn State and B1G championship games…

It used to be under Kirk, I thought we could compete when we were on the big stage.

Now when we get a game to move the needle on the program, more often than not we don’t even score any points.

 

[bulletproof90]

Yeah and that’s the thing.

When it’s brought up, Kirk always wants to bring up our win totals, which is all well and good — I like the wins too — but being straight up uncompetitive each and every time we’ve played a big game lately is not only disappointing; it’s completely embarrassing.

And it didn’t used to be this way. We used to be blown out once in a blue moon. We could play a top 5 team and I’d be optimistic and usually right that we could at least keep the final score respectable. The current iteration of our team has been incapable of that, even against, apparently, the 21st best team is the country.

It’s indefensible and yet Kirk’s main thesis these days is defending it. I still like Kirk and I want to run this thing back with him and a new offensive regime, but his stubbornness in trying to argue we should be happy with where we are right now is the most disappointing part of all of this.

 

[EagleHawk]

 

[TampaHawkfan]

Agreed. The 10 wins look good on paper, but anyone who has been watching over the years, knows that this program has slipped pretty far the last couple of years.

It wasn't that long ago, where you felt like Iowa always had a chance, at least in Kinnick, no matter the opponent. Used to even win a few of those games - Michigan 2016, OSU 2017, etc.

Not even competitive with those teams right now.

 

[Max_Rebo]

At the end of the day, the track record is the track record. Yes, the overall record is quite good. Winning the Big Ten West, even in a down year, isn’t something anyone should dismiss. Yet at the same time, our performance in big games over the past several years has been dismal. It’s been disappointing, and fans are right to be frustrated about it.

Not saying I know all the answers. I am curious to see what new leadership can do for our offense next year, and I am hopeful for positive change. The B1G is changing, but I still believe Iowa can be competitive.

And if not, I guess things will sort themselves out, one way or another.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

At the end of the day, the track record is the track record. Yes, the overall record is quite good. Winning the Big Ten West, even in a down year, isn’t something anyone should dismiss. Yet at the same time, our performance in big games over the past several years has been dismal. It’s been disappointing, and fans are right to be frustrated about it.

Not saying I know all the answers. I am curious to see what new leadership can do for our offense next year, and I am hopeful for positive change. The B1G is changing, but I still believe Iowa can be competitive.

And if not, I guess things will sort themselves out, one way or another.

Well said. It's obvious that this all hinges on fixing the offense. Can (or will) KF do that? We'll find out in time.

I'm anxious to see what the coaching staff looks like going into next season.

 

[ButtersHawk]

Yeah and that’s the thing.

When it’s brought up, Kirk always wants to bring up our win totals, which is all well and good — I like the wins too — but being straight up uncompetitive each and every time we’ve played a big game lately is not only disappointing; it’s completely embarrassing.

And it didn’t used to be this way. We used to be blown out once in a blue moon. We could play a top 5 team and I’d be optimistic and usually right that we could at least keep the final score respectable. The current iteration of our team has been incapable of that, even against, apparently, the 21st best team is the country.

It’s indefensible and yet Kirk’s main thesis these days is defending it. I still like Kirk and I want to run this thing back with him and a new offensive regime, but his stubbornness in trying to argue we should be happy with where we are right now is the most disappointing part of all of this.

Me and my dad were talking about this on New Years Eve after a couple beverages. From probably 2002-2019 or so I felt like we always had a chance to win a game.
Since then its been the exact opposite.

 

[hawkandroll]

Unpopular on this board I know, but does Phil Parker get any criticism here? The tendency to make semi-mobile QBs all look like Mike Vick gets old.

 

[Zooropa_NCR]

I get the dream that we are just a competent OC away from reaching greater heights….and that is a major piece of the puzzle

But, we have the least amount of talent on offense since maybe the end of Fry era. Maybe it’s the scheme that’s holding back big plays (and i think it does quite a bit), yet we continue to witness complete lack of fundamentals on every level

QBs who look like they’ve never thrown a forward pass and cannot avoid rush
OL who continue to miss assignments / blocks
RB by committee so no one ever seems to get into a rhythm, and they almost never catch passes outside of a middle screen
WR can’t catch, no separation, no TD
TE….theyre pretty good but we never use them inside the red zone (our TE you’d think would catch loads of touchdowns in this system)

A new OC will have to make chicken salad out of shit. And if it’s a Kirk clone, it’ll continue to be the most complex NFL pro style verbiage and defense reading….so no one under the age of 35 can figure it out

 

[BigOHawk]

There is no magic fix yet if you have poor OL play (which we've had IMO for the past 3 years), it really doesn't matter who is at OC, QB, RB and WR, that stuff is blown up immediately! I kept thinking to myself yesterday "wow, this is the Tennessee D WITH opt-outs, what the heck would this look like them at full strength??!!

Iowa looked out of sorts on D, not sure what was going on sans the sacks. We had a TR Fresh making his first start in a bowl game oppositive us, I would've thought we performed better yet gave up over 200 rushing yards and looked lost in pass coverage at times vs a team missing a lot of guys.

 

[mustang_hawk]

Rose Bowl, 2021 B1G championship, 2022 OSU and Michigan games, 2023 Penn State and B1G championship games…

It used to be under Kirk, I thought we could compete when we were on the big stage.

Now when we get a game to move the needle on the program, more often than not we don’t even score any points.

The drop off towards the end of Fry’s years seemed to begin similar to this. The Hawks would do ok against unranked teams, but when playing OSU, Michigan or PSU, the games were out of reach by half time. The next couple of seasons could be kind of rough, but I certainly hope not.

 

[EagleHawk]

Unpopular on this board I know, but does Phil Parker get any criticism here? The tendency to make semi-mobile QBs all look like Mike Vick gets old.

Maybe a little, but the defense basically gave up 14 points to Michigan and Tennessee. Poor field position or flat out Defensive scores were responsible for most of the damage in those two games. Even PSU the defense held them to 4 yards a play. You can't play high level defense all game and not expect a few breakdowns. And we had zero film on Tenn QB, unless you want to go back to high school film.

 

[HawkLogic]

At the end of the day, the track record is the track record. Yes, the overall record is quite good. Winning the Big Ten West, even in a down year, isn’t something anyone should dismiss. Yet at the same time, our performance in big games over the past several years has been dismal. It’s been disappointing, and fans are right to be frustrated about it.

Not saying I know all the answers. I am curious to see what new leadership can do for our offense next year, and I am hopeful for positive change. The B1G is changing, but I still believe Iowa can be competitive.

And if not, I guess things will sort themselves out, one way or another.

Winning B1G west in years in which Wisconsin has been down has meant the team gets to Indy but really isn't even in the Top3 of B1G teams because all the really good teams are in East. . So Iowa gets a better bowl than it deserves, faces a better team, and gets trounced.

The 2015 team that was undefeated into Indy got trounced by a very good Stanford team. I think that Iowa team finished Top8, but in reality it probbly was in Top 10-20 range.

This UTENN team we got woodshed beaten by was good, solid, far from great. Just speaks to the smoke an mirrors and luck and uber soft schedule this year. I don't think the defense was better than last year's Iowa team and the offense was even worse.

Every Iowa team in my life that has made the Rose Bowl all the way back to 1980 has been trounced. Iowa usually can't compete with elite teams.

 

[HawkBall23]

Unpopular on this board I know, but does Phil Parker get any criticism here? The tendency to make semi-mobile QBs all look like Mike Vick gets old.

My problem with any sort of 'bagging' on PP is that its unfairly given, imo.

He and his unit are not allowed the slightest bit of slack, in any game vs a team that has an even or winning record. They are literally the difference between a win and a loss every single game vs such opposition.

If they don't perform well - even better than their best against a good ranked team - or take a bit too long to adjust to what the opposing offense is doing and opposition can get up 10+ early points, then the team has absolutely no shot of winning said game.


KF makes sure all the pressure is on PP & the defense because of his stubborn unwillingness to modernize his offensive philosophy and schemes.

 

[Tom Paris]

The drop off towards the end of Fry’s years seemed to begin similar to this. The Hawks would do ok against unranked teams, but when playing OSU, Michigan or PSU, the games were out of reach by half time. The next couple of seasons could be kind of rough, but I certainly hope not.

I don’t know, in his second to last year, Fry almost beat the National Champions in The Big House. Gave up the lead late.

 

[MeetTheFerentzes]

235-44

We've been outscored 235-44 in our last 7 games against ranked teams.

235-44!

That looks like it must be a joke, but it's not.

We've been outscored 180-27 in our last 5 games against ranked Big Ten opponents.

Our last 3 wins against ranked teams were early in 2021 against paper tigers IN, ISU and Penn St who were unranked by the end of the year.

The last time we beat a ranked opponent who was still ranked at the end of the season was 2019 (Minnesota).

Like others mentioned above, I'm old enough to remember when we used to give highly-ranked teams fits. Now any team with a backbone blows us out of the water, 3+ years running.

The non-competitiveness is what bugs me so much. Like I said in another thread, that 235-44, and particularly the 92-0 against ranked opponents this season, says a heck of a lot more about where this program is truly at, more than any of the 10 wins in '21 or '23...

 

[mustang_hawk]

I don’t know, in his second to last year, Fry almost beat the National Champions in The Big House. Gave up the lead late.

You are correct. I checked and there were a number of games where the Hawks played those teams close or actually won. But also a lot of games that the defense gave up 40-60 points.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

The non-competitiveness is what bugs me so much. Like I said in another thread, that 215-27, and particularly the 92-0 against ranked opponents this season, says a heck of a lot more about where this program is truly at, more than any of the 10 wins in '21 or '23...

Same. I don't expect Iowa to win every game. They're not always going to be able to beat OSU, Michigan or PSU. Many times they won't, and I can accept that. But I DO want to go into those games (most of the time) at least feeling like there's a CHANCE that Iowa could win if they play their best, maybe catch a couple of breaks, etc. I haven't felt that the last couple of years.

I should have been excited about Iowa going to the B10 title game this year, but knowing that the Hawks were going to lose handily, because they simply cannot score, made that impossible.

 

[Thunderlips71]

Iowa has been the smartest kid on the short bus.

 

[hoythawk]

Unpopular on this board I know, but does Phil Parker get any criticism here? The tendency to make semi-mobile QBs all look like Mike Vick gets old.

He gets criticism from a few idiots that know nothing about football.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

You are correct. I checked and there were a number of games where the Hawks played those teams close or actually won. But also a lot of games that the defense gave up 40-60 points.

Yeah, I forget the exact years, but I recall a couple of games in the mid 90's against OSU and PSU where those games were WAY out of reach by halftime. 1994-95 or so.

 

[the notorious r.d.m.]

Yeah and that’s the thing.

When it’s brought up, Kirk always wants to bring up our win totals, which is all well and good — I like the wins too — but being straight up uncompetitive each and every time we’ve played a big game lately is not only disappointing; it’s completely embarrassing.

Kirk is more like Fran in that regard than anyone wants to acknowledge