Clock Management & Aggressive to end 1st half

[OnceAhawk]

Iowa has looked good on offense, defense and special teams.

But they have also been very good at closing halves (both the 1st and 2nd).

Consider the end of the 1st half vs Maryland:

Maryland was backed up to its own 5 with just a few minutes to go in the 1st half; they ran the ball 3 times, with Iowa calling time out twice, leaving Iowa with one time out and MD forced to punt.

Iowa was aggressive and ended up blocking the punt; the result: Iowa 1st and 10 at the MD 19,with 1:01 to go.

1st and 10 from MD 19, 1:01 to go: holding by Meyers; 55 sec to go.
1st and 20 from MD 29: clock is running, just 33 sec left when ball is hiked; screen to Hillyard, pick up of 12; Hillyard gets out of bounds to stop clock with 27 seconds to go


2nd and 8 from MD 17 yd line: underneath pass to Kreiger Coble to the 3 yd line; 19 seconds to go; clock stops with the 1st down

1st and goal from MD 3: CJ spikes ball; 16 seconds to go

TV color commentator: "That was good time management."

2nd and goal from MD 3, 16 sec to go: pass incomplete to Vandeberg

3rd and goal from MD 3, 13 seconds to go: hand off to Mitchell, who scores TD

Iowa had that TO in its back pocket in case Mitchell got stuffed

just 9 seconds remained in the 1st half

Iowa led 21-0 at the half instead of 14-0.

Big, big difference.

 

[sloehawk]

CJ Beathard has COMPLETELY changed Kirk's thinking and how he handles the end of the 1st half. Kirk's clock management at the end of the 1st half this year, and the subsequent course of action allowing Iowa to try and score has been phenomenal thus far this year.

That said, right now we're in "protect CJ Beathard" mode, so the mindset may resemble more of Old Kirk if the situation there doesn't improve. But mostly I think Kirk trusts CJ to protect the football, injured or not, so he may keep rolling him out there to try and put points on the board any way they can.