Great win, but keep it in perspective

[BonzoFury]

7-5

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

It was a great win in all three phases of the game. Sully had his coming out party, Defense allows no points, and White Lightning Wetjen finally gets his. Very much needed for the whole team. Sully should be QB1 going forward, and that should mean he's practicing with the 1's. This will also allow Lester to open up the RPO.

But keep in mind this is poverty Northwestern. The real test will be next week against those jackass Badgers. We'll have to keep and eye on how they play tonight against Penn State.

There's no need for perspective, and do you know why?

Spoiler

Because F*** Wisconsin, THAT'S WHY!

 

[BigOHawk]

I don’t care how much Northwestern sucks. If Cade plays the whole game we might have lost or won in a snooze fest of 16-10 or so. Sullivan allows us to actually run a true RPO. Because guess what? He can actually f’ing run! And it opens up so many more possibilities. With McNamara the fake handoffs never truly worked because he had no threat of running. The D was allowed to play 100% downhill. That 3rd quarter was so fun to watch.

This x1000! It's sooooo refreshing to see an Iowa QB (first since CJB) to actually be able to move, extend plays, run misdirection and boots with speed and give the D another thing to think about and account for. I can't tell you fun that is to see athleticism at the QB position, it opens up so much for KJ, etc. Exciting part too is Sully should get the first team reps in practice too...

 

[bagdropper]

We’ll probably be favored in all 4 remaining games. You mentioned Sully is not the panacea to what ails our offense. I’m going to disagree. For what we’re trying to do with limited receiver play the fact that he can now hand off to Johnson, keep it and actually not just run but run very effectively which then of course opens up the play action and everything else. The fact it took the gum chewer 7 1/2 games or an injury for it to happen just pisses me off.

I simply don't believe it's guaranteed he's the panacea. And yes, I too thought the hook needed to come earlier this year. Stubborn Kirk strikes again.

This is after all a Kirk Ferentz offense - things simply never are truly easy for his offenses through the years. If Sullivan does indeed provide a consistent running facet to the offense that can make play action all the better, and can hit the layup type passes Cade seemed to miss all too often - then sure, things should improve in the passing game and overall offensive production.

What Iowa needs most of all is consistency. A four quarter "effective quarterback" - can't keep giving away halves of games. Sully was pretty accurate for NW last year - we need that badly to sustain drives and take the pressure off the defense.

Trust me, I WANT Sullivan to be The Answer. I just don't see it as guaranteed it works out that way. We all will see in due time.