Made the mistake of jumping in here to see any injury news. I haven't posted during the season in 3 plus years but I saw all the old critics and I thought I'd share this...
1st...most in here know I'm an out loud critic of the "critic" as idiotic & hypocritical as that sounds, but true right....LOL...But Saturday I was pi%$#ed. I'm a defensive guy and to give up those Td's cooked me, I was texting my boss who was there and even shouting out loud I hoped they'd lose I was soooo pi%#!!!! I even emailed a beat writer I interact with at times and I called in late on the call in show which I never even listen to because I can't stand most of the fans. Then, I rewatched the game...
Lets start with the bad....I don't understand why we put in our reserves at QB and Rber and then don't let them succeed. Honestly that game felt gross and ruined any positivity I had from it, but I was at work and didn't really "see it". Its also true we have had an easy schedule and we have under-performed in my mind for sure....but thats where we all have a tendency to have confirmation bias, I was mad and saw what I "felt" was terrible coaching. Its never that easy because if it were then every Sat/Sunday you'd have basically 160 good coaches and 160 bad, see how stupid that is.
Now too the mundane, when I saw people just waxing off the OOC season as an automatic 3-0 I cringed, life has a way of making you look dumb. Then I saw some fool on Hawk central text the writers pre-NW we need to beat NW by 21-28 points. I also cringed, I knew NW was likely better than their record (I believe we are too) and incidentally and ironically if you will, typically their fans think PF sucks and is conservative, too loyal, plays the wrong guys, et al, funny all these professional coaches play the wrong guys per their fans...makes you wonder why we don't just save the money and hire fans.
Now too the "Re-watch", we could have scored as many TD's as we wanted on short fields, yes we went ultra conservative, but it wasn't nearly as tragic as I thought. Our reserves, you know the ones the fans alwasy suggest are better than our starters were miserably out of position & missed tackles. Broken coverage's, miscommunication, yes it was gross, but had we wanted to we could have won by 60.
Now some season notes....
We have under-performed on OL to a degree (injuries have helped) at QB, CJ looks a little like Aaron Rodgers, both solid and then confused all in the same series. At Wr, we knew we would, at DT (a little, but the call in boys disagreed) and definitely at Safety. We have had some slight issues at Lber with tackling and at CB but honestly its better than our fans realize.
Too start with I think Bower has had some poor moments, but to those fools (yes I said it) who can't figure out why he is playing he has had many good as well and the Minne game was his best game and he was fine vs PU until he had to be the guy and then he was in his head and missed tackles. Per the Gazette he has had some decent grading per Pro-football weekly grades.
Mabin, in the Minne game when he got nailed a couple times he was in absolutely perfect position and the ball just barely snuck through for incredible, albeit lucky catches that I believe were reviewed both times...?!?! He is still an NFL corner. King and Jewel, both studs have had their own break downs and they for the most part have had "great" game grades, so honestly its been a rough season and if you want to piss and moan start with the players...
Safety's, Snyder has slowly improved, but he still try's to knock people out and Taylor of whom I had been a fan has had a very tough season. He misses tackles, goes the wrong way, man it has been brutal.
If we are going to beat Wiscy they BOTH have to play their best games.
As for the coaches, since I work on Saturdays (except the two games we lost, doh!!) I listen to Eddy and Dolph during appraisal drives. Eddy has spent plenty of time talking about Iowa's coaches doing good things, new plays, new formations etc....Not that Ed is the be all, because he isn't or he'd be coaching, but we don't have bad coaches I'm sorry, no matter how badly you need it to be true it isn't...
Finally some things of note....I'm not sure what's up with Jones or Mends and the depth chart but I do know this, everyone's All-American Derrick Willies has caught 9 passes for Texas Tech (yes THAT pass happy Texas Tech) all year and none last week. You remember how badly we supposedly screwed that up, right?!!
Quite frankly when our fans criticize our personnel decisions it typically tells me we are spot on, our fans have to be some of the worst at predicting how great every so-called legend is who typically goes on to do nothing..
Honestly I thought Jackson and Ojemudia looked awesome preseason and they promptly got jumped by Ragumba, (showing of course they'll play ANYBODY they think can help) but then again I don't cruise about pretending I know more than the coaches like some of our more astute posters...LOL
Quite frankly, I'm not sure I enjoy football or Iowa period that much anymore. You want to talk about predictable, that Indy vs Houston game is what football is now. That exact scenario has happend 200 or 300 times in just the last 5 or 10 years. Why?!?!?! We all know what's going to happen at the end of those games and guess what?? Many, many, many of them are just like that now. Houston couldn't do anything all game & then suddenly in the last 5 minutes, Indy dives into the line 6 or 9 times and the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy and National guard et al couldn't have kept Houston out of the end zone. Its stupid, tiresome and if it was a movie script (and oh it has been about 1000 times) you'd call it tired and unoriginal.
Point being these are professional athletes and coaches, making a gazzilion dollars and they ARE predictable...football IS predictable. Pat Fitzgerald IS predictable, so is Mike McCarthy, Ron Rivera, Paul Chryst, etc...as is every coach honestly. Yes some of them are innovative to a degree but its still football. Our players need to play better, period!
Do you know what I do when I think something sucks, I vent a little and then I apologize for being an ass (becasue thats what you are when go around constantly bitching and moaning especially about things you can't fix) and then I revaluate. If it really bothers me, I move on, if I still enjoy it, I "fix" me and put up parameters to keep from getting pi^$%, If you follow sports you'll be disappointed. Quite frankly I'm actually ok with KF leaving or getting fired, but I'm not stupid enough to think we will get better. Historically speaking it is much more likely our next coach will lead us to poorer results and maybe even the one after that. Check for yourself. We have been VERY lucky, most teams aren't...and USC, Texas, Michigan, Tenn. Florida, etrc can attest to that.
1st...most in here know I'm an out loud critic of the "critic" as idiotic & hypocritical as that sounds, but true right....LOL...But Saturday I was pi%$#ed. I'm a defensive guy and to give up those Td's cooked me, I was texting my boss who was there and even shouting out loud I hoped they'd lose I was soooo pi%#!!!! I even emailed a beat writer I interact with at times and I called in late on the call in show which I never even listen to because I can't stand most of the fans. Then, I rewatched the game...
Lets start with the bad....I don't understand why we put in our reserves at QB and Rber and then don't let them succeed. Honestly that game felt gross and ruined any positivity I had from it, but I was at work and didn't really "see it". Its also true we have had an easy schedule and we have under-performed in my mind for sure....but thats where we all have a tendency to have confirmation bias, I was mad and saw what I "felt" was terrible coaching. Its never that easy because if it were then every Sat/Sunday you'd have basically 160 good coaches and 160 bad, see how stupid that is.
Now too the mundane, when I saw people just waxing off the OOC season as an automatic 3-0 I cringed, life has a way of making you look dumb. Then I saw some fool on Hawk central text the writers pre-NW we need to beat NW by 21-28 points. I also cringed, I knew NW was likely better than their record (I believe we are too) and incidentally and ironically if you will, typically their fans think PF sucks and is conservative, too loyal, plays the wrong guys, et al, funny all these professional coaches play the wrong guys per their fans...makes you wonder why we don't just save the money and hire fans.
Now too the "Re-watch", we could have scored as many TD's as we wanted on short fields, yes we went ultra conservative, but it wasn't nearly as tragic as I thought. Our reserves, you know the ones the fans alwasy suggest are better than our starters were miserably out of position & missed tackles. Broken coverage's, miscommunication, yes it was gross, but had we wanted to we could have won by 60.
Now some season notes....
We have under-performed on OL to a degree (injuries have helped) at QB, CJ looks a little like Aaron Rodgers, both solid and then confused all in the same series. At Wr, we knew we would, at DT (a little, but the call in boys disagreed) and definitely at Safety. We have had some slight issues at Lber with tackling and at CB but honestly its better than our fans realize.
Too start with I think Bower has had some poor moments, but to those fools (yes I said it) who can't figure out why he is playing he has had many good as well and the Minne game was his best game and he was fine vs PU until he had to be the guy and then he was in his head and missed tackles. Per the Gazette he has had some decent grading per Pro-football weekly grades.
Mabin, in the Minne game when he got nailed a couple times he was in absolutely perfect position and the ball just barely snuck through for incredible, albeit lucky catches that I believe were reviewed both times...?!?! He is still an NFL corner. King and Jewel, both studs have had their own break downs and they for the most part have had "great" game grades, so honestly its been a rough season and if you want to piss and moan start with the players...
Safety's, Snyder has slowly improved, but he still try's to knock people out and Taylor of whom I had been a fan has had a very tough season. He misses tackles, goes the wrong way, man it has been brutal.
If we are going to beat Wiscy they BOTH have to play their best games.
As for the coaches, since I work on Saturdays (except the two games we lost, doh!!) I listen to Eddy and Dolph during appraisal drives. Eddy has spent plenty of time talking about Iowa's coaches doing good things, new plays, new formations etc....Not that Ed is the be all, because he isn't or he'd be coaching, but we don't have bad coaches I'm sorry, no matter how badly you need it to be true it isn't...
Finally some things of note....I'm not sure what's up with Jones or Mends and the depth chart but I do know this, everyone's All-American Derrick Willies has caught 9 passes for Texas Tech (yes THAT pass happy Texas Tech) all year and none last week. You remember how badly we supposedly screwed that up, right?!!
Quite frankly when our fans criticize our personnel decisions it typically tells me we are spot on, our fans have to be some of the worst at predicting how great every so-called legend is who typically goes on to do nothing..
Honestly I thought Jackson and Ojemudia looked awesome preseason and they promptly got jumped by Ragumba, (showing of course they'll play ANYBODY they think can help) but then again I don't cruise about pretending I know more than the coaches like some of our more astute posters...LOL
Quite frankly, I'm not sure I enjoy football or Iowa period that much anymore. You want to talk about predictable, that Indy vs Houston game is what football is now. That exact scenario has happend 200 or 300 times in just the last 5 or 10 years. Why?!?!?! We all know what's going to happen at the end of those games and guess what?? Many, many, many of them are just like that now. Houston couldn't do anything all game & then suddenly in the last 5 minutes, Indy dives into the line 6 or 9 times and the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy and National guard et al couldn't have kept Houston out of the end zone. Its stupid, tiresome and if it was a movie script (and oh it has been about 1000 times) you'd call it tired and unoriginal.
Point being these are professional athletes and coaches, making a gazzilion dollars and they ARE predictable...football IS predictable. Pat Fitzgerald IS predictable, so is Mike McCarthy, Ron Rivera, Paul Chryst, etc...as is every coach honestly. Yes some of them are innovative to a degree but its still football. Our players need to play better, period!
Do you know what I do when I think something sucks, I vent a little and then I apologize for being an ass (becasue thats what you are when go around constantly bitching and moaning especially about things you can't fix) and then I revaluate. If it really bothers me, I move on, if I still enjoy it, I "fix" me and put up parameters to keep from getting pi^$%, If you follow sports you'll be disappointed. Quite frankly I'm actually ok with KF leaving or getting fired, but I'm not stupid enough to think we will get better. Historically speaking it is much more likely our next coach will lead us to poorer results and maybe even the one after that. Check for yourself. We have been VERY lucky, most teams aren't...and USC, Texas, Michigan, Tenn. Florida, etrc can attest to that.