Sitting at home on labor day with the Vid (yes I am double vaxxed - no need to peel at that scab though)...so I pulled up ESPN+ to check out how that underwhelming score of a game for ISU went down.
General impressions:
Offense - ISU looks a lot like the team we see regularly. So-so O-line, athletic WR's, good RB, and Purdy is a very nice college QB. Kolar was out, and while people are talking up their entire TE corps, they were not much of a factor and were really a liability blocking. Milton and Hutchinson are the threats at WR and they are solid, but honestly nobody you are going to game plan for. Fryfogle, David Bell, etc are far more scary.
Purdy has really good feet. It keeps him in position to throw at all times or step up through the pocket and tuck/run for first downs a lot. Very frustrating if you are the defense. Gap discipline is key on him. Clog the middle and shade WR's inside because he doesn't have the arm strength to throw the out, but he will kill you on slants and seams to guys like Kolar. He is very accurate and cool under pressure. Hopefully our guys don't bite on his pump fake 8 yards past the LOS. LOL. He does it all the time and it usually works.
UNI was able to bottle up Hall very effectively. ISU could not seal an edge to save their lives and their WR's are not good blockers. Between Belton/Jacobs/Cambell/Benson, I imagine they are going to have problems getting outside against us as well. Also, pretty disappointing for them that even when they went super jumbo with extra tackles, they couldn't move the LOS against UNI. Could have just been standard first game O-line cohesion issues though. But, if their offense plays like they did Saturday against us, they will look like Indiana did. Of course, they won't though. I expect them to bring their best (along with some gadget plays) and our D will have to be on point. Can't be giving up stuff over the top like we did in '19.
Bottom line, they are Indiana except with a more accurate QB (albeit with a much weaker arm).
Defense - Ups and downs for them, but pretty solid. Tackling was underwhelming most of the game. A lot of fly-by's (first game stuff I imagine - I was actually really impressed with how good our tackling was against Indiana for it being our first game and not a ton of contact in practice). I said it in a different thread, and watching the game confirmed it to me: Indiana was a really good comp for them (and UNI was a terrible comp for us). Against UNI they brought very little pressure (really didn't have to) and kept a spy on UNI QB most of the game. They are going to have to play us completely differently, so we will see if they are ready for that. I am sure their crowd will have them jacked up though, and we will need Petras to play within himself. If we can protect like we did against Indiana (with just a few snafus throughout the game), we will be in a very good position.
Special Teams - Their punter is average, their return game is average, and their kickers are average. I don't see them hurting us on special teams, and this should be a strength for us. Fingers crossed Jones is good to go.
All in all, this is a beatable team. People are talking them up like playoff contenders, but they don't look any more intimidating than the '19 team did to me. That being said, the '19 team took us right down to the wire. However, outside of a few badly busted coverages, they really didn't do much against our defense the last time we were there and I think we can repeat that (sans the busted coverages) and hold them down to a relatively low score (they looked awful in the red zone vs UNI, and not in a "fix it for week 2" sort of way). This means it is absolutely paramount that the offense does not give this one away with bad turnovers or sloppy play. I think we will be able to lean on them with our special teams to keep them in long fields, and they will get some yards, but should bog down in the RZ and/or have a miscue here and there that stalls out many of their drives. They are very aggressive on defense, and I think we can take advantage of that and catch them with a couple explosive scoring plays here and there. Be interesting to see how effective our own RZ offense will be. Win or lose, this game will be very, very good for us to prep for some challenging games remaining on our schedule. 50K liquored up and sunburned toe-heads will make us earn it.
General impressions:
Offense - ISU looks a lot like the team we see regularly. So-so O-line, athletic WR's, good RB, and Purdy is a very nice college QB. Kolar was out, and while people are talking up their entire TE corps, they were not much of a factor and were really a liability blocking. Milton and Hutchinson are the threats at WR and they are solid, but honestly nobody you are going to game plan for. Fryfogle, David Bell, etc are far more scary.
Purdy has really good feet. It keeps him in position to throw at all times or step up through the pocket and tuck/run for first downs a lot. Very frustrating if you are the defense. Gap discipline is key on him. Clog the middle and shade WR's inside because he doesn't have the arm strength to throw the out, but he will kill you on slants and seams to guys like Kolar. He is very accurate and cool under pressure. Hopefully our guys don't bite on his pump fake 8 yards past the LOS. LOL. He does it all the time and it usually works.
UNI was able to bottle up Hall very effectively. ISU could not seal an edge to save their lives and their WR's are not good blockers. Between Belton/Jacobs/Cambell/Benson, I imagine they are going to have problems getting outside against us as well. Also, pretty disappointing for them that even when they went super jumbo with extra tackles, they couldn't move the LOS against UNI. Could have just been standard first game O-line cohesion issues though. But, if their offense plays like they did Saturday against us, they will look like Indiana did. Of course, they won't though. I expect them to bring their best (along with some gadget plays) and our D will have to be on point. Can't be giving up stuff over the top like we did in '19.
Bottom line, they are Indiana except with a more accurate QB (albeit with a much weaker arm).
Defense - Ups and downs for them, but pretty solid. Tackling was underwhelming most of the game. A lot of fly-by's (first game stuff I imagine - I was actually really impressed with how good our tackling was against Indiana for it being our first game and not a ton of contact in practice). I said it in a different thread, and watching the game confirmed it to me: Indiana was a really good comp for them (and UNI was a terrible comp for us). Against UNI they brought very little pressure (really didn't have to) and kept a spy on UNI QB most of the game. They are going to have to play us completely differently, so we will see if they are ready for that. I am sure their crowd will have them jacked up though, and we will need Petras to play within himself. If we can protect like we did against Indiana (with just a few snafus throughout the game), we will be in a very good position.
Special Teams - Their punter is average, their return game is average, and their kickers are average. I don't see them hurting us on special teams, and this should be a strength for us. Fingers crossed Jones is good to go.
All in all, this is a beatable team. People are talking them up like playoff contenders, but they don't look any more intimidating than the '19 team did to me. That being said, the '19 team took us right down to the wire. However, outside of a few badly busted coverages, they really didn't do much against our defense the last time we were there and I think we can repeat that (sans the busted coverages) and hold them down to a relatively low score (they looked awful in the red zone vs UNI, and not in a "fix it for week 2" sort of way). This means it is absolutely paramount that the offense does not give this one away with bad turnovers or sloppy play. I think we will be able to lean on them with our special teams to keep them in long fields, and they will get some yards, but should bog down in the RZ and/or have a miscue here and there that stalls out many of their drives. They are very aggressive on defense, and I think we can take advantage of that and catch them with a couple explosive scoring plays here and there. Be interesting to see how effective our own RZ offense will be. Win or lose, this game will be very, very good for us to prep for some challenging games remaining on our schedule. 50K liquored up and sunburned toe-heads will make us earn it.
