KF has spent a quarter century letting first Norm and then Phil Parker win games for him with their defense. Most of the time, both men did an admirable job of exactly that. But Phil's defense can't be expected to save the day all the time. And it hasn't.
I'm not going to do any research. It's not worth it. But I often think of the Big Ten championship game in 2015 when KF played it conservative, as always, punted, and MSU launched its longest drive of the season--an amazing 22 plays--to score the winning TD with about 30 seconds to play. Phil's D couldn't come up with the ONE big play that would have won a Big Ten title and sent Iowa to the 4-team playoffs.
And then there was the Penn State game, a night game at Kinnick, several years ago. The Hawkeyes made a stirring comeback, and Akrum Wadley turned in another of his brilliant plays to score what should have been the winning TD with about 1:30 to play. A field goal would do PSU no good. It would have to drive the length of the field and score a TD to win. And damn, with exactly one second on the clock, that's exactly what they did. Again, Phil's D failed to come up with ONE play that would have saved that win.
Then there was yesterday. The offense failed to score a TD from first and goal at the one and first and goal from the five in the first half. Both of those HAVE to be TDs. Period. And then the second half offense was just horrible, led by Cade's miserable passing and inscrutable play calls, capped by KF's gutless decision to run clock instead of trying to get ONE more first down that would have ended the game.
So with no timeouts and having to go about 50 yards for a shot at a game-winning FG, Phil doesn't blitz, and the QB sits back and picks the Iowa secondary apart, culminating in a 54-yard FG to beat the Hawkeyes by one.
Those of us who've been watching for a while will never get used to KF's teams losing games because the old man still doesn't understand that the riskiest thing in sports--in life--is refusing to take risks. Running into a stacked box instead of trying to get that final first down . . . that's unfair to everyone . . . players and fans alike. But it's the KF way. Beth must know losing that game yesterday was KF's fault, and that it has to stop. And the only way to stop it is to send KF into retirement. He's had a nice run, but Iowa needs all new leadership at the top. Not even Phil's D can bail KF out all the time.
I'm not going to do any research. It's not worth it. But I often think of the Big Ten championship game in 2015 when KF played it conservative, as always, punted, and MSU launched its longest drive of the season--an amazing 22 plays--to score the winning TD with about 30 seconds to play. Phil's D couldn't come up with the ONE big play that would have won a Big Ten title and sent Iowa to the 4-team playoffs.
And then there was the Penn State game, a night game at Kinnick, several years ago. The Hawkeyes made a stirring comeback, and Akrum Wadley turned in another of his brilliant plays to score what should have been the winning TD with about 1:30 to play. A field goal would do PSU no good. It would have to drive the length of the field and score a TD to win. And damn, with exactly one second on the clock, that's exactly what they did. Again, Phil's D failed to come up with ONE play that would have saved that win.
Then there was yesterday. The offense failed to score a TD from first and goal at the one and first and goal from the five in the first half. Both of those HAVE to be TDs. Period. And then the second half offense was just horrible, led by Cade's miserable passing and inscrutable play calls, capped by KF's gutless decision to run clock instead of trying to get ONE more first down that would have ended the game.
So with no timeouts and having to go about 50 yards for a shot at a game-winning FG, Phil doesn't blitz, and the QB sits back and picks the Iowa secondary apart, culminating in a 54-yard FG to beat the Hawkeyes by one.
Those of us who've been watching for a while will never get used to KF's teams losing games because the old man still doesn't understand that the riskiest thing in sports--in life--is refusing to take risks. Running into a stacked box instead of trying to get that final first down . . . that's unfair to everyone . . . players and fans alike. But it's the KF way. Beth must know losing that game yesterday was KF's fault, and that it has to stop. And the only way to stop it is to send KF into retirement. He's had a nice run, but Iowa needs all new leadership at the top. Not even Phil's D can bail KF out all the time.
