On to Illinois

[hexumhawk]

My thoughts on this game if you care:

Illinois will be an overall tougher challenge than Nebraska. I think Nebraska had our game circled for sometime and we got their best game. Illinois is a better team with more talent.

On D: need to cover the QB RPO. He is mainly a thrower but will take off at least once every other series. Kind of the opposite of last week as both Neb QBs are more runners than throwers. Peters can actually throw the ball fairly well. Please for the love of god bracket Imatorbhebhe or at least shift coverage a step or two with your safeties to his side. He is their best offensive threat by far so this is of course triggering Purdue memories from this year. Will have to get some consistent pressure on the QB.

On O: Run the ball, then run it some more. Ill is always super aggressive against us on D with stunts and blitzing so hopefully they have a game plan to take advantage of that. Screens, bubble plays, draws, etc. Our lovely zone stretch play should be retired the next two weeks.

Special teams- keep doing what you are doing

 

[HawkeyeInCentralIowa]

My thoughts on this game if you care:

Illinois will be an overall tougher challenge than Nebraska. I think Nebraska had our game circled for sometime and we got their best game. Illinois is a better team with more talent.

On D: need to cover the QB RPO. He is mainly a thrower but will take off at least once every other series. Kind of the opposite of last week as both Neb QBs are more runners than throwers. Peters can actually throw the ball fairly well. Please for the love of god bracket Imatorbhebhe or at least shift coverage a step or two with your safeties to his side. He is their best offensive threat by far so this is of course triggering Purdue memories from this year. Will have to get some consistent pressure on the QB.

On O: Run the ball, then run it some more. Ill is always super aggressive against us on D with stunts and blitzing so hopefully they have a game plan to take advantage of that. Screens, bubble plays, draws, etc. Our lovely zone stretch play should be retired the next two weeks.

Special teams- keep doing what you are doing

Brian Ferentz: do not **** this up

Phil Parker: Do not pull a David Bell.

Fify

 

[TKingpin]

I hope they don’t come out and lay an egg, since this could very well be a trap game. Nebbiolo last week and Wisky next week. Hell, who knows if Wisky will even have a team to put on the field? This is an important game.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

My thoughts on this game if you care:

On O: Run the ball, then run it some more. Ill is always super aggressive against us on D with stunts and blitzing so hopefully they have a game plan to take advantage of that. Screens, bubble plays, draws, etc. Our lovely zone stretch play should be retired the next two weeks.

Special teams- keep doing what you are doing

Illinois did a REALLY good job of defending against the run on us last year. Lovie knows how to scheme things to defend the run against our style of O ... so being able to have balance will be important.

Ball security will also obviously be critical ... because Illinois has largely managed to win games over the past few years by getting a lot of take-aways ... and running the ball.

If we can have good ball-security and if we can stop the run ... both of those will be required to pull off a victory.

Also, Illinois has one of the better punters ... so the field-position battle should also be quite interesting in the game too.

If I were Illinois ... I'd be targeting Ihmir to put the ball on the ground.

 

[soybean]

Illinois appears to be a team Iowa can over-power up front on both sides of the ball...so we should give them a steady dose of #10 & #15.

 

[H4wkfan4life]

Illinois appears to be a team Iowa can over-power up front on both sides of the ball...so we should give them a steady dose of #10 & #15.

Why you hating on nixon?

 

[walleye hunter16]

Illinois appears to be a team Iowa can over-power up front on both sides of the ball...so we should give them a steady dose of #10 & #15.

I believe the previous poster is correct that Lovie coming out of the pro ranks understands how to defend the zone blocking schemes KF uses. They DBs and Lbs give up a very high percentage of completions.
That means to me they will schemes to the run and are vulnerable to the pass or off script running plays.
THIS would be the perfect game to pull out the basic hat on hat run blocking schemes and just really screw with the defenders practice work and add in a bunch of high percentage passes.
It wouldn't hurt to have Wisky see the larger playback and screw with their gameplan as well.

 

[soybean]

I believe the previous poster is correct that Lovie coming out of the pro ranks understands how to defend the zone blocking schemes KF uses. They DBs and Lbs give up a very high percentage of completions.
That means to me they will schemes to the run and are vulnerable to the pass or off script running plays.
THIS would be the perfect game to pull out the basic hat on hat run blocking schemes and just really screw with the defenders practice work and add in a bunch of high percentage passes.
It wouldn't hurt to have Wisky see the larger playback and screw with their gameplan as well.

This game will not be one of X's & O's... but of Jimmy's & Joe's instead.

 

[hexumhawk]

I hope they don’t come out and lay an egg, since this could very well be a trap game. Nebbiolo last week and Wisky next week. Hell, who knows if Wisky will even have a team to put on the field? This is an important game.

I am hoping that KF's NFL like approach through the years helps us this week because I agree with you.

I am sure this Iowa team really wants those first two weeks back as I think they are the better team in both cases but you have to give them credit for what they did after. Iowa could have folded up and called it a season.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

I hope they don’t come out and lay an egg, since this could very well be a trap game. Nebbiolo last week and Wisky next week. Hell, who knows if Wisky will even have a team to put on the field? This is an important game.

I think that there is some advantage to Illinois not playing OSU and getting pasted. Had that happened ... I think that it is human nature for the Iowa players to then take the Illini less seriously.

But instead ... the coaches can drive home the message that the Illini manhandled the Huskers ... while the Hawks struggled with them. That can perhaps serve as a little extra motivation.

 

[DodgerHawki]

I am hoping that KF's NFL like approach through the years helps us this week because I agree with you.

I am sure this Iowa team really wants those first two weeks back as I think they are the better team in both cases but you have to give them credit for what they did after. Iowa could have folded up and called it a season.

yeah if there's one thing KF has been very good at, it's getting teams to buy in and compete on a week in, week out basis. For those of us on the outside, after the kick in the nuts loss to Wisconsin last year and with Minnesota coming up (undefeated) many of us were anticipating Iowa to come out and lay an egg. But the come out and hand Gophers their first loss and Iowa goes on to win rest of its games. That is a testament to the players and the staff. Same thing this year. Everyone knows that realistically the division is gone when you lose to 2 division opponents right out of the gate. Now, one could argue that you shouldn't lose. those games, and I would agree to an extent.

But KF's teams do buy in and compete. The fact that we can remember the outlier games (2016 at Penn State) or seasons shows that is the case. Creating a culture like that doesn't happen by chance. Really hoping KF can go out with another division title here in the next year or 2. It will be a miss if Iowa doesn't get another one.

 

[BigDelHawk]

I hope they don’t come out and lay an egg, since this could very well be a trap game. Nebbiolo last week and Wisky next week. Hell, who knows if Wisky will even have a team to put on the field? This is an important game.

Yep, trap game.

 

[TonyTheTiger.1865]

I re-watched the Nebraska game and the reason we had so much trouble running the ball was because their linebackers and safeties were basically living on the line of scrimmage. Our inability to establish a down field passing threat allowed that. I expect Illinois to do the same. If we complete a few passes down the field against Debbie I think we would have won by three touchdowns.

 

[hexumhawk]

I re-watched the Nebraska game and the reason we had so much trouble running the ball was because their linebackers and safeties were basically living on the line of scrimmage. Our inability to establish a down field passing threat allowed that. I expect Illinois to do the same. If we complete a few passes down the filed against Debbie I think we would have won by three touchdowns.

This is the aggressive gamble that some teams take on defense when they are playing us. Illinois, Purdue, and Nebraska do it the heaviest. There are other teams that use a lesser model but those are the three that really make us think on offense. The issue is when you have a QB that has been shaky, it makes it harder to move the ball even though you should be getting big chunk plays.

 

[HawkRugged17]