The offense managing to perform only on rare occasions is not evidence that the scheme itself is still sound. It just means that even broken clocks are right occasionally.
When Iowa has been at its best, the offense has been more than serviceable, and that’s not a bar that should be acceptable, nor one that should be hard to meet.
I don’t buy losing Doyle had the major impact on the oline while not affecting any other position group.
Iowa did not out-scheme NW. Those guys are pretty smart over there.
Nor does luck or coincidence ever have much to do with football. Especially in blowout games.
Guess what does determine how football games play out? I'll give the drunken pupil one more try. That's right - it's the line of scrimmage.
The scheme worked because Iowa could win up front. Why do you think every play in the bag worked that day? And the exact same plays, with the exact same scheme, didn't work pretty much at any other point in the season. It's simple calculus. And no, luck or happenstance wasn't the answer. Even the stupid end around to Bruce worked twice that day. And fans were enamored with the jet motion, lmao. The play worked that day because NW's defense had a soft edge. It literally didn't work at any other point in the season.
Seriously, I'm asking you to think about why the scheme worked that day. Yes, NW's defense was bad. That's a generalization. But how does it perform bad? Literally, how did Iowa's offense beat them? It's not like they were incapable of tackling or covering, although they weren't great at either. They got manhandled up front. You saw a push from Iowa at the line of scrimmage that you didn't see that season. This allowed Iowa to execute anything and everything they wanted to. Nowhere on the field were there any working or broken clocks.
Why are you refusing to believe the essence of football that's been proven for 150 years? Brady beat Mahomes in the Super Bowl because the Chiefs O-line was a shell of itself. The following season Brady's O-line got banged up and they couldn't win a game. Nowhere does scheme even need to be brought up in any of that.
Yes, one game proves the scheme still works. Because it shows why it stopped working. The O-line is the variable in the equation. The scheme was at least serviceable when the O-line was functional. Then the scheme worked again when the O-line was able to win in games like NW and W.Michigan. But it took having to play bad teams for the O-line to win because it was no longer functional. Simple calculus and the simple game of football.
It's all really too simple to keep going around in circles with you. There isn't any other way to say it. The game is won up front. That truth is more important than scheme, although the two can be interrelated. It's that simple. You just either have to listen better or make the decision to believe what you're hearing. Because it's too simple to be explained in another way.
Again, if serviceable offense isn't good enough for you, that is to a degree, understandable. But it's an entirely different conversation than whether a scheme it outdated or not. Mixing the two conversations is perhaps what's creating your confusion.
Maybe the loss of Doyle did affect other positions. But O-line is the position that the program depended on Doyle for, as it allowed them to recruit undersized kids with good feet. In that sense, the program was built around Doyle.
Also, the O-line is critical for every team, but even moreso for Iowa, because they built their offense around their O-line.
Strength is most used in football at the O-line. Why do you think that's where the biggest players on the field are (other than some 3-technique DT's, which Iowa does not use)?
It wasn't just the loss of Doyle. But the loss compounded the attrition to the O-line. And compounded the loss of developmental workouts during the Covid shutdown that were desperately needed to build up undersized guys that were being forced to step in and play before they were ready, due to the attrition that the O-line had sustained.
Why do you think Iowa hasn't been able to push anyone off the ball? The kids weren't yet big and strong enough. That's what breaks any scheme. Simple game.
Doyle worked with the whole team in terms of strength and conditioning. But are you aware that he was also intimately involved with the O-line and only the O-line?
