Fellow Hawkeye fans...
We are in rarified air these days. What a great ride. Some of you may remember a post I made back in September, where, after taking a hard look at this Hawkeye squad I saw some pretty lofty potential. Married with a manageable schedule, I predicted that if we could get past Wisconsin, that we would not lose again during the regular season. We are obviously not there yet, but so far so good. So, where are we now?
- All along I thought that @Wisconsin, @Indiana, and @Nebraska, in that order, were our biggest chances to drop a game. Still do. Though the drop-off is significant. We are a nightmare matchup for both Minnesota and Purdue. Nebraska has some weapons to hit us with, but we will turn them over quite a bit as well I think.
- I think we have really hit our groove on defense. We are not yet at our ceiling, but we are mighty close. Just a great job of coaching on that side of the ball. The difference between this defense, and several other good ones we have had, is that this is top to bottom, what I would consider a B+ defense. That is very different from last year, when we had an A- defensive line, a B- secondary, but a D level linebacker corps. I think our defensive line is slightly less effective this year (more of a B+), especially with the loss of Ott...but with the LB's behind them playing at a B+ level as well, it just makes all the difference. Put a B+ secondary behind that, and you have what we are seeing week in and week out. A defense that can be gashed occasionally, one that isn't exactly "shut down" anywhere on the field...but one that just makes you earn everything. They just don't have any glaring weaknesses. They play disciplined, they play hard, they trust each other, they rally to the ball, and they leave a mark on their opponents. This isn't the steel curtain, but it is most definitely championship level. Also, because...
- Our offense and defense are so well matched to each other. Last year, I pulled my hair out at times, because I couldn't figure out what the heck I was watching. We were trying to be a ball control team running tempo...committed to the run, but playing a lot of spread...trying to run a zone blocking scheme with a FB at the RB position who was not particularly good at the cutback...all while rotating QB's in about the most divisive and damaging way possible. It was really hard to watch. And it made our defense look even worse than it really was, because it slowed the clock down and put them on the field to defend a lot more plays. We don't rotate a lot...when the other team can run 75+ plays on us, game in and game out...that is not what we are built for. This year is just a total 180. We have largely abandoned the tempo aspects of our offense and are playing more to our strengths. We are effective at killing clock, all through the game, keeping our defense more fresh and demoralizing the opponent, causing them to press...helping us to turn them over. Last year, we didn't know who we were or what we were trying to do...this year, on both sides of the ball and with an overall cohesive and coherent strategy, we absolutely do.
- CJ is so dynamic. I was impressed early in the year with his improvisation and running abilities. He looked far, far, far more effective running the ball than he did last year. But, over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely blown away by his ability to modify his game to become a damn good pocket passer. Not many people can do that. It takes a truly special talent. He is now seeing the field at such a high level, making outstanding pre-snap reads, and moving through his progression so fluidly...he is just going to be very hard to stop, for anybody. If he is able to get some of his mobility back at all...I would hate to be the defensive coordinator trying to game plan for him, that's for sure. Also, he truly has an NFL caliber arm and release. I see guys like Tommy Armstrong that can put a ton of velocity on the ball...but have such slow releases that it just totally negates it. Rudock was the same way. Beathard has the best arm of the Ferentz era, hands down.
- People say that we are not flashy...and I don't know what on earth that means. It is one of those trite, throw-away lines that people seem to mindlessly utter when they don't have anything substantive to say. We blow open huge holes in the running game and spring long TD strikes...from 4 different backs. We pick up third downs at an extremely impressive clip. We turn teams over all the time. We hit really, really hard on defense. We actually hit on long passing plays regularly. We go for it on 4th down all the time...and not just 4th and inches, we will go for it on 4th and 5. We are dynamic in both our punt and kickoff return games. We put up over 30 points a game on average. We pile up over 400 yards a game on average. We average almost 6 plays per drive (very, very few 3 and outs) and we dominate TOP. Just because we use a TE and FB, often at the same time (gasp!) does not mean that we are boring or not "flashy". Those "non-flashy" TE's have made some pretty ridiculous plays this year too! I think we are plenty flashy if people actually want to watch the game.
Okay, so bold prediction: Not only are we going to win our next three games, we are going to win each of them by 20+. We are about to go on a real tear. Not ready to make any predictions about the possible CCG, though I think we match up with anybody the East ends up sending much better than most would give us credit for. OSU would be the worst matchup for us...but believe it or not, Maryland was a great game to have under our belts to prepare for them if we end up meeting.
Let's go Hawks!
We are in rarified air these days. What a great ride. Some of you may remember a post I made back in September, where, after taking a hard look at this Hawkeye squad I saw some pretty lofty potential. Married with a manageable schedule, I predicted that if we could get past Wisconsin, that we would not lose again during the regular season. We are obviously not there yet, but so far so good. So, where are we now?
- All along I thought that @Wisconsin, @Indiana, and @Nebraska, in that order, were our biggest chances to drop a game. Still do. Though the drop-off is significant. We are a nightmare matchup for both Minnesota and Purdue. Nebraska has some weapons to hit us with, but we will turn them over quite a bit as well I think.
- I think we have really hit our groove on defense. We are not yet at our ceiling, but we are mighty close. Just a great job of coaching on that side of the ball. The difference between this defense, and several other good ones we have had, is that this is top to bottom, what I would consider a B+ defense. That is very different from last year, when we had an A- defensive line, a B- secondary, but a D level linebacker corps. I think our defensive line is slightly less effective this year (more of a B+), especially with the loss of Ott...but with the LB's behind them playing at a B+ level as well, it just makes all the difference. Put a B+ secondary behind that, and you have what we are seeing week in and week out. A defense that can be gashed occasionally, one that isn't exactly "shut down" anywhere on the field...but one that just makes you earn everything. They just don't have any glaring weaknesses. They play disciplined, they play hard, they trust each other, they rally to the ball, and they leave a mark on their opponents. This isn't the steel curtain, but it is most definitely championship level. Also, because...
- Our offense and defense are so well matched to each other. Last year, I pulled my hair out at times, because I couldn't figure out what the heck I was watching. We were trying to be a ball control team running tempo...committed to the run, but playing a lot of spread...trying to run a zone blocking scheme with a FB at the RB position who was not particularly good at the cutback...all while rotating QB's in about the most divisive and damaging way possible. It was really hard to watch. And it made our defense look even worse than it really was, because it slowed the clock down and put them on the field to defend a lot more plays. We don't rotate a lot...when the other team can run 75+ plays on us, game in and game out...that is not what we are built for. This year is just a total 180. We have largely abandoned the tempo aspects of our offense and are playing more to our strengths. We are effective at killing clock, all through the game, keeping our defense more fresh and demoralizing the opponent, causing them to press...helping us to turn them over. Last year, we didn't know who we were or what we were trying to do...this year, on both sides of the ball and with an overall cohesive and coherent strategy, we absolutely do.
- CJ is so dynamic. I was impressed early in the year with his improvisation and running abilities. He looked far, far, far more effective running the ball than he did last year. But, over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely blown away by his ability to modify his game to become a damn good pocket passer. Not many people can do that. It takes a truly special talent. He is now seeing the field at such a high level, making outstanding pre-snap reads, and moving through his progression so fluidly...he is just going to be very hard to stop, for anybody. If he is able to get some of his mobility back at all...I would hate to be the defensive coordinator trying to game plan for him, that's for sure. Also, he truly has an NFL caliber arm and release. I see guys like Tommy Armstrong that can put a ton of velocity on the ball...but have such slow releases that it just totally negates it. Rudock was the same way. Beathard has the best arm of the Ferentz era, hands down.
- People say that we are not flashy...and I don't know what on earth that means. It is one of those trite, throw-away lines that people seem to mindlessly utter when they don't have anything substantive to say. We blow open huge holes in the running game and spring long TD strikes...from 4 different backs. We pick up third downs at an extremely impressive clip. We turn teams over all the time. We hit really, really hard on defense. We actually hit on long passing plays regularly. We go for it on 4th down all the time...and not just 4th and inches, we will go for it on 4th and 5. We are dynamic in both our punt and kickoff return games. We put up over 30 points a game on average. We pile up over 400 yards a game on average. We average almost 6 plays per drive (very, very few 3 and outs) and we dominate TOP. Just because we use a TE and FB, often at the same time (gasp!) does not mean that we are boring or not "flashy". Those "non-flashy" TE's have made some pretty ridiculous plays this year too! I think we are plenty flashy if people actually want to watch the game.
Okay, so bold prediction: Not only are we going to win our next three games, we are going to win each of them by 20+. We are about to go on a real tear. Not ready to make any predictions about the possible CCG, though I think we match up with anybody the East ends up sending much better than most would give us credit for. OSU would be the worst matchup for us...but believe it or not, Maryland was a great game to have under our belts to prepare for them if we end up meeting.
Let's go Hawks!
