Watching PSU vs. Iowa

[HawkNole09]

Are you now more excited, equally excited or less excited about the team’s prospects this year — compared to where you were before the game?

I’m excited. I hope Stanley continues to progress, so that the coaches feel comfortable putting him out there to win games.

 

[kwik44]

Huge optimism. This team is good & if anything, it gave this team even more confidence that they can hang with anybody.

Hoping for a season like PSU did last year. They started 2-2 and everyone left them for dead after losing to Michigan 49-10. I feel Iowa could be that this year and at the minimum return to Indy.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

I was worried before the game and while Iowa did play PSU tough, I want to know more about PSU. Are they "that good" or did Iowa play out of their mind or what. I mean it took PSU running their RB 40+ times to beat Iowa. Can he handle that workload every Big Ten game?

I am more hopeful that we could have a good season, but our offense has to do more in the 1st half. The first 4 drives costed us that game. Our defense was out on the field way too much in that game. It started showing in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

If our offense can just manage the ball and get some drives going, I think this team could be pretty decent. I just hope we don't see a Hangover in East Lansing.

 

[ichawk24]

I was very optimistic about the team, and the PSU game confirmed it.

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

I feel about the same. While Penn State put up almost 600 yards of offense, we held them to 5.85 yards per play which is better than what we did against Iowa State and North Texas. The defense improved, but I am concerned about our inability to run the ball. We would have beat Penn State if we were able to control the ball better, but Penn State pretty much shut our rushing offense down until the 4th quarter.

There's a lot of games on our schedule that are essentially coin-flip games IMO, and next week is one of those games. The only game I feel "comfortable" about winning is Illinois at home. I think this team could win 10 games and potentially get to the Big 10 championship, but 7 wins is more likely. There's definitely a lot to be excited for because almost every unit has shown flashes of being really good, but we still need better consistency in several areas.

 

[bestive]

I was worried before the game and while Iowa did play PSU tough, I want to know more about PSU. Are they "that good" or did Iowa play out of their mind or what. I mean it took PSU running their RB 40+ times to beat Iowa. Can he handle that workload every Big Ten game?

I am more hopeful that we could have a good season, but our offense has to do more in the 1st half. The first 4 drives costed us that game. Our defense was out on the field way too much in that game. It started showing in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

If our offense can just manage the ball and get some drives going, I think this team could be pretty decent. I just hope we don't see a Hangover in East Lansing.

Agree about PSU. You do realize, re Iowa offense, that we started on our own 10, 10, and 1 in 3 of 4 possessions.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

Agree about PSU. You do realize, re Iowa offense, that we started on our own 10, 10, and 1 in 3 of 4 possessions.

Yeah I know, but still have to take a shot when they have 8-9 guys in the box. I hate to say it, but I feel our coaches don't have faith in our WR's to make the players. Smith Marsette looks like a gamer. I would just tried throwing deep to get them to back off. They were coming every play.

 

[thewop]

more. I thought we'd be 7-5, now I feel like 9-3 is about 50/50, with at least 8-4 being almost certain. I figure we'll lose one we shouldn't (purdue, NW or Nebraska), and likely win one we "shouldn't" (OSU/Wisky), and if we lose to both OSU/Wisky we go 8-4.

 

[Pepperman]

Agree about PSU. You do realize, re Iowa offense, that we started on our own 10, 10, and 1 in 3 of 4 possessions.

That was a very big problem early on. I posted this in another thread, but it also didn't help that our WR had a couple of drops early. Even catching one ball likely gets Iowa another first down, which is at least another minute of game clock that the defense can rest or come up with better strategy. It was pretty chaotic early on and the Hawks looked tight to me. I don't get why there aren't a couple of "go-to" plays for when the defense is stacking the LOS. It seems just converting a few of them would go a long way.

 

[speed4power]

Yeah I know, but still have to take a shot when they have 8-9 guys in the box. I hate to say it, but I feel our coaches don't have faith in our WR's to make the players. Smith Marsette looks like a gamer. I would just tried throwing deep to get them to back off. They were coming every play.

Correct. People acting like you can't pass the ball on the 10 yard line... against 9 guys in the box.

Yes you can.

 

[ChiTownLion]

 

[Dauminator]

Same. I had us at 9-3 preseason, 3-1 at this point. Most games on our schedule were, and still are, eminently winnable and losable.

Of course, as we've started to see some teams in live action, my perception on teams has changed. Some up, some down. For example, I had us winning this week, but right now I'm not too confident. We need to bounce back, on the road, after a tough loss, against an opponent reeling from being punked in their place last week. Not a good spot. How we come out will say a lot about this team's mental makeup.

 

[ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAWK]

I'm not sure about either team. I came away very unimpressed with P St. So where does that leave Iowa?

If I had to bet I'd say neither team makes Indy. But if I had to choose 1 I'd say Iowa has a better shot than P St to get there:

 

[DavenportHawk8]

I'm not sure about either team. I came away very unimpressed with P St. So where does that leave Iowa?

If I had to bet I'd say neither team makes Indy. But if I had to choose 1 I'd say Iowa has a better shot than P St to get there:

I think PSU has the RB to get them to Indy, but their QB showed he panics at times (hell he almost gave Iowa the game when he flipped it back to his OL, that was damn close to a fumble). I wasn't overly impressed with their WR's. Their scheme is just tough to defend, but you get an athletic secondary and good LB's you can negate that pretty quick. Iowa just struggled in their man coverage (mainly on the back end of it). A lot of 3rd and longs Iowa's went man and it costed them.

I was thinking either Iowa is really good to be 1 play from beating #4. OR #4 isn't that good and is overrated. So its hard to tell judging from 1 game. A lot will be told this weekend if Iowa can win in East Lansing. Sometimes an emotional loss can spring board a team to a great run. It can also beat ya twice, which sucks.

 

[DodgerHawki]

I think PSU has the RB to get them to Indy, but their QB showed he panics at times (hell he almost gave Iowa the game when he flipped it back to his OL, that was damn close to a fumble). I wasn't overly impressed with their WR's. Their scheme is just tough to defend, but you get an athletic secondary and good LB's you can negate that pretty quick. Iowa just struggled in their man coverage (mainly on the back end of it). A lot of 3rd and longs Iowa's went man and it costed them.

I was thinking either Iowa is really good to be 1 play from beating #4. OR #4 isn't that good and is overrated. So its hard to tell judging from 1 game. A lot will be told this weekend if Iowa can win in East Lansing. Sometimes an emotional loss can spring board a team to a great run. It can also beat ya twice, which sucks.

It's still early in the season to be able to make conclusions about how good/bad a team might be. Starting to get a picture, but more games to be played. To your points, no one has successfully defended Penn State as well as Iowa did since Michigan whipped them last year. Not the great Wisconsin D. Not USC. Not Ohio State. Literally no one.

I would also say that Iowa's man coverage was extremely good all things considered. Penn State averaged 5.9 yards per pass play, it's lowest since the Michigan game in 2016. Penn State went 6-18 on third down, which was a winning number for Iowa. It forced PSU into kicking some field goals and kept Iowa in the game.

Barkley was the difference. His ability to turn nothing into huge plays is unmatched in college FB this year. I have no idea if he can handled 36 touches a game, but for one night at least he was enough.

 

[Tacticalhawk]

I really think we had this game circled like iowa state circles us. This may be the best the hawks look all season. I hope we carry it on but Im really worried about an emotional letdown next week. If we come ready to play vs mich st Im on board. Until then, Im still watching. Dont forget how young we are.

 

[meatloaf55]

I definitely feel more optimistic about this team after the Penn state game. Doesn't make the last second loss sting any less though

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Are you now more excited, equally excited or less excited about the team’s prospects this year — compared to where you were before the game?

I’m excited. I hope Stanley continues to progress, so that the coaches feel comfortable putting him out there to win games.

The only reason for caution is the mental state of the team. They have to take what they did Saturday as a sign that they are capable of more now.

They showed that they can compete with the best and can win, but now they need to start doing that from here on out.

And after a tough loss like this, they have to learn to erase that doubt that may remain, such as not being able to finish a game on either side of the ball when it comes to crunch time. We saw what a couple losses did to the 2010 team, but that was also a veteran team.

This team has a good mix of veterans but also enough young guys to not really know any better or overthink things, perhaps to phrase it better, when it comes to taking a tough loss. I think they'll learn from it and move on, rather than allow this game to rear its head the next time they're faced with a close game and the defense needs to make a stop or the offense needs to put together a final drive.

Otherwise, this game, outside of losing, was everything I wanted to see and more. Because if this team does learn from this game, and uses it as motivation to continue to be better and doesn't allow it to beat them mentally, then bigger things are still to come.........And I have said that since before the season began.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

I really think we had this game circled like iowa state circles us. This may be the best the hawks look all season. I hope we carry it on but Im really worried about an emotional letdown next week. If we come ready to play vs mich st Im on board. Until then, Im still watching. Dont forget how young we are.

I think our youth works to our advantage in this case, unlike certain past seasons.......

 

[Wadzinator]

I predicted 10 wins plus a bowl win what I saw Sat night just reaffirmed that this is a top 15 team i really like hooker

 

[BioHawk]

I really think we had this game circled like iowa state circles us. This may be the best the hawks look all season. I hope we carry it on but Im really worried about an emotional letdown next week. If we come ready to play vs mich st Im on board. Until then, Im still watching. Dont forget how young we are.

Ohio State is coming to town in November in what will likely be a night game as well so we're not done yet.