What a difference a week makes

[GunnerHawk]

I have purposely stayed off the site since Sunday because I knew all the doom and gloomers would come out in force.

A week ago it was euphoria over our beat down of ISU, this week - Ferentz sucks, asst. Coaches suck, team sucks, AD's suck, hell Herky sucks. I personally was as bummed as the next fan, but am hopeful this will be a wake-up call.

Rutgers will be a test, especially at their place. I think the Hawks will be a different team on Saturday, but if they play like last week, it will be a long season.

Not giving up on the team just yet.

Go Hawks!

 

[Suterman]

We deserved the loss last week. We'll see what we are made of this week.

 

[hawkeyeguy69]

We deserved the loss last week. We'll see what we are made of this week.

This is what scares me. What if we don't bounce back? It'll turn into a long season....

Rutgers is not a test. They are good timing. We will see if we can put our feet on their throats and do what we believed this team was capable of doing until last Saturday...

This Saturday will be telling. Close win or loss will not be good. Hoping for the best!

Go Hawks!

 

[Suterman]

This is what scares me. What if we don't bounce back? It'll turn into a long season....

Rutgers is not a test. They are good timing. We will see if we can put our feet on their throats and do what we believed this team was capable of doing until last Saturday...

This Saturday will be telling. Close win or loss will not be good. Hoping for the best!

Go Hawks!

We have lost any head room we had for sure. We need a victory of any kind this weekend. We played without swag last week and that is not a good sign. Let's see some swagger this week.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Anyone who was euphoric after the isu win wasn't paying attention.

isu is truly terrible. Their offensive line would have trouble against a good D-III school.
Playing two just plain awful teams should not have given anyone great confidence about the season. The lack of ability in stopping the miami oh offense was one glaring clue.

I don't know if the Hawks will be a different team on Saturday or not. There were so many deficiencies on both sides of the ball against ndsu. Fortunately, they probably don't have to fix all of them to beat rutgers.

I'm not already predicting doom for the year. They are no longer the favorites, but they still have a shot at winning the weak B1G west. It will take great improvements to do that, though.

 

[LarryMullenJr.]

While I'm disappointed to see the size of drop-off there evidently is between our #1 OL, and the #2 OL, that's not where my major concern lies. We have our best D-linemen in the game and they are getting run rough-shod over (especially when they don't get rotated help). And Phil Parker is still Phil Parker.

 

[33hawkfan]

ISU is a team that wouldn't finish in the upper half of the MVFC, and that's not hyperbole. Playing them was the worst thing for this team before facing a good opponent, which NDSU is, they would be much closer to the top of the West division than the bottom. Made them way too confident.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

We will see what this team is made of. They haven't been punched in the mouth like that since MSU/Stanford last year. lets see how they respond. If they use this as motivation and re-group and win 3 or 4 in the row, it will be fine.

If they struggle with Rutgers or possibly lose, then this season takes a whole new turn and could be ala 2010 season.

 

[David1979]

I think people are overthinking one game. Did it suck? Yeah. But let's see how they bounce back. They have good leaders in Beathard, Vandeberg, Jewell , and King that I think the team will come out ready to play and play well.

 

[RogerKint]

We get Daniels and Welsh back on the o-line. This is a huge game. We will bounce back.

 

[cecilB]

While I'm disappointed to see the size of drop-off there evidently is between our #1 OL, and the #2 OL, that's not where my major concern lies. We have our best D-linemen in the game and they are getting run rough-shod over (especially when they don't get rotated help). And Phil Parker is still Phil Parker.

it was the linebackers not filling for the most part.D line held ground and did what Iowa DL are suppose to do...occupy blockers and fill assigned gap. They weren't perfect, but not where we were exploited

 

[David1979]

it was the linebackers not filling for the most part.D line held ground and did what Iowa DL are suppose to do...occupy blockers and fill assigned gap. They weren't perfect, but not where we were exploited

I agree. Safeties didn't have a great day either. They were attacking Bower's side all second half

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

it was the linebackers not filling for the most part.D line held ground and did what Iowa DL are suppose to do...occupy blockers and fill assigned gap. They weren't perfect, but not where we were exploited

You know more than I do, so Im asking. Do you think the problem with the LBs was confusion? Seems like they had the Iowa LBs running in circles and to me, that comes back to being out prepared/out coached.

 

[Gridiron24]

Bower, Snyder, and Taylor need to step it up or this is going to be a long season.

 

[SotaHawk87]

Gotta find a way to win 10 because next year is going to be brutal with that schedule and a new QB! All that momentum will be lost if Hawks finish 8-4

 

[David1979]

You know more than I do, so Im asking. Do you think the problem with the LBs was confusion? Seems like they had the Iowa LBs running in circles and to me, that comes back to being out prepared/out coached.

From what I gather from reading about reviews of the game. Iowa LBs and safeties were getting stalled by the backfield action, i.e. jet sweep fakes and then zone read stuff. They got put in a reactive mode instead of attacking. Well except Jewell. They were running away from where Jewell was and attacking Bowers side a lot.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

There is Jewell, then everybody else.
Similar with the backfield where you have King, then everybody else.

Two outstanding guys can't make up for all the deficiencies around them.

So, please no more of the "they were just playing a vanilla defense" excuse. When you have outstanding guys at multiple positions a team can get away with a basic base defense because they are superior on a player for player basis at most positions. When you don't have that, it's going to take game planning, schemes, putting less talented guys in position to take advantage of the skills they do possess. And, dare I say, making in game adjustments when those things aren't working.

 

[TRHawkeye145]

Anyone who was euphoric after the isu win wasn't paying attention.

isu is truly terrible. Their offensive line would have trouble against a good D-III school.
Playing two just plain awful teams should not have given anyone great confidence about the season. The lack of ability in stopping the miami oh offense was one glaring clue.

I don't know if the Hawks will be a different team on Saturday or not. There were so many deficiencies on both sides of the ball against ndsu. Fortunately, they probably don't have to fix all of them to beat rutgers.

I'm not already predicting doom for the year. They are no longer the favorites, but they still have a shot at winning the weak B1G west. It will take great improvements to do that, though.

Good post. I agree with everything you said. I would hope the team comes out with a chip on their shoulder on Saturday but there might be too many deficiencies to make that much of a difference. Hope I'm wrong and last Saturday was just a weird anomaly. But the problems we saw against Miami Oh and NDSU due cause some concern going forward. We'll see. Season is still early and maybe coaches will make adjustments (wait...did I just say that? ). Go hawks

 

[David1979]

There is Jewell, then everybody else.
Similar with the backfield where you have King, then everybody else.

Two outstanding guys can't make up for all the deficiencies around them.

So, please no more of the "they were just playing a vanilla defense" excuse. When you have outstanding guys at multiple positions a team can get away with a basic base defense because they are superior on a player for player basis at most positions. When you don't have that, it's going to take game planning, schemes, putting less talented guys in position to take advantage of the skills they do possess. And, dare I say, making in game adjustments when those things aren't working.

Don't agree at all.

 

[StormHawk42]

From what I gather from reading about reviews of the game. Iowa LBs and safeties were getting stalled by the backfield action, i.e. jet sweep fakes and then zone read stuff. They got put in a reactive mode instead of attacking. Well except Jewell. They were running away from where Jewell was and attacking Bowers side a lot.

This is what I saw in the stands. NDSU started with running side to side and was fairly successful and then once Iowa was stretching plays out, NDSU used the motion as a decoy and the middle was wide open. We didn't adjust. Pretty solid coaching if you ask me.

 

[David1979]

This is what I saw in the stands. NDSU started with running side to side and was fairly successful and then once Iowa was stretching plays out, NDSU used the motion as a decoy and the middle was wide open. We didn't adjust. Pretty solid coaching if you ask me.

Yeah good adjustment on their part. Bad job by Iowa coaches not doing anything to react to it.
Also, now that we know Wadley was completely fine the second half. Horrible job by the coaches not getting him more touches.

 

[Eternal Return]

Anyone who was euphoric after the isu win wasn't paying attention.

isu is truly terrible. Their offensive line would have trouble against a good D-III school.
Playing two just plain awful teams should not have given anyone great confidence about the season. The lack of ability in stopping the miami oh offense was one glaring clue.

I don't know if the Hawks will be a different team on Saturday or not. There were so many deficiencies on both sides of the ball against ndsu. Fortunately, they probably don't have to fix all of them to beat rutgers.

I'm not already predicting doom for the year. They are no longer the favorites, but they still have a shot at winning the weak B1G west. It will take great improvements to do that, though.

I had concerns about the run defense after both the Miami of Ohio game and the ISU game. The DL isn't the real problem and neither is Jewell. The problem is the other linebackers and the safeties. That's going to be a challenge all year.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

I had concerns about the run defense after both the Miami of Ohio game and the ISU game. The DL isn't the real problem and neither is Jewell. The problem is the other linebackers and the safeties. That's going to be a challenge all year.

Agreed. I was at the miami game and it was not pretty without Jewell in there. They miss Lomax tremendously at safety. He was OK in pass defense, but I think he was overall an excellent run supporter. As for the linebackers, they are lacking an athletic counterpart(e.g. Kirksey) or a guy with a nose for a ball that is a hammer(e.g. Angerer) to go with Jewell.
The front four are OK, although I have been disappointed in J. Johnson so far this year. And the D-ends are still not causing sufficient problems in the pass rush. Also, they failed to set the edge several times against ndsu.

 

[cecilB]

You know more than I do, so Im asking. Do you think the problem with the LBs was confusion? Seems like they had the Iowa LBs running in circles and to me, that comes back to being out prepared/out coached.

IMO, stress the word opinion, yes I think it is recognition and confusion + one spot that isn't as athletic. I think Nieman is solid, but not centerpiece of run defense when a team attacked where NDSU did. Jewel is good , and central to run support. They scheme to marginalized him. Bo is central to run support and struggling...recognition and not as good of an athlete or tackler as JJ is. Wallace is in his first year as a position coach.... Is he a drop off from Reid or Reid/woods? Put it all together we are either not coaching the position up, they should try a personnel change, or they are teaching and our best players are out there.

It just not your typical Iowa production at that spot right now.

 

[hawkeyeguy69]

We will see what this team is made of. They haven't been punched in the mouth like that since MSU/Stanford last year. lets see how they respond. If they use this as motivation and re-group and win 3 or 4 in the row, it will be fine.

If they struggle with Rutgers or possibly lose, then this season takes a whole new turn and could be ala 2010 season.

We will see this week. I f we bounce back and win strong, then there is hope.... But I got a bad feeling about this...

 

[the24fan]

Right now the best advise is: To just relax. I highly doubt the Hawks are as bad as they showed Saturday. IMO this team is following a typical Iowa MO. Start off a little slow and show steady improvement week to week. Last year may have spoiled us a bit, but historically this is how we roll. Lets all take a step back from the ledge and see how the team reacts this week. No one is more disappointed than the players and coaches, so lets see how it plays out before we write off the season shall we?

 

[luvmyhawks]

Right now the best advise is: To just relax. I highly doubt the Hawks are as bad as they showed Saturday. IMO this team is following a typical Iowa MO. Start off a little slow and show steady improvement week to week. Last year may have spoiled us a bit, but historically this is how we roll. Lets all take a step back from the ledge and see how the team reacts this week. No one is more disappointed than the players and coaches, so lets see how it plays out before we write off the season shall we?

I certainly don't disagree, but it is also Iowa MO to have very disappointing seasons when coming in with high expectations.

 

[hawkeyeguy69]

Right now the best advise is: To just relax. I highly doubt the Hawks are as bad as they showed Saturday. IMO this team is following a typical Iowa MO. Start off a little slow and show steady improvement week to week. Last year may have spoiled us a bit, but historically this is how we roll. Lets all take a step back from the ledge and see how the team reacts this week. No one is more disappointed than the players and coaches, so lets see how it plays out before we write off the season shall we?

I believe you are right, and we will bounce back, a little. However, the defense, which does not typically start the season off slow, does not look that good. We have issues across the board.

I do like the DL. But there is a lack of depth. The LBers are not that great. The safeties have issues.

That is our defense. Unless there is someone(several players) new that will jump off the page and make a splash in the next game or two, we are going to be in trouble. We may have a person or two jump in. But the chances of them becoming a starter, which is what we desperately need, are slim to none.

 

[David1979]

If you look at some of the issues the defense has had in games 1 and games 2 they are fixable issues because they are just missed reads/assignment type things and not due to skill. One of the reasons the Defense has been on the field more the first few games is that in the first two games the Offense scored pretty easily and without taking much time. This last week it was just inept which kept putting the D back in there. The Defense gave up a total of like 370 yards against NDSU which isn't horrible considering the number of plays their offense ran and they only gave up 16 points. And I disagree that the LBs aren't great. Jewell is great. Niemann is really good. Bower is the weak link. He has played average to below average.