| #22 Iowa Hawkeyes (3-2, 6-2) at Northwestern Wildcats (1-4, 3-5) |
| 7:00 - Evanston, IL - BTN |
| The easy narrative is that Iowa's turnover luck ran out. That's obviously part of it, but there is more to it, particularly with what Wisconsin was able to do. Listening to Michael Felder break it down on the Athletic's college football podcast this week, the bigger issue is teams figuring out that Iowa's defensive pieces only seem to have one pitch. Their secondary is outstanding in run support, and being able to crash down on ball carriers. Against vertical routes, not so much. Matt Nelson looked like a Thorpe Award frontrunner in September. The past two games, he has been at best invisible, at worst a liability. Particularly concerning is that last week was off the bye week. If Purdue's coaches saw something, and exploited it, good on them. Not being able to adjust with an extra week off for Iowa's coaches is a bit concerning. Offensively, Iowa wants to run, but they just can't. I'm not sure I've ever written that in one of these before. The Hawkeyes are averaging just 2.8 ypc in Big Ten play, #13 in the conference. Among the 7 Big Ten teams averaging below 4.1 ypc, only Rutgers is running the ball more often than Iowa, so they are sticking to their guns. So getting off to a quicker start is a must. Iowa fell behind 17-3 to Penn State, and needed a Sean Clifford injury to comeback. They fell behind in the first quarter against Purdue, and same against Wisconsin. They have led at no point during those two losses. Iowa's run offense is just regular bad, Northwestern's run defense is a special kind of bad. If there was ever an opponent to get some things on that line figured out against, it's this Northwestern team. Let Spencer Petras get back to doing what he was doing earlier in the year, not the guy who has completed just 50% of his passes over the past two weeks, with no touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and been sacked 9 times. part of that is Petras being exposed, and part of that is simply being an offense that cannot play from behind. I doubt that'll be an issue this week. If it is, Iowa's spiral could take them from #2 in the nation to a 7-5 finish. |
| IOWA 30, NORTHWESTERN 14 |
Fitz has the ultimate HC job. Paid like an elite HC, and no one ever holds him accountable for seasons like this.Harbaugh would kill it there.
"It's Northwestern, they can't win every year."
All he has to do is make a run at a B1G West Title once every five years or so, and he's one of the greats.
did this site have a upset game where you pick one upset and get the points they were underdogs if they won?We used to, not sure if geo made it over.
Paid like an elite HC???Doesn't Fitz get like 5 million a year?
is PJ still making less?
$5,218,658
I guess your definition of elite might be different
1. Nick Saban Alabama $9.75 million
2. Ed Orgeron LSU $9.01 million
3. David Shaw Stanford $8.92 million -
4. Dabo Swinney Clemson $8.37 million
5. Lincoln Riley Oklahoma $7.67 million
6. Dan Mullen Florida $7.57 million
7. Jimbo Fisher Texas A&M $7.5 million
8. Kirby Smart Georgia $7.13 million
9. Ryan Day Ohio State $6.61 million
10. Gary Patterson TCU $6.10 million
no wonder Gary Patterson was fired
Interesting that 2 of the top 10 are already fired this season.You have high expectations for ROI when I is ridiculously high...
I'm frustrated that offensive playcallers don't run successful plays more than once or twice the entire gameGranted, I think you are underestimating the football smarts of the defense. Chuck Brantley said he baited McNamera into the game ending pick last week, because he recognized that they had run the same play successfully in the 2nd quarter, and he knew what Cade was looking for in his read, so he stuck with his man just long enough, then broke on the TE. As much as we THINK we know football, those guys KNOW football.
it seems to me playcallers try too hard to "outsmart" or surprise the defense.
such as, that play didn't work at all, the defense would NEVER expect us to run it again!
this play worked for an EASY 40 yard TD, let's not run that thing again, the defense will be watching for it
Oh, I'm quite certain all these coaches that have P5 jobs know a hell of a lot more than I'll ever know.I don't even mean the coaches. That was a true freshman CB recognizing the same play, and baiting the QB into a pick
but, sometimes it's more about execution and less about the play call. Sometimes not. Some offensive plays are doomed from the start vs some defensive calls.
Running a QB sneak into the same defensive alignment repeatedly can't be smart.
it seems to me playcallers try too hard to "outsmart" or surprise the defense.Fearless has a man crush on Brian Ferentz because B.F. almost never tries to surprise a defense. ;(
Fearless has a man crush on Brian Ferentz because B.F. almost never tries to surprise a defense. ;(He has a good chance of outsmarting himself...
Overall excellent analysis, but one thing confused me. Matt Nelson is an ex-Iowa DL that now plays for the Detroit Lions. Did you possibly mean CB Matt Hankins? Iowa's CB's did struggle against Purdue and Wisc. One reason is the other starting CB, Riley Moss, has been out since the PSU game. And Moss's backup, Terry Roberts also did not play in the Wisc game. So Iowa had 2 of its 3 best CB's out against Wisc. Its probably 1 of the reasons Wisc could throw the ball early against Iowa and why the Iowa defense seems a little off the last couple games. Of course the Iowa defense was struggling against PSU before Clifford got hurt but did you notice Iowa got 3 picks against PSU before CB Moss got hurt. Hopefully for Iowa Moss can play against NW because he does seem to help take Iowa's defense to another level.
#22 Iowa Hawkeyes (3-2, 6-2) at Northwestern Wildcats (1-4, 3-5) 7:00 - Evanston, IL - BTN The easy narrative is that Iowa's turnover luck ran out. That's obviously part of it, but there is more to it, particularly with what Wisconsin was able to do. Listening to Michael Felder break it down on the Athletic's college football podcast this week, the bigger issue is teams figuring out that Iowa's defensive pieces only seem to have one pitch. Their secondary is outstanding in run support, and being able to crash down on ball carriers. Against vertical routes, not so much. Matt Nelson looked like a Thorpe Award frontrunner in September. The past two games, he has been at best invisible, at worst a liability. Particularly concerning is that last week was off the bye week. If Purdue's coaches saw something, and exploited it, good on them. Not being able to adjust with an extra week off for Iowa's coaches is a bit concerning. Offensively, Iowa wants to run, but they just can't. I'm not sure I've ever written that in one of these before. The Hawkeyes are averaging just 2.8 ypc in Big Ten play, #13 in the conference. Among the 7 Big Ten teams averaging below 4.1 ypc, only Rutgers is running the ball more often than Iowa, so they are sticking to their guns. So getting off to a quicker start is a must. Iowa fell behind 17-3 to Penn State, and needed a Sean Clifford injury to comeback. They fell behind in the first quarter against Purdue, and same against Wisconsin. They have led at no point during those two losses. Iowa's run offense is just regular bad, Northwestern's run defense is a special kind of bad. If there was ever an opponent to get some things on that line figured out against, it's this Northwestern team. Let Spencer Petras get back to doing what he was doing earlier in the year, not the guy who has completed just 50% of his passes over the past two weeks, with no touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and been sacked 9 times. part of that is Petras being exposed, and part of that is simply being an offense that cannot play from behind. I doubt that'll be an issue this week. If it is, Iowa's spiral could take them from #2 in the nation to a 7-5 finish. IOWA 30, NORTHWESTERN 14
Fearless has a man crush on Brian Ferentz because B.F. almost never tries to surprise a defense. ;(hah, I do like Brian better than his predecessor GD Greg Davis