How close was it?

[acoustimac]

The sky isn't falling. Take a look at how close the game really was. Did anyone feel we were outmanned in this one? The only glaring thing I saw was our O-line didn't handle blitzes well so Superman was on the run all night. Otherwise I saw two very even teams battling it out. The difference? ISU was playing Russian Roulette and putting 6 bullets in instead of 1.
1. Yardage was nearly equal.
2. Eliminate the mistakes (i.e. turnovers) and you take 13 points off the board for them and add at least 7 to ours.
3. Two penalties cost us 14 points. You simply can't take points off the board. In one case Money was holding when it did make any difference. In another the catch was made because of a huge pushoff. So we are talking at least 7 points to our favor here. Add Money's other hold during the long run and you have potential for more.
4. LJ's stupid personal foul on 3rd down followed by a blown pass coverage for another 7.
It all comes down to mistakes and mental errors. We aren't as bad as a 37-14 score indicates. Yet, if we don't value the ball more and become smarter on the field we'll see more of the same.

Big questions remain - what is the depth at tackle on the O-line? Who replaces LJ? Can we find a kicker that can actually make one?

 

[AlleyAddict]

Hopefully someone smarter replaces LJ. The **** he pulls sometime without getting disciplined at all is unbelievable.

 

[TuckerBlayze]

The sky isn't falling. Take a look at how close the game really was. Did anyone feel we were outmanned in this one? The only glaring thing I saw was our O-line didn't handle blitzes well so Superman was on the run all night. Otherwise I saw two very even teams battling it out. The difference? ISU was playing Russian Roulette and putting 6 bullets in instead of 1.
1. Yardage was nearly equal.
2. Eliminate the mistakes (i.e. turnovers) and you take 13 points off the board for them and add at least 7 to ours.
3. Two penalties cost us 14 points. You simply can't take points off the board. In one case Money was holding when it did make any difference. In another the catch was made because of a huge pushoff. So we are talking at least 7 points to our favor here. Add Money's other hold during the long run and you have potential for more.
4. LJ's stupid personal foul on 3rd down followed by a blown pass coverage for another 7.

I was at the game and was ****** that both of these penalties were called and after watching the game today I am even MORE ****** that Money got called for holding on White touchdown and Darks got called for a push off!
*Money PLANTED his guy! If that is holding, everything is a hold
*Darks didn't even make first contact. The corner came up and made contact and then fell to the ground acting like he was hurt! :realmad:

 

[TuckerBlayze]

Hopefully someone smarter replaces LJ. The **** he pulls sometime without getting disciplined at all is unbelievable.

He is the BEST corner on the team right now! LJ made a bad decision and let his emotions get the best of him. If he wouldn't have made contact with Shipley we wouldn't even be talking about any of this

 

[Omaha Cy]

Does anyone think Texas looked all that faster than ISU?
I don't.

 

[CyCrazy]

If it wasn't for OUR stupid mistakes we would have easily been in the game.

 

[dualthreat]

its frustrating when you feel like you are as good as your opponent but get crushed. but mistakes are part of football. good teams don't make dumb mistakes. so if we want to be a good team, we can't do that!

i know that is being overly obvious, but this cyclone team loves to live and die by the sword. and with that, there are going to be mistakes.

as for the fumbles, good players dont fumble the ball! ie: troy and darren davis..

 

[3GenClone]

If I'm Mack Brown I am worried to play OU next week. Texas now has another QB controversy and they gave up 380 yards to Iowa State (250 of that was through the air) - imagine what the Sooners will do.

The biggest positive I saw was that Steele Jantz didn't quit. He was still trying to make plays in the last 4 minutes of the game. Also, the Cyclones came out and won the second-half - you could tell that Mack Brown was trying to run up the score and could only come up with 3 points in the second half. While I would have loved to see a win, I think we can agree that this is a team that proves it can win the second half (instead of preserving the lead), and that is going to be crucial when we meet up with teams like Kansas State, Baylor and Texas Tech.

 

[swammi]

The sky isn't falling. Take a look at how close the game really was. Did anyone feel we were outmanned in this one? The only glaring thing I saw was our O-line didn't handle blitzes well so Superman was on the run all night. Otherwise I saw two very even teams battling it out. The difference? ISU was playing Russian Roulette and putting 6 bullets in instead of 1.
1. Yardage was nearly equal.
2. Eliminate the mistakes (i.e. turnovers) and you take 13 points off the board for them and add at least 7 to ours.
3. Two penalties cost us 14 points. You simply can't take points off the board. In one case Money was holding when it did make any difference. In another the catch was made because of a huge pushoff. So we are talking at least 7 points to our favor here. Add Money's other hold during the long run and you have potential for more.
4. LJ's stupid personal foul on 3rd down followed by a blown pass coverage for another 7.
It all comes down to mistakes and mental errors. We aren't as bad as a 37-14 score indicates. Yet, if we don't value the ball more and become smarter on the field we'll see more of the same.

Big questions remain - what is the depth at tackle on the O-line? Who replaces LJ? Can we find a kicker that can actually make one?

The sky may be falling due to injuries, and we are mired in a deep rut of penalties and turnovers. It's the only consistent thing in all four games thusfar. We have to break that pattern. If we don't, we may not see another win. Now we have 3 starters on the ropes to injury.

We are as bad as the score indicates. I mean, after all, it was the Cylcones who committed those fouls and turnovers. That's a significant part of our performance, and it ain't good. Sure, we could have played right with them if we were more disciplined and held on to the ball better. But that's the point, isn't it?

 

[GoSTATE71]

I think texas looked quite a bit faster than us at a couple positions..

 

[Wardecker]

Taking refuge in numbers is what the losers do. Football is more than just statistics, it's even more than pure execution.

I watched the game from beginning to end and I can tell you that our team has some problems the coaching staff need to address. Some of these problems have been with us from the start of the season. I knew we could not sustain our momentum based on the way we had played and figured a good team like Texas would expose our weaknesses more starkly than UNI, Iowa or UConn.

We have a good team, but if we are going bowling this year, they'll have to get out of their own way.

 

[19210]

I think texas looked quite a bit faster than us at a couple positions..

They might have been faster at a couple of positions, but not at 90% like they use to. We are doing a great job of building this program to be able to compete with the big boys.

I just think overall these guys looked huge, but we weren't overmatched by any means. I just think we failed to stay focused and got rattled.

 

[isuno1fan]

Does anyone think Texas looked all that faster than ISU?
I don't.

I honestly thought they looked noticeably faster than us defensively.

 

[19210]

They might have been faster at a couple of positions, but not at 90% like they use to. We are doing a great job of building this program to be able to compete with the big boys.

I just think overall these guys looked huge, but we weren't overmatched by any means. I just think we failed to stay focused and got rattled.

On another note, I hate to be a conspiratist, but it sure seems the refs are suppose to know who is going to win this game and they add a flag here to help the cause. The red river shoot out might not be as hyped if Texas got beat by ISU.

I don't think we played good enough to win and not blaming it on the refs by any means, but there were some calls not called for us and some calls called against us witch were horse pucky.

 

[Iastfan112]

Does anyone think Texas looked all that faster than ISU?
I don't.

They definitely looked bigger and faster but I'd say the gap narrowed from previous years.

 

[cyclonepower]

It wasn't that close

 

[azepp]

The sky isn't falling. Take a look at how close the game really was. Did anyone feel we were outmanned in this one? The only glaring thing I saw was our O-line didn't handle blitzes well so Superman was on the run all night. Otherwise I saw two very even teams battling it out. The difference? ISU was playing Russian Roulette and putting 6 bullets in instead of 1. 1. Yardage was nearly equal. 2. Eliminate the mistakes (i.e. turnovers) and you take 13 points off the board for them and add at least 7 to ours. 3. Two penalties cost us 14 points. You simply can't take points off the board. In one case Money was holding when it did make any difference. In another the catch was made because of a huge pushoff. So we are talking at least 7 points to our favor here. Add Money's other hold during the long run and you have potential for more.4. LJ's stupid personal foul on 3rd down followed by a blown pass coverage for another 7. It all comes down to mistakes and mental errors. We aren't as bad as a 37-14 score indicates. Yet, if we don't value the ball more and become smarter on the field we'll see more of the same. Big questions remain - what is the depth at tackle on the O-line? Who replaces LJ? Can we find a kicker that can actually make one?

You're right, without the turnovers and penalties this game would have been much closer. However, that doesn't comfort me because turnovers and penalties are the two things that have been consistent throughout the season thus far. If we can somehow clean these issues up we still have the potential to have a decent season. But so far we haven't shown any improvement in these areas and I'm starting to wonder if we will.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

They definitely looked bigger and faster but I'd say the gap narrowed from previous years.

I'd agree with this. I also don't know that it is a legitimate comparison looking at yards of offense being equal. In the first half when we were turnover machines they got the ball in pretty good field position quite a bit so is it fair when they had to go 20-40 yards to score? I thought our defense was the best part of the game for ISU other than the bonehead PF's.

 

[Clonefan94]

I agree, on paper, taking away the turnovers and dumb *** mistakes, it looked close. But seriously, you just don't know how these games are going to play out when all things are equal (penalties/turnovers) Our Defense stood strong when they had to and I don't recall Texas ever putting together a good solid long drive, but they didn't have to either. You play differently when you have the lead. I just hope at some point this year, we can see what this ISU team is capable of without putting themselves in a giant hole after the first quarter.

 

[tazclone]

The sky isn't falling. Take a look at how close the game really was. Did anyone feel we were outmanned in this one? The only glaring thing I saw was our O-line didn't handle blitzes well so Superman was on the run all night. Otherwise I saw two very even teams battling it out. The difference? ISU was playing Russian Roulette and putting 6 bullets in instead of 1.
1. Yardage was nearly equal.
2. Eliminate the mistakes (i.e. turnovers) and you take 13 points off the board for them and add at least 7 to ours.
3. Two penalties cost us 14 points. You simply can't take points off the board. In one case Money was holding when it did make any difference. In another the catch was made because of a huge pushoff. So we are talking at least 7 points to our favor here. Add Money's other hold during the long run and you have potential for more.
4. LJ's stupid personal foul on 3rd down followed by a blown pass coverage for another 7.
It all comes down to mistakes and mental errors. We aren't as bad as a 37-14 score indicates. Yet, if we don't value the ball more and become smarter on the field we'll see more of the same.

Big questions remain - what is the depth at tackle on the O-line? Who replaces LJ? Can we find a kicker that can actually make one?

Same mistakes, year after year and game after game. When we don't have mistakes we can beat anyone like Texas/TT last year. When we make mistakes we lose.