Spencer Tillman in love with the Oklahoma State Defense, hates our team

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SpokaneCY

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I can't be the only one listening to the fox sports broadcast on Saturday that heard Tillman heaping praise upon Oklahoma States defense for being "so much more athletic" than their Iowa State counterparts. I feel like 1) he was usually referring to their d line vs our o line more often than not, but wouldn't it be fairly typical for a d line to be more athletic than an o line? And 2) I feel like as an Oklahoma native and big 12 football player during a very dark era of ISU football, he may come from a place of bias and was making blanket statements. "Iowa State was unathletic in 1987 so they must still be unathletic in 2020."

It didn't ruin the game for me, and we have certainly had worse analysts cover our games for the networks, but for him to go out of his way to say it at least 3 if not 4 times, that Okie State is "too athletic" for Iowa State just irked me.

Did anybody else notice this, and if so, is he right or am I about him being biased and annoying? I'd like to think the athleticism gap between us and OSU is not that drastic.

I thought the OSU defense looked more athletic than our defense. They looked quicker and faster. And they shut down our offense but for 2-3 plays. That was a 14 point loss that we got down to 3 but it sure wasn't that close imho.
 

JM4CY

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I can't be the only one listening to the fox sports broadcast on Saturday that heard Tillman heaping praise upon Oklahoma States defense for being "so much more athletic" than their Iowa State counterparts. I feel like 1) he was usually referring to their d line vs our o line more often than not, but wouldn't it be fairly typical for a d line to be more athletic than an o line? And 2) I feel like as an Oklahoma native and big 12 football player during a very dark era of ISU football, he may come from a place of bias and was making blanket statements. "Iowa State was unathletic in 1987 so they must still be unathletic in 2020."

It didn't ruin the game for me, and we have certainly had worse analysts cover our games for the networks, but for him to go out of his way to say it at least 3 if not 4 times, that Okie State is "too athletic" for Iowa State just irked me.

Did anybody else notice this, and if so, is he right or am I about him being biased and annoying? I'd like to think the athleticism gap between us and OSU is not that drastic.
Welp.... screw that guy. I wasn’t really even sure who this dbag is.
 
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Statefan10

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I thought the OSU defense looked more athletic than our defense. They looked quicker and faster. And they shut down our offense but for 2-3 plays. That was a 14 point loss that we got down to 3 but it sure wasn't that close imho.
Respectfully disagree. Our defense was pretty darn good all day long and even though OSU took that field goal at the end, they had to. You can't turn it over and let us march down the field and tie the game.

Also, when we were down 7 our all-american tight end dropped a for sure first down at a time where we could've built momentum and it led them to good field position to start their drive which manufactured those 3 points.

The loss was what it was, a 1 score loss.
 

ISUTex

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I thought the OSU defense looked more athletic than our defense. They looked quicker and faster. And they shut down our offense but for 2-3 plays. That was a 14 point loss that we got down to 3 but it sure wasn't that close imho.



What if ISU makes those two FGs?
 

CRCySpy

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You are not alone. I thought the same thing. The best part of the game was when something went wrong with their communication in the 3rd quarter and all you had was the video and the crowd noise (natural sound).

When Sander's (QB) run on 3rd and long was being reviewed, and you could tell he stepped out short of the first down marker, he was questioning the "replay expert" on how that play could be overturned and looked at any different than the TD in the first half when the TE's knee was down and you couldn't really tell if the ball was over the goal line or short of it.

That's when Spencer Tillman lost all credibility with me. It's different because you can stop the video exactly where he steps out, and with the angle of the sideline, it is a lot easier to determine where the ball should be spotted. Tillman definitely bugged me on Saturday.
 

Neptune78

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I've always liked Tillman's commentary but I've noticed that he is trying to be a little too cute the last year or two. Didn't understand why he kept calling ISU's three man front 'conservative'.
 

AlaCyclone

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Didn't notice, but I rarely do. Hard enough trying to keep up with down and distance. lol. Seriously, Spencer doesn't bother me.
 

ISUEmbassy

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Was he the same announcer that compared Purdy to Tim Tebow? That seemed like a ridiculous comparison. Tebow was an elite athlete and phenomenal runner who was a below average passer. Purdy is an above average athlete for qb with much more accurate arm (less so this year but still)
 
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BWRhasnoAC

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He wasn't wrong but yes it was piling on. He was certainly showing his Oklahoma bias. Our oline is patch work with injuries and for their age I've been pleasantly surprised by this years line.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
That is a pain point for every analyst that covers us, and they love to drone on about it especially when it isn't working/ generating enough pressure on the QB. FULL CONFESSION TIME: I wish we could be multiple in our looks defensively, because there are times, like Saturday, when a 3 man front just isn't gonna get it done. Sanders didn't have to worry about much.

Like the OU and tech games when we lined up 4 Dlinemen?
 

Cyinthenorth

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Like the OU and tech games when we lined up 4 Dlinemen?
Sure, I mean we were not getting any pressure for most of the day, but I did not notice them try to change it up much. Only watched it thru once so far though, so could be I'm wrong
 

JM4CY

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KU is a tough team, but we should still win by 40.
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NodawayRiverClone

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During the last 3 seasons , I have heard announcers in ISU games say that other teams, usually when trailing ISU, should be using their superior speed and athleticism on the perimeter to beat us. Sounds like announcers pre-game routine is to identify strengths and weaknesses (as they see them) then repeat frequently during the game.
 

LivntheCyLife

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I mean I'd say Iowa State's two biggest flaws this year are their ability to handle speed pass rushers and the receivers struggling to get separation. From what I've seen OSU has the most athletic defense in the Big 12 to exploit those weaknesses. I thought it was the difference in the game. I don't see where Tillman was wrong.

That's not to say Iowa State doesn't have some other strengths and I'd love to see what Iowa State could do in a championship rematch against OSU.
 
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BWRhasnoAC

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During the last 3 seasons , I have heard announcers in ISU games say that other teams, usually when trailing ISU, should be using their superior speed and athleticism on the perimeter to beat us. Sounds like announcers pre-game routine is to identify strengths and weaknesses (as they see them) then repeat frequently during the game.
If it's not true say it enough until it is.
 
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ArgentCy

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You're not. I rewatched the game and we were in 3 TE sets on almost every single early down. Gotta mix it up more. I look forward to hopefully seeing that against KU!

Exactly, people complained about our WR's not getting open, well no kidding, hard to do on the sidelines.