Enjoy. Big week upon us.
https://cyclonefanatic.com/2017/09/monday-musings-will-this-time-be-different/
https://cyclonefanatic.com/2017/09/monday-musings-will-this-time-be-different/
MONDAY MUSINGS: Will this time be different?
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
I feel like this one is needed to go to a bowl, but I feel a noticeable difference from a Rhoads-led team. In the past, tough losses seemed to lead to more losses. Negative momentum carried from game to game. Despite losing to Iowa in a game we should have won, I feel like this team treated it as one game and not a "here we go again" moment.
This doesn't feel like the normal fluff hype that I've grown accustomed to. I think we beat Texas by 8-10 pts.
This doesn't feel like the normal fluff hype that I've grown accustomed to. I think we beat Texas by 8-10 pts.
That 2011 game... ISU came out horribly sloppy (IIRC the first three possessions were lost fumble, lost fumble, interception) but the defense held its ground in the first quarter keeping the score a lot closer than it should of been.
Then Leonard Johnson's penalty just completely killed us. IIRC, we had just stopped them on 3rd down, CPR pulled Johnson to chew his ass out, and Ash threw right at Johnsons backup for a 50 yard TD. From that point on we were deflated.
Then Leonard Johnson's penalty just completely killed us. IIRC, we had just stopped them on 3rd down, CPR pulled Johnson to chew his ass out, and Ash threw right at Johnsons backup for a 50 yard TD. From that point on we were deflated.
Yeah, I think we need this for bowl game, I think we could find a way without it, but this definitely one that is winnable one.... that seems like the most logical path to 6 wins.....
Gotta have it. Not just because it's crucial if they're going to get six wins, but it's a chance to show on a national stage that Campbell is building something special in Ames.
Maybe it is the history of nut kicks, but I just have a terrible feeling about this game.
The circumstances of this game feel similar to 2011 but I think the outcome will be more similar to 2013:
We compete hard and make some enormous plays to carry a late, one-possession lead into the final minute. But we can't pick up a first down or convert at the goal line when we really need it, and Texas steals one away from us.
I think ISU wins if they score over 40 points. They can win with less but I think at 40 that is too many for Texas.
I remember that 2011 game against Texas. Everything was coming up @Sigmapolis -- work was going good, I was on a fun work trip to Albuquerque, NM that I extended over the weekend (which is a lovely city that I recommend everybody see for a few days, particularly that particular weekend in late-September or early-October), and I had a nice spot in a fun bar picked out to watch us go to 4-0 against the hated and vaunted Longhorns.
I was so ready for the program to take that big third-year step under a (still) new coach, particularly after watching the fight and fire in the teams from 2009 (the Nebraska game!) and 2010 (the other Nebraska game!) during my last two years as a student in Ames.
Gosh, that did not work out.
Sandia Peak, Petroglyph National Park, and Balloon Fiesta helped make up for it, though. I figured after all the balloon whimsy for me that we had to win that game.
I was so ready for the program to take that big third-year step under a (still) new coach, particularly after watching the fight and fire in the teams from 2009 (the Nebraska game!) and 2010 (the other Nebraska game!) during my last two years as a student in Ames.
Gosh, that did not work out.
Sandia Peak, Petroglyph National Park, and Balloon Fiesta helped make up for it, though. I figured after all the balloon whimsy for me that we had to win that game.
2013 is a bad example because ISU should've won isu didn't lose the game due to coming up short. Texas fumbled the ball at the end of the game but somehow the refs decided the player was down instead due to forward progress. Which he clearly wasn't.
I'm feeling pretty good about it. I think the bye came at the perfect time. They played well against Iowa and OK against Akron, but there was plenty of little stuff to clean up and some key guys who needed the time to get healthy and able to play. I expect the coaching staff to have them focused and ready to go on Thursday. Take the school names out of it and all you really have are two rebuilding programs. I'll take the one a year ahead and at home.
Our guy is 15 yards the other direction (with the ball) and they blow the whistle because the Texas guy was "down" and then amend it later to "forward progress was called," which it was not, and not something you can review in replay.
**** the Big 12 refs. Everything about them.
If we don't start getting third down stops we're not beating anyone but maybe KU.
This is a winnable game if the defense can rectify the third down issues.
This is a winnable game if the defense can rectify the third down issues.
All that could've been avoided if the offense had scored a TD instead of a FG on their last possession to give ISU a 10-point lead instead of a 6-point lead.
(But, there was still ~3 minutes left and we'd probably have found a way to blow a 10-point lead in that amount of time, too.)
We've lost so many winnable games in such excruciatingly creative ways over the years, the details of how they're lost hardly matter anymore. And, perhaps as a form of mental defense, I'm preparing my body now for another such calamity. Hell, we could play a fine game and we could still make an amazing play for the win only to have it get wrenched away by forces out of our control (as in 2013).
Biggest game of the year. UT will be by far a step up in competition from the first few games, so we'll need the Oline and defensive backs to be improved. We won't win more than a game or two if we continue to struggle on 3rd down.
