Ben Bruns KU Game Recap on Iowa Everywhere

[theshadow]

Sacks counting against rushing yards leads to these takes. Not that Silas and Sanders covered themselves in glory, but they had 50 yards combined, not single digits. Its more that Dekkers had -21 with sacks that makes us look terrible.

Also the bad snap that counted for another -10.

 

[isucy86]

Sending a freshman kicker out there to miss a third one instead of going for it is one of the cruelest and cowardly things I have ever seen a coach do.

Completely disagree. Gilbert is a P5 scholarship kicker, so the staff should be able trust him to hit FG's less than 40 yards. He just had a bad game going 1-4. He was 5-5 coming into the game. Even NFL kickers have bad games. Let's see how he kicks go forward.

I would agree, the last drive in entirety was lackluster. I am more critical of play calling on the drive. I am OK to attempt a 37 yard FG to put game into OT with 32 seconds left.

 

[madguy30]

Coaches are typically very egotistical and stubborn. These problems are not going away, it is who they are and have chosen to be at this point.

Fans are trapped in our horrible past and using that to attack anyone that expects better. We're paying enough that these problems shouldn't linger.

Nobody wants to admit CMC is a more likeable version of KF, except he doesn't focus on the O line like KF does.

ISU football is so risk-averse now that watching it has become repetitive and tiresome. It is DMac with more talent. Do we run jet sweeps at all? Or utilize motion? Any bunch formations with Rus, Dean, and another TE or big receiver?

When has our offense shown any sort of innovation comparable to our defense?

There's all sorts of motion and I understand one purpose is to see if the D adjusts and gives any 'tells' but often it doesn't really seem to matter.

Imo it disrupts rhythm for the offense if things are going well and it seems like most of ISU's offsides penalties occur during these long motion-heavy downs.

I'd like to see a success rate of plays that ISU just gets up and runs vs. motioning 2-3 times.

I'd like Noel on a jet sweep type of play although I think that requires a set up from strong running to one side and would still require good protection on the back side, strong WR blocking, etc.

Also straight ahead running Saturday seemed to be at least somewhat successful and I have to wonder if ISU could have worn on KU a bit. Sometimes you just have to accept what's working and roll with it.

 

[MeowingCows]

ISU Offensive Stats though 5 games.

• Rush Offense: #111
• Pass Offense: #43
• Sacks Allowed: #89
• Turnovers Lost: #107

Signs of a problem, numbers 1, 2, and 3. Pass offense is arguably acceptable.

 

[cycfan1]

I've been talking all year about how bad our receivers (absent X) have been at getting any separation at all. I keep getting "Dumbed" on those posts.

When you have an O-line that can't protect a young QB and you rarely have open receivers, you're left with very few options. Unfortunately, when you then settle for 3-4 yard crossing routes, you're asking for trouble with 8-10 guys within 5 yards of scrimmage. That then allows them to crowd the line of scrimmage and our run game is ****.

Our offense isn't executing AND the coaches aren't trying new things to give them a chance to succeed. Failures on multiple levels.

• Rush Offense: #111
• Pass Offense: #43
• Sacks Allowed: #89
• Turnovers Lost: #107

Any offense should be able to score 35+ on KU's very bad defense. It never should have come down to a freshman kicker having to kick 3 times to win a game.

Agree with you on receivers.

However, there were two wideopen TDs or big gains where receivers were wide. TE I think on one and Silas on the other. Not sure if you could see on TV but very evident at game.

Dekkers has really poor pocket presence... needs to learn step up or scramble. His touchdown was result of perfect case of this. Really the only good pocket read all day. Struggled with his reads and getting to the 2nd/3rd outlet which was normally very wide open.

 

[clonedude]

If we think our offense is bad, just think what it must feel like to be a Hawkeye fan? Our offense is 84th in the country, and Iowa is now up to 2nd to last in the country (130th) instead of dead last.

And our defense is basically the same as the almighty Iowa defense that everyone drools over all over the country. Iowa's is ranked 7th in the nation, and ISU's is 8th..... Iowa allows 1 less yard per game than ours.

 

[quasistellar]

If you look back at the Baylor game, our offense in the 2nd half was very bad as well. First 4 drives of the 2nd half resulted in 21 plays 52 yards and 2 interceptions.

We did get 2 TDs in the last 9:30 with 17 plays and 146 yards but the game was basically over at that time. The reality is that we are likely going to need to win games scoring 20 or less points a game.

It's those types of garbage time come-from-behind stats that pad Manning's numbers and lead to takes of "Manning's offenses generate so many yards!" That and putting up 40+ on FCS or worse schools.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

Any offense should be able to score 35+ on KU's very bad defense. It never should have come down to a freshman kicker having to kick 3 times to win a game.

Correct. And even with J. Brock being out......our O line should be able to control the LOS enough for his replacements to do better than what they did. They played a cover 4, we should have been averaging at least 5 ypc against that defense.

So with the O line not being very good and the best back injured.....our QB is of no threat in the RPO. All that along with not being very mobil in the pocket means ISU is fast becoming very easy to defend.

 

[Tre4ISU]

I hope all the “football experts” listen to bruns podcast, and really pay attention and humble yourself.

He's not really wrong on the offense as a whole but not having an answer for a vanilla cover 4/quarters is much more of an indictment than I think he thinks it is. There are a handful of very simple concepts that beat cover 4, especially with KU's talent. If you can't put those safeties and OLBs in severe conflict, with Xavier Hutchinson able to line up anywhere, that says very little for the ability of your offensive scheme. If you can't run the ball into soft cover 4, that's an indictment of your OL. It sounded like to me that he's justifying the struggles in a way that he deems reasonable and appropriate, but I highly disagree with that. It was not good enough offensive football to win either. Your offense scored a touchdown and passed it off to the kicker to score another 12. That's not good enough to win B12 games and I don't really care what team you're playing.

So don't feed me 20 first down BS. It doesn't matter and it's exactly what Heacock would hope to do on the other side of the ball.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Agree, our running attack originates almost 100% of the time at the mesh point. Nothing to mess with opponents eyes. Would love to see some jet sweeps, reverses to get a speedy WR the ball in misdirection.

After watching Dekkers for 5 games, really starting to wonder if he is athletic enough to be an RPO QB. Question his speed and decision making at the mesh point. Seems like he decides to run ahead of time.

With our OL, they just look slow and not great feet. But it always seems like they struggle the first part of the season. Better get things figures out the next couple weeks.

Great point.

 

[Daserop]

I've been talking all year about how bad our receivers (absent X) have been at getting any separation at all. I keep getting "Dumbed" on those posts.

When you have an O-line that can't protect a young QB and you rarely have open receivers, you're left with very few options. Unfortunately, when you then settle for 3-4 yard crossing routes, you're asking for trouble with 8-10 guys within 5 yards of scrimmage. That then allows them to crowd the line of scrimmage and our run game is ****.

Our offense isn't executing AND the coaches aren't trying new things to give them a chance to succeed. Failures on multiple levels.

• Rush Offense: #111
• Pass Offense: #43
• Sacks Allowed: #89
• Turnovers Lost: #107

Any offense should be able to score 35+ on KU's very bad defense. It never should have come down to a freshman kicker having to kick 3 times to win a game.

100% agree with your last comment. I believe that is being missed by numerous people.

 

[CoKane]

Listen to the last ten minutes or so. I’ll trust a guy who has played major college football over CoKane.

I listened to all of it. It was 100% homerism and hand waving while pretending it was just people mad about this specific season. If thats how you want your sports covered then do you, but its dishonest and fake in reality

 

[Gunnerclone]

If we think our offense is bad, just think what it must feel like to be a Hawkeye fan? Our offense is 84th in the country, and Iowa is now up to 2nd to last in the country (130th) instead of dead last.

And our defense is basically the same as the almighty Iowa defense that everyone drools over all over the country. Iowa's is ranked 7th in the nation, and ISU's is 8th..... Iowa allows 1 less yard per game than ours.

We’ve seen this staff cut the legs off the QB before. It made Brock fight his instincts and I think it’s making Dekkers fight his instincts. It seems like the staff is just grinding “stay in the pocket, you have more time than you think” in to their heads over and over.

 

[CoKane]

We’ve seen this staff cut the legs off the QB before. It made Brock fight his instincts and I think it’s making Dekkers fight his instincts. It seems like the staff is just grinding “stay in the pocket, you have more time than you think” in to their heads over and over.

It really is interesting that Brocks best year and most confident year was when Tom Manning was in the NFL

 

[AuH2O]

Listen to the last ten minutes or so. I’ll trust a guy who has played major college football over CoKane.

First, grade the OL under the Rhoads and early CMC eras. Because if you don't think it was a B+ to A-, then you don't agree with Bruns. Other than the Notre Dame game his analysis has always been very rosy on the performance of ISUs OL.

Here's what I got out of the last 10 minutes:
- Kicking and coverage games are the only phases that can legitimately criticized in the Campbell era
- Manning is good
- We are Iowa State
- This has been a great year already even though KU and Baylor are not in the top 3 of the league and we're 0-2 in the league
- Losing J. Brock was a big deal
- Offense did enough to win

There really wasn't any analysis through the pod regarding the offense other than losing Brock was a big deal, which certainly is true.

But I think people are acting like KU sitting in cover 4 is some brilliant strategy. They more or less rushed four and stunted a crap load. Basically it's a terrible defense doing something that they know (or thought) would cost them some drives, TOP and points, but thought they could eek out a few stops based on a few mistakes in the intermediate passing game and maybe getting a few disruptive plays up front. While I'm sure they did not expect to put up 40 on ISU's defense, I'm sure they were banking on more than 213 freaking yards and 2 TOs.

I do not think Manning is terrible or should be fired. But considering the opponent, but there is no way anyone can look at Saturday as anything other than an offensive failure.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

Listen to the last ten minutes or so. I’ll trust a guy who has played major college football over CoKane.

I wouldn't trust Brian Ferentz over CoKane.

 

[Bader]

It really is interesting that Brocks best year and most confident year was when Tom Manning was in the NFL

That was also before anyone had enough tape on Purdy to exploit his weaknesses. Correlation/causation and all that.

Manning is infuriatingly uncreative in getting the ball to guys like Noel and Silas. It is maddening that the entire offensive staff has known how poorly the other RBs are at pass blocking and they continued to let Dekkers get blitzed by that defense.

 

[joefrog]

First, grade the OL under the Rhoads and early CMC eras. Because if you don't think it was a B+ to A-, then you don't agree with Bruns. Other than the Notre Dame game his analysis has always been very rosy on the performance of ISUs OL.

Here's what I got out of the last 10 minutes:
- Kicking and coverage games are the only phases that can legitimately criticized in the Campbell era
- Manning is good
- We are Iowa State
- This has been a great year already even though KU and Baylor are not in the top 3 of the league and we're 0-2 in the league
- Losing J. Brock was a big deal
- Offense did enough to win

There really wasn't any analysis through the pod regarding the offense other than losing Brock was a big deal, which certainly is true.

But I think people are acting like KU sitting in cover 4 is some brilliant strategy. They more or less rushed four and stunted a crap load. Basically it's a terrible defense doing something that they know (or thought) would cost them some drives, TOP and points, but thought they could eek out a few stops based on a few mistakes in the intermediate passing game and maybe getting a few disruptive plays up front. While I'm sure they did not expect to put up 40 on ISU's defense, I'm sure they were banking on more than 213 freaking yards and 2 TOs.

I do not think Manning is terrible or should be fired. But considering the opponent, but there is no way anyone can look at Saturday as anything other than an offensive failure.

I do think Manning is terrible and should be fired. Please show me where people improve under his tutelage.

Making the move the NFL and coming right back to college coaching is very worrying, but I am sure someone will have a believable excuse for it.

 

[acoustimac]

Have we had great kickers? Iowa has had great kickers. I don't think we have, certainly not "a bunch of great kickers".

You’re obviously a youngster who doesn’t remember (recently) Mevis, Owens and Shaggy. Assalley was good, not great. Historically we’ve had Kohl, Shudak, Netten, Stewart and many others. That’s only place kickers. Punters creates another long list of talented folk.

 

[Jer]

I wouldn't trust Brian Ferentz over CoKane.

Isn't BF typically on CoCaine?