Can Iowa stop the spread?

[Clones21]

This is a question that i've been waiting to hear and not many people have talked about it on here. Can Iowa stop our spread offense? Yes, i think all of us know our offense starts with A-Rob and Iowa may have the best front 4 in the country on defense. In my mind this doesnt make me worry too much at all. If Arob has trouble getting yards(and i think that will be the case)obviously were going to have to go to the passing game. In most games that i have watched of Iowa playing a spread offense, they cannot seem to stop a solid passing attack. Iowa leaves alot and i mean ALOT of holes in their defense of secondary. EIU's QB i believe went 9/13 passing and on those missed passes the WR's were wide open, but he missed them/over threw his man. I have been saying this all week that if Arnaud plays smart he will tear Iowa apart passing the ball. Thats "IF" he plays smart. With all the athletes we have at WR, i cant see Iowa stopping us if they end up making us go to the pass. Arnaud needs to calm himself in the pocket and not bail out when or if our line breaks down a little bit. He needs to stay in the pocket and move up in the pocket, and find the open man down field. If we can execute on the passing game we may see Iowa State pull out a win. This is why i was so exited when we brought in Herman. When the spread offense is working, its the most exciting offense in football to watch.

 

[jhill]

This is a question that i've been waiting to hear and not many people have talked about it on here. Can Iowa stop our spread offense? Yes, i think all of us know our offense starts with A-Rob and Iowa may have the best front 4 in the country on defense. In my mind this doesnt make me worry too much at all. If Arob has trouble getting yards(and i think that will be the case)obviously were going to have to go to the passing game. In most games that i have watched of Iowa playing a spread offense, they cannot seem to stop a solid passing attack. Iowa leaves alot and i mean ALOT of holes in their defense of secondary. EIU's QB i believe went 9/13 passing and on those missed passes the WR's were wide open, but he missed them/over threw his man. I have been saying this all week that if Arnaud plays smart he will tear Iowa apart passing the ball. Thats "IF" he plays smart. With all the athletes we have at WR, i cant see Iowa stopping us if they end up making us go to the pass. Arnaud needs to calm himself in the pocket and not bail out when or if our line breaks down a little bit. He needs to stay in the pocket and move up in the pocket, and find the open man down field. If we can execute on the passing game we may see Iowa State pull out a win. This is why i was so exited when we brought in Herman. When the spread offense is working, its the most exciting offense in football to watch.

Iowa State hasn't scored a TD in how many straight years against the Hawks? Arnaud threw what, 5 picks last year? No reason whatsoever to think that they will have success moving the ball on Saturday against Iowa. Not saying that they won't.....just no reason to have any confidence that they will. Heck, I will be happy if they finally find a way into the end zone again. Only way ISU wins is for Iowa to turn the ball over several times, and Iowa State not have any turnovers.

 

[IowaSTATCyclone]

Iowa stopped it a lot in the bowl game. Now, that was technically a pure triple option, but it effectively is a type of spread not terribly dissimilar to what ISU runs. But you are exactly right: a patient, disciplined spread (i.e. not Georgia Tech) can overcome a patient defense like Iowa's.

ISU's execution on offense is much improved. I actually think this game will come down to the Cyclone's defense. If they can screw up Stanzi, they win. If they can't beat downfield receivers, they lose. Their A-rob cancels our A-rob.

I could be wrong, but I don't think ISU's offense will lose the game this year (like they did last year.)

 

[RustShack]

They gave up close to 30 points every spread team they played last year. With the obvious exception to Iowa State.. but lets be real here, it takes time to learn a new offense. Not to mention we didn't have SJ, Darks, or Money at receiver. They are gonna have a hard time stopping us this year.

 

[Clones21]

Iowa stopped it a lot in the bowl game. Now, that was technically a pure triple option, but it effectively is a type of spread not terribly dissimilar to what ISU runs. But you are exactly right: a patient, disciplined spread (i.e. not Georgia Tech) can overcome a patient defense like Iowa's.

ISU's execution on offense is much improved. I actually think this game will come down to the Cyclone's defense. If they can screw up Stanzi, they win. If they can't beat downfield receivers, they lose. Their A-rob cancels our A-rob.

I could be wrong, but I don't think ISU's offense will lose the game this year (like they did last year.)

This.

 

[cyclonez7]

Iowa stopped it a lot in the bowl game. Now, that was technically a pure triple option, but it effectively is a type of spread not terribly dissimilar to what ISU runs. But you are exactly right: a patient, disciplined spread (i.e. not Georgia Tech) can overcome a patient defense like Iowa's.

ISU's execution on offense is much improved. I actually think this game will come down to the Cyclone's defense. If they can screw up Stanzi, they win. If they can't beat downfield receivers, they lose. Their A-rob cancels our A-rob.

I could be wrong, but I don't think ISU's offense will lose the game this year (like they did last year.)

Georgia Tech doesn't run a spread. They run an triple option offense. There is a big difference. The spread is based on short passes. The triple option offense has almost no passing. Georgia Tech lost to Iowa because they were one dimensional with only the running game. Whenever they tried to pass, they got beat, and got beat bad.
The key to beating Iowa with the spread is execution. Last year, Arnaud threw too many picks for the spread to be effective. If we can get the ball to our playmakers in the open field then we have a shot to beat Iowa. A good balance between run and pass couldn't hurt either.

 

[Clones21]

They gave up close to 30 points every spread team they played last year. With the obvious exception to Iowa State.. but lets be real here, it takes time to learn a new offense. Not to mention we didn't have SJ, Darks, or Money at receiver. They are gonna have a hard time stopping us this year.

It looked like we knew what we were doing against NIU. With our up-tempo offense we'll see if it slows down their front 4 at all.

 

[Cyclonepride]

If you're going to beat that defense, I think the spread is the way to do it. Traditional offenses don't seem to go much of anywhere against it.

 

[RustShack]

NIU was a real good test for us. Our offense should be good this year.

 

[CyPride]

They gave up close to 30 points every spread team they played last year. With the obvious exception to Iowa State.. but lets be real here, it takes time to learn a new offense. Not to mention we didn't have SJ, Darks, or Money at receiver. They are gonna have a hard time stopping us this year.

please do some homework.

 

[jahfg]

Playcalling will be huge. If anyone expects this season's gameplan to look anything like last year, they are in for a surprise. We had no identity as a team or program when we played Iowa last season. We tried to throw it all over the field when we were actually a running team. I think this season we see a lot of short passes on first down. 3rd down and manageable is a key. We really don't want AA forcing the ball down the field.

 

[CyCloned]

It really doesn't matter if Iowa can stop the spread or not. The important question is can they stop the Iowa State version of the spread. Based on last year the answer is yes. Hopefully this year's version will be more careful with the football.

 

[ketelmeister]

Georgia Tech doesn't run a spread. They run an triple option offense. There is a big difference. The spread is based on short passes. The triple option offense has almost no passing. Georgia Tech lost to Iowa because they were one dimensional with only the running game. Whenever they tried to pass, they got beat, and got beat bad.
The key to beating Iowa with the spread is execution. Last year, Arnaud threw too many picks for the spread to be effective. If we can get the ball to our playmakers in the open field then we have a shot to beat Iowa. A good balance between run and pass couldn't hurt either.

This is correct.

 

[dualthreat]

you can break down offenses into groups and categories. Such as spread passing, veer, pro style, etc. Defenses can get as fancy as they want......

But it all comes down to execution. ... Can we run our plays to perfection. That is the question. Whatever we do, do it right. Do it perfect.

We have not shown the ability to run our offense to perfection. Not even very good at this point. In fact, when we've faced good defenses, our offense totally stalls. Last year we scored 3 points against iowa, 9 points against nebraska, 10 points against a crappy a&m D, 13 or so points against OK State... we havent proven to thrive well enough against tough defenses.

However, its a new year, a new team. That can all change. After game 1, i feel confident that our offense is much improved over last year.

 

[RustShack]

please do some homework.

Go on.

 

[geburgess]

Umm, they are one of the top defenses in the nation, and we run more of a "spread option" style offense now than pure spread. When I think spread, I think Mizzou. We are not even same league when it comes to them offensively. They stopped the option last year against GaTech, so they should be able to contain us.

Only way Iowa can't stop the "spread" that we run is if it becomes more short passes leading to the long ball than our run-based series with the spread sets. This requires AA to be supremely accurate and I believe history shows anything but accuracy against Iowa for Arnie...

Still hoping for the best this Saturday that Iowa messes up and we don't so we can pull off this upset.

 

[bluestarcyclone]

please do some homework.

Says the hawk in Cyclone 'clothing'

 

[Clones21]

Umm, they are one of the top defenses in the nation, and we run more of a "spread option" style offense now than pure spread. When I think spread, I think Mizzou. We are not even same league when it comes to them offensively. They stopped the option last year against GaTech, so they should be able to contain us.

Only way Iowa can't stop the "spread" that we run is if it becomes more short passes leading to the long ball than our run-based series with the spread sets. This requires AA to be supremely accurate and I believe history shows anything but accuracy against Iowa for Arnie...

Still hoping for the best this Saturday that Iowa messes up and we don't so we can pull off this upset.

What you dont understand is that we can be a option and a pure spread offense. Herman has so many set ups in this offense that if i saw that playbook im sure my head would explode. Sometimes we randomly come out with a 4 WR set and most times we have 3. There are so many things that go into our offense. Herman is a genius.

 

[Dino]

Iowa has in the past struggled vs the spread. That is what makes me optimistic for this game. They also lean heavily on their line backers to make plays covering the short to intermediate routes and even some of their more experienced LB units have struggled doing that vs a spread offense. Their linebackers this year are a lot less experienced vs. past years so that may help. I could see them switching to more of a 4-2-5 though since their secondary seems to have more reliable depth and they know we will throw a lot of receivers at them.

The problem last year was Arnaud was constantly throwing deep and getting picked. In the spread we generally want to just be tossing quick slants and digs and bubble screens and only throw deep if someone gets behind the secondary. AA was throwing like we were running a vertical stretch offense. To be fair, I think a lot of this was Iowa baiting him into it. It was also game 2 in a new complicated offense.

The other thing I have seen Iowa struggle with is a good running QB. The delayed QB draw up the middle and option read qb runs have hurt them in the past.

The two things I don't like about this match-up: Their D-line. We pretty well negated them last year but they are very good. Pressuring the QB or stopping the run with your DLine alone can destroy a timing offense. Also we had a tough opponent week 1 (which is generally good) but it means we had to spend nearly all our time preparing for them. Iowa had EIU, who they only needed probably a single day to worry about. They probably have been able to put a lot of prep time in for us.

I expect a close game either way as long as Arnaud is patient and disciplined.

 

[geburgess]

What you dont understand is that we can be a option and a pure spread offense. Herman has so many set ups in this offense that if i saw that playbook im sure my head would explode. Sometimes we randomly come out with a 4 WR set and most times we have 3. There are so many things that go into our offense. Herman is a genius.

Highlighted for emphasis. I won't dispute that we can be an option and pure spread offense; Mizzou (a relatively good comparison) does lots of run sets out of their spread. However we have yet to show the pure spread offense, thus we still fall under a "spread option" offense until gameplay shows otherwise.