On Tuesday’s edition of the Daily Clone, Jake Brend sits down with Chris Williams to give their offensive position group grades through Iowa State’s first four games.
DAILY CLONE: Offensive Position Group Grades with Chris Williams
- Thread starter JakeBrend
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Take away that game against a mediocre FCS team how do we look on the season so far?
Played mediocre against a 1 and 3 team.
Played mediocre against a middling to above avg B10 team.
Played below average against a middling Sun Belt team.
I'd say we have looked pretty mid so far.
Played mediocre against a 1 and 3 team.
Played mediocre against a middling to above avg B10 team.
Played below average against a middling Sun Belt team.
I'd say we have looked pretty mid so far.
Main critique would be I'd drop WRs to a D. They've looked below average compared to peer teams. Way too many drops, a few mis ran routes that nearly led to interceptions, and just too little separation, especially given that 2 of the teams we've faced likely have the 2 worst secondaries we'll see all season.
WRs rated too high, but otherwise I agree with the assessment.
Too many drops by the receivers. Eskildsen and Overby have made some big catches, but they were mostly on go routes. I expected them to start slow, but they are behind where I expected. Townsend has shown some flashes, but Sowell hasn't really shown much.
Too many drops by the receivers. Eskildsen and Overby have made some big catches, but they were mostly on go routes. I expected them to start slow, but they are behind where I expected. Townsend has shown some flashes, but Sowell hasn't really shown much.
My rewatch of the game revealed, more than anything else, inconsistency...across the board. Some great passes, but also some very poor passes. Some great schemes, but also some very poor schemes. Some great catches, but also some very poor misses. Some great blocking, but also some very poor blocking. Some great gap running, some poor gap running. Some great coverage, some very poor coverage. The most consistent area was special teams, and that was just plain poor across the board. I think more than any other game I've ever watched, I'd never seen such a wide margin. I think the best thing to gain from all this, is that I believe they're all fixable because it was more 'mind' than being overmatched. Just my opinion.
I'm seeing different things for sure.
Rocco has at times underthrown Overby and Eskelson on deep routes. The only route miscommunication i can think of was during the kstate game.
First quarter of the season if ISU plays in the CCG, and makes a run in the playoffs.
Think positive!
@JakeBrend @ChrisMWilliams
this feels like an extremely negative look at things here
If KSU is 3-1, is this a conversation? Not ISU's fault they've been bad
The Cyhawk game is a rivalry game, weird **** happens. literally can make no takeaways from this game
The Ark St game was bad, but if you couldnt tell, this team was exhausted, and played a TON of bodies. Again, hard to make takeaways here
I understand the skepticism, but ISU is 4-0 in back to back years with another chance to have a special season. That wasnt by accident. IMO the start of this season should be looked at no differently than last, except Dublin adds an extra wrinkle. I have no idea how many games this team will win this year, but there is a realistic chance they arent even looked at as an underdog until they play @ TCU
If there's one thing that's been a constant for like 20 years of ISU is that our fanbase always overrates our WRs.
My evaluation of the WR group is that they simply aren't making tough catches. Watch power conference football, and WRs making tough, contested catches is the norm. Our guys aren't there yet.
I'm not too concerned about the Ark State game. Sure, they laid a huge egg vs. Arkansas, but I don't think they are terrible. And that was a crazy 4 weeks leading up to a road game at a dead stadium.
But the KSU thing matters. It's in Ireland, so another huge layer of strangeness, but we thought ISU beat a good team at the time, but it turns out KSU is a trainwreck right now.
No reason not to be happy with the 4-0 start given all that it took to get there. But there isn't a win that you'd say is all that good yet. Really looking forward to the Arizona game.
KSU has barely lost all the games that they have lost. While I don't think they are really going to turn it around, they aren't as bad as people are thinking. They could easily be 3-1 right now if just a couple plays go differently.
There also down to North Dakota with less than a minute to play.
Are they terrible? No. But they are not very good.
FWIW, I dont think UND is bad per se. Played last years runner ups to the wire, and hung 50 on Portland St. For the record, BYU hung 69 on them
The improvement is that ISU did not lose any of these head scratchingly close games. In past years, we would have. This is no small thing.
Large percentage of posters here thought there would be some "regression to the mean" for this.
Havent seen that yet
Under Matt Campbell our WRs have been pretty good and I'd argue our WR talent the last 8 years has consistently been one of the best groups in the Big 12. Before that though.... I agree with you 100% on overrating WR talent.
