I'm worried Michigan will hang around. Kinda like northwestern did
F*CK IOWA
- Thread starter FallOf81
- Start date
Yeah, my concern is that MI has no need to put up style points or risk injuries; they're a lock with a simple win. I don't like that. I want total destruction early and often.
In my humble opinion I think first and foremost it tells us that Iowa has a strong coaching staff to go along with a strong culture within the program. I've been an Iowa fan for quite some time and the performance and winning they've arrived to this year is truly baffling, to the point where it is simply unexplainable.
Hard to predict or project what ISU would have done with Iowa's schedule this year, but I will note that I think Campbell and his staff did a remarkable job given the hand they were dealt in preseason. Losing your returning starting QB, TE, OL, RB and DL is no joke - and so ISU deserves a ton of credit for keeping it together and thriving. Shows good depth and a tough culture as well.
We all have our one-off games (Iowa's was PSU, ISU's was Oklahoma), but the bounce back is what matters...and I think both teams handled themselves extremely well.
Agree. Iowa State was NOT winning that game. It was instantly over at 17-3. Instantly. At that point, Iowa had literally done ALL they needed to do to easily secure the win.
Sure, there was like a very, very 'tiny' glimmer of hope on that last minute drive, but I would have put my odds of stepping on the moon above our odds to win that game. Once Iowa is leading by more than a score, it's instantly over.
You had me until here.
Otherwise, yes, Iowa has a way of staying with it, and making the plays late even historically against very good teams. They're very fundamentally sound and in a tight late game, the stronger fundamentals tend to play out. It's often been the difference in the Cyhawk game and honestly ISU pulling off other games.
Understandable. The point of the one-off games are it's most often a time where a team has to answer some tough questions about who they are and how they are going to move forward through the season.
Iowa went 7-1 against a relatively weaker schedule, and ISU went 4-2 against a relatively tougher schedule that included at the time 3 ranked opponents, two of which are playing for the conference championship.
The schedules are the schedules; just have to find ways to regroup and fill the wins column the best you can.
Off games happen for even the best of teams. That said, it’s hard to argue getting shellacked by the one team that won 8 or more games one your schedule was an outlier when you also played a whole bunch of very close games against 5-7 and 7-5 teams. Yes, close games are their style, but 5 if their 10 wins were by a TD or less. A top 20 team should not be playing that many close games against .500 teams. IMO, that’s a better indicator of where Iowa would be with an average P5 SOS.
Iowa this year reminds me of the Vikings last year. Won a ton of toss up games (nearly all of them), including against sub average teams. Rarely dominated a game. And they both had serious flaws as a team.
The stars happen to align just right for each team to pull out a large number of wins; however, that doesn’t correlate to anything. It doesn’t mean they have a strong coaching staff; it doesn’t mean they have a strong culture. They easily could be on the other side of those games, as the Vikings are finding out this year
Like most years, the only month that ISU isn't better than Iowa is in September.
Cmon man. Would you expect a freshman majority team to get better as the season goes on, yes or no?
