Have some thoughts about the Offensive Line.

havent read all comments...

I was at game and rewatched replay. Pass protection was fine. I didn't see Purdy scrambling much and when he did once up middle he made a really bad decision.

Run game was so odd. I never saw UNI just blow up part of OL on run plays..Never saw Breece get tackled for a loss. What i did see was some really bad play calling with short side of field sweeps and outside run plays which were terrible calls.

I also saw Breece stutter stepping waaaay too much instead of putting his head down in a hole.

UNI DL was very solid (they were last year) and UNI goal was to completely shut down Breece and commit to it.

We had some missed blocks by TE's in that game as well.

The bigger problem is we did not have a TE to throw to apparently and never did and the UNI safeties and LB's did not have to worry about that dynamic aspect of our game so they could concentrate on shutting down the run game..

This, a thousand times this. Nothing more I hate than repeated runs to the short side. You've got better athletes than your opponent, put them in space and take advantage of it.
 
I don’t think the OL looked that bad. UNI was stacking the box and playing the run. We played right into their hands over and over.
Winning post.

My amateur critiques are no pass plays to the middle of the field or enough runs outside to keep them guessing. Unless you're Bama, it is hard to run predictable plays and still kick people's asses. We kept running right at their stud defensive tackle! Incredible in hindsight.

Our offense needs to go full Brocktober to win next weekend.
 
I don’t think the OL looked that bad. UNI was stacking the box and playing the run. We played right into their hands over and over.
This right here. The OL is 5 guys. We are missing Soehner, who was like a bonus OL. Kolar was out today, and he is a pretty good blocker. Chase is a good receiving TE but isn't a super physical blocker. So we're really reliant on those 5 guys.

UNI was sending everything at Breece - DL, LB and S. That's more than 5 guys. You can only block 5 guys with our 5 OL. And while our 5 might be better than theirs across the board, that doesn't mean all 5 are going to win on every play.

We didn't do a great job putting those guys in position to win. We ran very little play action to slow down the back of the defense. That's my concern - not that the OL isn't capable, but that the coaches are content to run our 5+RB against their 7 to 8 defenders for most of the game.
 
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I'd agree with this. We weren't bad...in any phase of the game, really. But the whole game felt like a stubborn refusal to open it up or try anything different.
Did they ever use their up tempo offense?
 
I'd agree with this. We weren't bad...in any phase of the game, really. But the whole game felt like a stubborn refusal to open it up or try anything different.
Exactly. I don’t blame the players for yesterday. Nobody played bad. I blame the coaching staff.
 
Where is the guy on here that said "We are not the same team that struggles with UNI" we are light years ahead of where we were a few years ago. And we will destroy UNI. I would like to ask him what he thinks now.
We always start the season like this. We always struggle with UNI. We are still not elite like some want to believe, we need to take another step. We better hope we fix a lot before next week, because Iowa looked good against a B1G team, we looked bad against a FCS team.

Understand UNI always gets up for their in state rivals, but still with team we should have easily handled them.
These sideways plays need to stop.
 
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I was a bit worried watching the game, but to be fair it didn’t look “bad”. Our offensive game plan could be accurately described as “do exactly what uni thinks you will do every single play, and run into uni’s strongest players”. Taking that into consideration, it wasn’t “bad”.

we had no bonehead plays, very clean special teams. That right there is already an improvement.
 
Where is the guy on here that said "We are not the same team that struggles with UNI" we are light years ahead of where we were a few years ago. And we will destroy UNI. I would like to ask him what he thinks now.
We always start the season like this. We always struggle with UNI. We are still not elite like some want to believe, we need to take another step. We better hope we fix a lot before next week, because Iowa looked good against a B1G team, we looked bad against a FCS team.

Understand UNI always gets up for their in state rivals, but still with team we should have easily handled them.
These sideways plays need to stop.

Iowa didn’t look that great, check the box score, 2 pick 6, 1 big run for Goodson of 56 yards, his 18 other carries were for 43 yards. Petras was under 50% completion rate. Indiana couldn’t get out of their own way. It couldn’t set up any better. Our guys know there is much to improve upon while Iowa is sucking their own dicks telling each other how great they are.
 
I just don't think there was much, or any, urgency from the coaching staff with this game. They're perfectly happy and comfortable winning ugly. They're coaching for us to be our best at the end of the year, not worrying about running the score up in a game they have in the bag. That second half should have looked pretty familiar, it's how we always play in second halves when we have the lead. At times it almost felt like a scrimmage with orchestrated set pieces. I want to believe that's what the heavy package was about, trying something new out in a game situation to see if it works and possibly set something up for the future. The end of the first half almost seemed like they wanted to get Nevis an in game FG try.
The whole game felt a little like we were manufacturing adversity. I'm hoping that's all that was going on up front too.
 
Punting the ball was the right decision and consistent with this coaching staffs approach.

It forced UNI to drive 90 yards in 60 seconds with no timeouts.

IMO the 4th down situation we could have gone on was the goal line situation when it was 13-10. But again, the staff probably felt our D could keep UNI out of the end zone, so a 6 point lead created a comfortable margin.

The big mistake on that drive was on 3rd down. Instead of sending Breeze over the top, they ran wide. Breeze went over the top a couple times last year.
 
I have not looked at the box scores, but it seems like they were running a lot of guys in and out on the OL during the game.
 
I do feel like this needs to be acknowledged. i know really hyped up this line as a group, and I think a lot of us were surprised to see it struggle today. It got bullied up front by an FCS defensive line.

I think the reality with the line is that it’s clearly really really well coached. This is why it often drastically improves late down the stretch of the season. But it’s just ultimately not a very talented line. I feel like we’re always doing more with less with this group. It’s why there’s always a handful of games every year where it gets overwhelmed.

I understand we really talk up being a school that does more with 3 star recruits, but I always think the O-line is the one spot where our current recruiting always limits us. We haven’t had a lineman drafted to the next level in about a decade now.

Obviously coaching and culture matter first, but sometimes getting those talents does matter. This all being said, I do still expect things will get better as the season goes on, and we’ll get things fixed and get the collective group to play well. But this just seems like the reality: until we get higher level recruits in the trenches, we’ll be susceptible to playing down to competition. And these games will happen.

When you can’t beat the opponent at will up front just with pure talent, it’ll always leave the opposing team with a chance. Power 5, group of 5, FCS. Doesn’t matter what level they are.

the only things I would add to this…

1) UNI clearly sold out to stop the run (especially in the second half). There were a lot ofopportunities to throw the ball and Purdy had time (just not forever). If he was more efficient getting through his reads he had options. But the play calling did nothing to take advantage of this. On a key third down and two with every UNI defender looking in the backfield they don’t even fake to hall. After hall goes into pass block immediately they bracket Alllen who Purdy is staring down…. Missing a wide open Noel waiting to catch the easy first down pass…. Bad call (did not make the defense cover everything, run/pass), poor execution (stared down his #1 read), had plenty of time and a pocket but ultimately just runs right into the defensive line to bring up fourth down. Also, I absolutely HATE the big package unless they force the defense to cover the pass as well. They are way too one dimensional. UNI, Iowa, Kansas state all want you to play this way. We playright into their hand… should we be able to run them over? Yes. But we never have since Campbell got here. Was hoping this year would be different but it’s not. We need to be more creative.

2) I like the interior and I believe there are a couple guys who could play on Sundays when it’s all said and done. However, I have never been sold on the tackles… especially foster. He is limited athletically. Was hopeful when it was reported that some young guys were pushing him. But ultimately, the most Campbell move ever, they start the super senior game one. I hope he is replaced by game 2… but not confident. Maybe the younger guys will be better…. If not tackle will continue to be an issue.
 
Iowa didn’t look that great, check the box score, 2 pick 6, 1 big run for Goodson of 56 yards, his 18 other carries were for 43 yards. Petras was under 50% completion rate. Indiana couldn’t get out of their own way. It couldn’t set up any better. Our guys know there is much to improve upon while Iowa is sucking their own dicks telling each other how great they are.
I still think Indiana is/was a fraud but they are better than UNI, my confidence for next Saturday has dropped some. Really surprised at how average our TE's looked without Kolar and ISU's wr's aren't going to scare anyone, at least not yet.
 
I all can say is I hope Campbell and Manning are playing 4D chess and setting up for the next and future games.
 
Iowa didn’t look that great, check the box score, 2 pick 6, 1 big run for Goodson of 56 yards, his 18 other carries were for 43 yards. Petras was under 50% completion rate. Indiana couldn’t get out of their own way. It couldn’t set up any better. Our guys know there is much to improve upon while Iowa is sucking their own dicks telling each other how great they are.
Our offense wont get a first down, if they play like yesterday, so... your point?