Sh*t ton of bed wetter worry here. Get a grip people! Clones by 17+
***Iowa Pregame Thread***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
For some reason, a lot of people get it in their heads that anything we do well is luck. We are 13-3 since the start of last year, not a fluke. Iowa is not as good as they were last year.
Iowa is better on both OL and DL than last year. And those are where football all starts, so that's the concern people legitimately have. Hopefully our guys ball out, esp on defense.
But agree worse everywhere else (well maybe not QB, but good lord and see other thread for that).
Based on what? We're ranked and they aren't, for a reason. We're tested, confident and rolling after two big wins. They played a crap FCS team and struggled for a half, and couldn't pass the ball at all.
Sure, they'll run the ball a bit between the 20s, and we'll probably have more 1-2 yd carries than we'd like, but we have better playmakers on both sides of the ball and that'll show.
Anything can happen in a game like this, but the team that makes less mistakes usually wins, don't turn the ball over and force Gronowski into a couple mistakes and we'll win comfortably.
You forgot doinking a FG just before half-time too.
I watched it earlier this week as well - the first half was as bad as the Clones have played under Campbell, it was sloppy and inept, especially on offense. But the mid-game adjustments were tremendous and the team played lights out in the 4th quarter to win.
If the bolded happens, we win by 3 scores. And if we come out hot out of the gates and force Iowa to actually have to move the ball, the game will get out of hand.
Now, those two things haven’t happened against Iowa in a long time and we’ve been notorious for getting sucked into their style of play so we’ll see.
I agree - but I've also bought in that this team is different. Also, the coaches are in midseason form as well as the players. Mouser has been consistently aggressive in both games - in large part I think because they trust Rocco.
I expect it to be close early - we tend to be more vanilla defensively in the first half. In both games the other teams QBs had some early success and then by the 3rd quarter looked completely baffled. And it's taken us some time to get the running game working. But just like last year, I think we dominate the second half and this time make it not close instead of the big comeback.
Agree on all counts, but also man I’d love a couple quick mistakes out of them to give us an early lead. It would be game, set, match from the jump because Iowa cannot play from behind.
That's where I get concerned, as that has played out quite a few times over the last 6 years:
Iowa opens the game with points (FG or TD). Iowa State offense fails to move the chains, punts, giving Iowa good field position. Iowa then scores again (FG or TD) and now Iowa State starts forcing things on offense, or never regains field position in the 1st half.
I know we overcame it last year, but that was a terrible way to start the game. It would be nice to have a lead, or at least win the field position battle early in the game.
Yep agreed! And remember, we had opportunities last year but were backed up at our goal line by the punt + then penalties and Rocco also threw a pick that gave them the ball at the 10? yard line.
Getting the ball inside our own 5 yard line twice to start the game kind of flipped the offensive gameplan on its head. No rhythm early on.
Sure did. There’s almost nothing you can do in that scenario. We did get it to 3rd and 1 I believe from inside the 10 and then had a false start. I believe the next series we threw the INT. Could be flip flopped.
Either way, limiting those sorts of starting field positions will be big. It’s Iowa’s best form of offense.
I might agree on the OL, but not sure their DL is any better, they just lost so many players that had gotten the majority of snaps the two years before that, its going to be hard to replace them. Was their OL really that much better last season, or was it more because they had a stud in Johnson that made all of them look better? Look how much better our OL looked when we had Hall carrying the ball compared to the last couple years? EIU rushed for 204 yards in the game last season, of which Johnson had like 180 yards, the other four years before that, they rushed for 125 yards or less, a couple of times it was less than 100 yards.
Granted they rushed for 305 yards last week, but that was against Albany. Both KSU and SD would crush Albany, let's see how EIU does against us before we start to say they have improved a lot.
But that will happen again tomorrow.
That's their whole stchick - run the ball to maybe their own 40, drop a great punt inside your 10, put pressure on your offense and then go try to make a big play. That is literally all they have going for them.
So you have to be able to get first downs, even when you are pinned deep. ISU offense needs to stay loose in those situations, and not **** the bed.
I'm working across the street from Kinnick Stadium and there's an ISU flag flying above the south end zone.
I just saw that Tyrese is going to be a guest on the Fox Big Noon Kickoff.
