Iowa Musings (mostly positive, not rants)
So, just finished the game (I watch on DVR delay because of young kids). My thoughts on what this game showed:
1. Blake Countess is for real. Sure, he got beaten a few times, but he reminds me so much of Donovan Warren. Physical, great instincts. This kid is going to be a lock-down stud CB in a year or two.
2. The "shoud we start DEvin, and not Denard" should be be put to rest (ok, it never should have started). DEnard missed a few passes. He still overthrows some and has a few batted down. On the last drive, however, he looked like a legit QB. He marched us down the field with his arm, making smart solid throws. Even his misses were in places where the CB couldn't have a shot to intercept. I know, his stats suck compared to last year, but he is really starting to look like a pro style QB. Give him another offseason, and I think he is going to be awesome next year. Devin, while talented, is not even close. When he came in, our offense looked terrible. Not a criticism - he has little experience running the offense- but as of now (and likely next year), Denard is miles ahead.
3. Fitz - he really is good. V. Smith is a lovable little guy, but should be used primarily as the 3rd down back. He was stopped on first or second down for little or no gain too many times in the first half.
4. Denard, why you no run? There were several plays where DEnard had tunning lanes, and just hung in the pocket. Now, his pocket presence and overall throwing was great today, in my opinion, but still, when you are the fastest player in cfb and there is nobody for 6-7 yards, tuck and run.
5. The receivers really didnt help Denard out today. WAy too many drops. Sure, some may have not been on perfct throws, but my rule of thumb is that if the ball hits your hands, you should pull it in. Hemmingway, Roundtree and Dilio all dropped passes.
6. The refs - I don';t want to get hung up on this, but this game was terribly called there were at least 2 missed pass interference calls on the last drive, most critically on the last play. Also, sorry, Hemmingway's knee came down in bounds, and we should have had that TD. Whatever, it happens and it sucks, but it still pisses me off. Hoke should have challenged that last play.
7. the Fritz package. I know that many are down on it, but I do think that Hoke Borges and Co. are working on it to break out new stuff against OSU. IF so, I am ok with it. Otherwise, I don't love it. Just not getting much out of it.
OVerall, I like where we are heading. WE lost a close game to a solid team. We will get at least 1 more win, and maybe 2. Good season, with solid improvement, given the cc, new system, etc.
November 6th, 2011 at 3:01 PM ^
I was surprised (and my apologies if this has been covered elsewhere) that UM didn't hustle up to the line after Roundtree's catch and spike it to save the timeout. You lose a shot at the end zone that way (so maybe that was the thinking), but it would have allowed the run to be an option before 4th and goal.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:21 AM ^
Yes, we lost today. But at least we didn't have our NC hopes dashed like Bama.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
I disagree. If Michigan would have won out and won the B1G things could have got crazy and they slide in with one loss. Longshot but who knows?
/s sorta
November 6th, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^
I enjoy how half-harted that sarcasm was.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^
You are aware that the reason Denard came here is that Rich Rod was the only coach from a major conference school to recuit him as a qb?
November 6th, 2011 at 1:54 AM ^
This is not even the slightest bit true
November 6th, 2011 at 7:12 AM ^
IIRC only K State and UM at the end were promising he could be an every-down QB. Meyer was saying he could run some packages (a la Devin) with Tebow the starting QB but would largely have been a slot guy at UF.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:08 AM ^
Any team on any given saturday is a different team. It seems like when every team comes to play us, it's their "superbowl"... There are at least 5 teams that we have played that made it their mission or have been desperate to beat us. We just have to keep rising to the occasion and we've only done that 3x out of 5. (Northwestern, Notre Dame, San Diego State).
Northwestern beat Nebraska. Nebraska beat State. State beat us. We beat Minnesota. Minnesota beat Iowa. Iowa beat Northwestern. The circle continues. What's probably true is that the top 4 teams in the Legends division are probably equally strong at home, but equally terrible on the road.
No need to panic.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:35 AM ^
I think that a lot of Iowa's motivation came from the previous week's loss.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:38 AM ^
god hemingway was so fucking open on one play in the first quarter. we started with the 3 WR stack on the right, motioned him to the left, and COMPLETELY confused the defense. it was a beautiful, brilliant call, and he was WIDE open, and just dropped it
reminded me of the carr years when braylon would drop an easy one early when we would take a shot downfield. it cannot be overstated how much a momentary lack of execution like that can affect the rest of the game
this is not to dog on hemingway, who had some great plays. this is just to add to my defense of borges - the best laid plans o mice an men, gang aft agley
November 6th, 2011 at 1:24 AM ^
I can't really remember a game other than today where Hemingway had the dropsies. Dileo may have dropped a pass but he bailed sensed out at least once.
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<br>M was flat, period. At least Denard is reading coverages a little better, using check downs and the like
November 6th, 2011 at 1:34 AM ^
according to last weeks ufr, hemingway has two "drops" (2s and 3s) all year coming into this game. that seems about right, but it also has roundtree with only 1 drop, which seems way lower than i remember
November 6th, 2011 at 1:48 PM ^
Anyone besides me wondering if Adidas made crappy receiver gloves just like the jerseys and the ball slips out of their hands? I began to hope for non-gimmicky gloves that actually allow people to play football instead of just looking cool. But then again the running backs haven't been fumbling like mad, just made me wonder if Michigan needs an equipment adjustment.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:38 AM ^
1. Blake is great. Hopefully he is as good at recruiting as he is in the field!!!! Bright future
2. I was one the Devin should start guys. I was wrong. Devin looks really slow to me and I know he isn't he just is slow reacting and ya I think the Devin package should be ditched for the year.
3. Fitz is pretty good but I'm afraid a little too much Carlos Brown in him. We will see
4. Denard has to be hurting or something, Iowa's DE did have contain but still he should of / could have got some important yards especially after Fitz went out.
5. WR's were pretty bad today. Take away the drops and a few interference calls....Denard's numbers look a little better.
6. Yes refs sucked. Michigan just looked off all day though.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:43 AM ^
But I dropped the ball, just like Hemingway.
November 6th, 2011 at 5:05 AM ^
South Bend and I'm a Michigan fan. Some messed up shit. The ND part, not the Michigan part.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:26 AM ^
I wish I could see more footage of the receivers route running. It seemed like Denard and Devin both were waiting soooo long in the pocket. Were the receivers just not getting open in addition to dropping balls left and right? Also on those deep balls where Denard overthrew them they were not breaking away either. We need some speed on the outside bad.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:43 AM ^
November 6th, 2011 at 3:32 AM ^
Haven't seen it discussed much here, but it really seems like that timeout we took before the Iowa punt that pinned us in the 4th would have been really useful on that last drive... How were we caught off guard with that punt to the point we had to waste a TO?
November 6th, 2011 at 3:43 AM ^
Denard is injured and banged up in ways that non one is talking about. It shows when he runs...did you see him avoid contact and not get that 2nd and short late in the game...the old Denard or September Denard...would have burst right through that..
these coaches know what these kids are about....they know that Denard is struggling to run the ball and the OL sucks in run blocking... they went with what they had in the second half and for the most part it worked.
If freaking stone hands Roundtree had caught that first half pass... then no INT and we score there... the refs fked us at the end and smitty dropped one when Denard avoided the rush... we were close to scoring 2 TDs there and all of this BITCHING would be a moot point because everyone would be happy.
Its a game of inches and injuries folks.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:13 AM ^
On the play late in the first half when Denard lost a fumble, he actually touched the ball to the ground while trying to stay on his feet.
Isn't the ball ruled dead at that point?
November 6th, 2011 at 8:30 AM ^
November 6th, 2011 at 9:48 AM ^
It's a fumble. If his elbow or shoulder had touched down, he'd have been down.
November 6th, 2011 at 9:24 AM ^
Right. The call on the field was out of bounds. There's no way he was out of bounds - his knee is well in-bounds. It's like the refs said, "Gee ok, well maybe the ball touched the ground... we'll go with that instead."
November 6th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^
Good points. A few replies.
3. We still don't have a running game outside of Denard, which is kind of problematic. Fitz looked like he was ready to take over that position during the Purdue game but he cannot stay healthy.
4. The plan all along has been to run Denard less, so I am not sure why people are expecting Denard to run 20+ times per game. Sure it happened early on to ease the transition but as we've seen with both Denard (last year) and Toussaint (his entire career) that B1G play is physical and guys can get beaten up going through the meat grinder of the schedule. Denard's improvements will come as a passer and his TD to Toussaint through the air was a good sign in this regard. He also made some nice throws on that final drive.
5. I wonder how much the offense misses a vertical threat like Stonum. Borges clearly wants to burn teams that stack the box and our WRs are getting one on one coverage, the problem is they have trouble getting any separation and the few times they do Denard and Devin seem to misfire. A big, fast receiver like Stonum would probably thrive on those types of routes. Hopefully he'll be good to go for next season.