I would second Brewhawk's analysis that Iowa appeared to coast a bit after taking a 2 touchdown lead. In addition to two quick-strike home run passes by Stanzi, the first 2-3 possessions for ASU were 3-and-outs. Iowa's D was shutting down their RB, and their QB was off target and scrambling for his life. Even their kick receiving team was bobbling their returns. It really looked like it was going to be a cakewalk.
As a result, on the 3rd and 4th Iowa drives, Iowa got themselves into 2nd-and-short and 3rd-and-short situations where Iowa took some deep shots and used a trick play (McNutt reverse pass) and tried to establish a bit of a ground game (which ASU was able to stop). There was a 3rd-and-1, for instance, where Stanzi could have just run a QB keeper to convert. On a previous possession, he did exactly that. Instead, we went off tackle and got hit for a loss and had to punt.
Then, ASU's offense woke up and marched on a long, end of 1st half drive. I think Iowa's D was playing safe cover 2 and letting ASU dink-and-dunk. ASU's QB made a beautiful 15-yard TD pass over our weak young CB, Lowe, who didn't even turn around as the ball nearly grazed his helmet. That was just ASU executing.
Iowa got the ball back with 40 seconds remaining on the 30 yard line, and all 3 timeouts, so we could have done something, but instead, Ferentz opted to just take a knee. So we went into the half as 14-7.
Third quarter, Iowa's D gets a big interception, and first play, Stanzi once again hits McNutt for the long-ball TD - 21-7. And then it just went back and forth. Iowa missed a chip shot FG. Iowa recovered a fake punt attempt and ran it back for a TD which would have made it 28-7, but the refs called it back. Iowa was marching towards a regular TD when the 3rd Quarter ended, and when the 4th Quarter started, it looked like the game was in hand. Then, Stanzi inexplicably throws a pick 6 returned for 80 yards plus a somersault into our endzone by their LB. Totally changed the complexion of the game.
Iowa drove it the length of the field to ASU's 3 yard line, but then Iowa could not convert the TD and had to settle for the Field Goal. I have no idea why Iowa was having so much trouble on 3rd-and-short and at the Goalline. It was like we couldn't do anything short all day - all our plays were either triples or homeruns or nothing. Weird offensive day.
ASU marched the length of the field for about 8 minutes to score their last TD. A very impressive drive, with their QB scrambling to convert a 3rd-and-27 and then the 4th-and-1. The Hawks had him 3rd-and-long several times on both of ASU's TD drives, and he just found receivers running around on broken plays. It's not really something you can gameplan, there's no scheme to defend that kind of play.
But then, we got the ball back and just sat on it to end the game instead of trying for one more score.
Bottom line: ASU never had the ball when they could have taken a lead, and for 3 quarters, it never seemed like Iowa was in any danger. The crowd was really more disappointed at missed opportunities in running up the score. The pick-six changed the score but was kind of a freak play (although a mistake that Stanzi just can't make - he did it before against Arizona). ASU was able to mount 2 effective, long drives, which is troublesome, but our front 4 was getting pressure - he was just scrambling and making plays. Similar to what I expect Forcier to do.
I do agree that we took our foot off the gas in the first half. You could kind of tell the O was getting a bit cocky back there - after the game, McNutt, who threw the reverse WR pass on 2nd-and-8 on the 3rd possession or so, said that he could have just ran it for the 1st down, but because he's a converted QB, he wanted to throw it. Basically, admitting he was just f-ing around. Had we converted that series into a TD, the game was effectively over. We thought we had all day.
I guarantee Iowa doesn't take plays off against Michigan if they have the luxury of a quick lead.
Recent Comments