Sadly I had to spend my weekend at home rather than travel to Pennsylvania. The good thing is that HD TV is available and I was able to watch the rain come down in Hawkeye Valley from the comfort of my living room couch. The weather appeared to affect the game a little bit but not quite as much as I expected at first. I had a feeling the team that could run the ball effectively would win. That feeling almost went out the window within the first few minutes of the game.
As usual for this season, the offense didn't look like the well-oiled machine of 2008. Of course it doesn't help when impact players are not available (graduation, injuries, etc) but I still think the offense is much better than it was 2 years ago. Ricky Stanzi didn't have his Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde routine going. Instead he was Capt Game Manager, which is what he is supposed to do. His final stats don't look great, but he didn't give the game away. A lot of the incomplete passes were on the WRs (dropped balls) and the first interception was from a dropped ball. The second interception looked more like Ricky's fault but the DB also made a great play after the ball was tipped. "Big Play" DJK was back in the lineup and was much needed. It seems that he and Ricky are on the same page and that they complement each other very well. The running game got off to a slow start but then started taking off behind Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher. The offense had 163 yards on the ground, which I found fairly impressive. I am left wondering right now what will happen to Jeff Brinson and how will the running game look when Jewel Hampton returns. The line also did a decent job, but it will be nice to get Bryan Bulaga back.
For all of the shortcomings of the offense, the special teams play made up for (some) of it. Ryan Donahue continues to be the most effective punter in the Big 10 (if not the nation). At one point ABC showed a comparision of the punters. PSU's punter had a 50-some yard average while Ryan had a 30 some yard average. What they didn't show was probably (read: in my mind) the biggest punting stat that is never shown: opponent's average starting position after a punt. Ryan put a punt right inside the 10 and PSU started on their own 3 yard line. This led to the safety that got Iowa on the board. He has been doing that consistently all season. The kicking game got the job done as well. Daniel Murray (aka The Lion Tamer) booted a couple of field goals (missed one terribly) and did a fair job on kickoffs. I couldn't help but wonder what the PSU players were thinking when Murray lined up for the FG attempts...
Once again (the theme for the season) the defense won this game. Thankfully 1 play doesn't decide a football game. After getting behind 10-0 I realized that we are 3-0 after being behind so far this season. The defensive line were animals! Todd McShay (an "expert" for ESPN) said in a video preview that Iowa doesn't have a very athletic defensive line; oddly enough that preview was removed right after the game while other previews were left up. You could tell that the national media hasn't paid much attention to Iowa, especially the defense, yet this year. That all changed. Adrian (Predator) Clayborn truly is showing how much of a beast he is. That kind of scares me as he may be enticed to go to the NFL a year early. Broderick Binns assaulted the linemen on his side. Karl Klug was a monster, and Christian Ballard made some nice plays. This line is getting up there with the 2004 line as the best ever. Strong line play sure helps the LBs and DBs. There were 2 decent length pass plays (79 and 39) for PSU but that was it. The running game never had much consistency (109 yards total), and Daryll Clark was clearly frustrated. I have a feeling that he is glad he will never have to face Norm's boys again. Clark was picked off 3 times, and the Hawks had at least 2 players in the back field all game long (so it seemed). All 3 LB played fairly well too. They were swarming the ball (as usual), picking off passes, and forcing fumbles. Pat Angerer made the pick that put the game away; 39 yard return and set up Adam Robinson's TD to make it 17-10 (PAT made it 18-10) after PSU had a 10-5 lead at the half. The play of the game didn't officially come on defense but it was the normal defense that was on the field. PSU had a punt formation and Iowa called "Punt Safe" (leaves the base defense on the field in case of a fake punt attempt) and Adrian Clayborn bull rushed his way to the punter, stuck his hands up and blocked the punt, and then scooped up the ball and glided in for the go-ahead TD.
Saturday night was a great all-around effort from the Hawkeyes. The coaches had the team prepared very well, and the players executed very well (minus the dropped passes). You could tell the demeanor of the team was very relaxed as they were cracking jokes all week, even the coaches were joking with the media.
The Hawks were "rewarded" with the number 13 ranking in the AP poll. Two Hawks also received Big 10 POW honors: Pat Angerer for defense (which I thought should go to the whole team but I'm still ok with it) and Adrian Clayborn for special teams.
This is shaping up to be a special season. I'm glad I'm along for the ride!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thoughts from the 130
I was planning on doing a recap of every Iowa Hawkeye football game during the 2009-2010 season (that's right, Jan 1 bowl game here we come). Sadly the UNI game left me less than enthused and the "I State" game spoke for itself. Luckily Arizona provided to be more of a challenge than "I State" did and less resistance than UNI did.
I'll start by looking at the offense. Coming into the season I had very high hopes for the passing game as I knew the running game would take a hit with Jewel Hampton being hurt early in the summer and Ricky Stanzi really came on strong in the latter part of 2008. It also helps to have a great receiving corps like Iowa has. That being said, Stanzi needs to figure out how to be a lot more accurate in the first half of the game. He is like night and day (or day and night would be more accurate) during the game. First half he is off but he turns it on in the second half. I think it helps that the offensive line has started opening holes for the running game so that the pressure doesn't fall completely on Stanzi. It was nice to see Brandon Wegher go over 100 rushing yards against "I State" and then Adam Robinson get over 100 yards against Arizona. Our running game seems to be hitting its stride just in time for Big Ten season. If Stanzi can start connecting on passes in the first half (and keep it going into the second half), and the offense can limit turnover to, let's say, none per game I think they will be unstoppable. The line needs to get some sort of continuity but that will come (fingers are crossed).
As the story has gone the last 10 years special teams have been key to Iowa victories. Daniel Murray is starting to show the he can consistently make field goals making Trent Mossbrucker stay on the sidelines. It's my hope that TMoss takes a redshirt this year so that he will be around an extra season after Murray is gone. The kick off coverage has been less than stellar this year, as have the kick and punt return teams. It's hard to believe that Iowa has not had a kickoff return for a TD since the 2002/2003 Orange Bowl. I have a feeling that it will happen sometime this season. The punt coverage has been really good this year, in part to the great punts by Ryan Donahue. He has to be the best punter in college football right now. He has been very consistant this year, with both accuracy and distance. So far Donahue is the team MVP.
The best unit is undoubtly the defense. They held a team averaging over 300 rushing yards per game to 148 rushing yards (85 came on two plays). The longest rush of the day was 58 yards, but helped by an Arizona WR holding Shaun Prater and the Linesman not knowing how to call a penalty (the first dozen or so rows of sections 130 and 129 let him hear about it all game after that). Thankfully the defense buckled down and kept Arizona from punching it in from the 1. 3 points is a lot easier to take than 7, or even 8. I still think the defense gave up 0 points when it mattered. The first 7 came from Stanzi throwing a pick-6, the 3 came from the non-call on the long run (credit the points to the officials), and the last 7 was in garbage time. Player of the game was Adrian Clayborn; he was destroying that poor left tackle for Arizona. Iowa's moto for defense is 6 seconds of hell. Clayborn must not have gotten the memo because he was giving Arizona 3 seconds until he was making a play. Best play was when Clayborn chased down Arizona's RB from behind and brought him for a loss. It wasn't a straight ahead run either, it was a run to the outside, opposite Clayborn. I have to give a mention to the secondary as well. Tyler Sash (The Vulture) made another great play on his 4th interception of the year and the rest of the defensive backs played extrememly well (thank you to Shaun Prater for being off suspension). The linebackers also played a good game but I don't think they were needed to often and the line was controlling the flow of the game.
I am very happy with a 3-0 start to the season. UNI was a close one and I still think they are a top 30 Division 1A team. Weird things happen when Iowa goes to Ames, yet it was like the good old days when Iowa could do no wrong and "I State" could do no right. Arizona seemed like an unknown since we haven't played them in a fairly long time. It felt good to walk out of Kinnick knowing Iowa dominated the game (it wasn't nearly as close as the 27-17 final showed).
To be 4-0 heading into a two game homestand would be ideal. Winning at Penn St is a challenge for almost every college football team except for Iowa. Coach Ferentz seems to own Coach Paterno and Penn St. The game is set for Saturday night and there will be a "White-out" in Happy Valley. No doubt Penn St will be looking for revenge for last year's loss in Iowa City, but Iowa will also be wanting to show that it wasn't a fluke and that they are for real.
I'll start by looking at the offense. Coming into the season I had very high hopes for the passing game as I knew the running game would take a hit with Jewel Hampton being hurt early in the summer and Ricky Stanzi really came on strong in the latter part of 2008. It also helps to have a great receiving corps like Iowa has. That being said, Stanzi needs to figure out how to be a lot more accurate in the first half of the game. He is like night and day (or day and night would be more accurate) during the game. First half he is off but he turns it on in the second half. I think it helps that the offensive line has started opening holes for the running game so that the pressure doesn't fall completely on Stanzi. It was nice to see Brandon Wegher go over 100 rushing yards against "I State" and then Adam Robinson get over 100 yards against Arizona. Our running game seems to be hitting its stride just in time for Big Ten season. If Stanzi can start connecting on passes in the first half (and keep it going into the second half), and the offense can limit turnover to, let's say, none per game I think they will be unstoppable. The line needs to get some sort of continuity but that will come (fingers are crossed).
As the story has gone the last 10 years special teams have been key to Iowa victories. Daniel Murray is starting to show the he can consistently make field goals making Trent Mossbrucker stay on the sidelines. It's my hope that TMoss takes a redshirt this year so that he will be around an extra season after Murray is gone. The kick off coverage has been less than stellar this year, as have the kick and punt return teams. It's hard to believe that Iowa has not had a kickoff return for a TD since the 2002/2003 Orange Bowl. I have a feeling that it will happen sometime this season. The punt coverage has been really good this year, in part to the great punts by Ryan Donahue. He has to be the best punter in college football right now. He has been very consistant this year, with both accuracy and distance. So far Donahue is the team MVP.
The best unit is undoubtly the defense. They held a team averaging over 300 rushing yards per game to 148 rushing yards (85 came on two plays). The longest rush of the day was 58 yards, but helped by an Arizona WR holding Shaun Prater and the Linesman not knowing how to call a penalty (the first dozen or so rows of sections 130 and 129 let him hear about it all game after that). Thankfully the defense buckled down and kept Arizona from punching it in from the 1. 3 points is a lot easier to take than 7, or even 8. I still think the defense gave up 0 points when it mattered. The first 7 came from Stanzi throwing a pick-6, the 3 came from the non-call on the long run (credit the points to the officials), and the last 7 was in garbage time. Player of the game was Adrian Clayborn; he was destroying that poor left tackle for Arizona. Iowa's moto for defense is 6 seconds of hell. Clayborn must not have gotten the memo because he was giving Arizona 3 seconds until he was making a play. Best play was when Clayborn chased down Arizona's RB from behind and brought him for a loss. It wasn't a straight ahead run either, it was a run to the outside, opposite Clayborn. I have to give a mention to the secondary as well. Tyler Sash (The Vulture) made another great play on his 4th interception of the year and the rest of the defensive backs played extrememly well (thank you to Shaun Prater for being off suspension). The linebackers also played a good game but I don't think they were needed to often and the line was controlling the flow of the game.
I am very happy with a 3-0 start to the season. UNI was a close one and I still think they are a top 30 Division 1A team. Weird things happen when Iowa goes to Ames, yet it was like the good old days when Iowa could do no wrong and "I State" could do no right. Arizona seemed like an unknown since we haven't played them in a fairly long time. It felt good to walk out of Kinnick knowing Iowa dominated the game (it wasn't nearly as close as the 27-17 final showed).
To be 4-0 heading into a two game homestand would be ideal. Winning at Penn St is a challenge for almost every college football team except for Iowa. Coach Ferentz seems to own Coach Paterno and Penn St. The game is set for Saturday night and there will be a "White-out" in Happy Valley. No doubt Penn St will be looking for revenge for last year's loss in Iowa City, but Iowa will also be wanting to show that it wasn't a fluke and that they are for real.
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