SB Nation - Karl Klug

All-Big Ten Awards Announced, Swept Once Again By Toto

Oops Pow Surprise — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:45 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

about 1 month ago: Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz looks on during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Northwestern, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Iowa City, Iowa. Northwestern won 17-10. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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Good news, everyone!* The Big Ten announced its picks for the all-conference teams. Naturally, the offensive and defensive player of the year are both Terrelle Pryor. Okay, not true; he's not even honorable mention.

But there's plenty of actual good news. First, the devil media named Kirk Ferentz coach of the year, and here he is reminding them that they can go suck it and he hasn't forgiven them for the slights of the regular season.

Such language, Kirk!

As for the players, here's the link to the voting results. The media named Bryan Bulaga to the first team on offense, while the second team featured four of his friends from the line: Rafael Eubanks, Dace Richardson, Kyle Calloway, and Tony Moeaki.

On defense, the first team had a little more Iowa representation; Adrian Clayborn, Pat Angerer, and Tyler Sash all received their no-brainer merits. On the second team, Brett Greenwood and Amari Spievey. Iowa put eight players on the media's honorable mention team: Ryan Donahue, Broderick Binns, A.J. Edds, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Karl Klug, Daniel Murray, Adam Robinson, and Ricky Stanzi.

Not surprisingly, the coaches had a slightly higher opinion of the Hawkeyes; here's the link to their voting results. Bryan Bulaga was named their offensive lineman of the year(!!!), an award the media doesn't give out. Bulaga is joined on the first team by Moeaki and Richardson, both of which are worthy selections. Calloway and Eubanks didn't make the second team--not sure why on Calloway--but Derrell Johnson-Koulianos snuck in on a three-player tie for second-team WR.

On defense, the coaches agreed with the media in putting Sash, Clayborn, and Angerer on the first team roster. They also added Amari Spievey; as coaches, they're more likely to know that the reason Spievey didn't have a ton of picks wasn't that he's not good at football, but that there's just no hope in throwing at him; Spievey was a machine this season, and we're starting to lose hope that he's got more than one game left in an Iowa uniform. A.J. Edds is the lone Hawkeye on the defensive second team.

For honorable mention, it's as follows:Christian Ballard, Kyle Calloway, Ryan Donahue, Brent Greenwood, Karl Klug, and Adam Robinson.

Full All-BXI teams and a few thoughts are after the break.

MEDIA

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
QB	Daryll Clark, Penn State	Mike Kafka, Northwestern
RB	Evan Royster, Penn State	Brandon Saine, Ohio State
RB	JOHN CLAY, Wisconsin	Ralph Bolden, Purdue
WR	Tandon Doss, Indiana	Blair White, Michigan State
WR	Keith Smith, Purdue	Zeke Markshausen, Northwestern
C	Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State	Rafael Eubanks, Iowa
G	Justin Boren, Ohio State	Jon Asamoah, Illinois
G	John Moffitt, Wisconsin	Dace Richardson, Iowa
T	Bryan Bulaga, Iowa	Kyle Calloway, Iowa
T	Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin	Dennis Landolt, Penn State
TE	Garrett Graham, Wisconsin	Tony Moeaki, Iowa
PK	Brett Swenson, Michigan State	Stefan Demos, Northwestern

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
DL	Adrian Clayborn, Iowa	Jammie Kirlew, Indiana
DL	Brandon Graham, Michigan	Thaddeus Gibson, Ohio State
DL	Ryan Kerrigan, Purdue	Cameron Heyward, Ohio State
DL	O'Brien Schofield, Wisconsin	Jared Odrick, Penn State
LB	Pat Angerer, Iowa	Ross Homan, Ohio State
LB	GREG JONES, Michigan State	Josh Hull, Penn State
LB	Navorro Bowman, Penn State	Sean Lee, Penn State
DB	Tyler Sash, Iowa	Brent Greenwood, Iowa
DB	Donovan Warren, Michigan	Amari Spievey, Iowa
DB	Sherrick McManis, Northwestern	Brad Phillips, Northwestern
DB	Kurt Coleman, Ohio State	David Pender, Purdue
P	Zoltan Mesko, Michigan	Jeremy Boone, Penn State

COACHES

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
QB	Daryll Clark, Penn State	Mike Kafka, Northwestern
RB	Evan Royster, Penn State	Brandon Saine, Ohio State
RB	John Clay, Wisconsin	Ralph Bolden, Purdue
WR	Eric Decker, Minnesota	Tandon Doss, Indiana*
WR	Blair White, Michigan State	Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Iowa* Keith Smith, Purdue*
C	Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State	Rafael Eubanks, Iowa* Joel Nitchman, Michigan State*
G	Dace Richardson, Iowa	Jon Asamoah, Illinois
G	John Moffitt, Wisconsin	Justin Boren, Ohio State
T	Bryan Bulaga, Iowa	Rodger Saffold, Indiana
T	Dennis Landolt, Penn State	Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin
TE	Tony Moeaki, Iowa	Garrett Graham, Wisconsin
PK	Brett Swenson, Michigan	Stefan Demos, Northwestern

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
DL	Adrian Clayborn, Iowa	Jammie Kirlew, Indiana
DL	Brandon Graham, Michigan	Thaddeus Gibson, Ohio State
DL	Jared Odrick, Penn State	Cameron Heyward, Ohio State
DL	O'Brien Schofield, Wisconsin	Ryan Kerrigan, Purdue
LB	Pat Angerer, Iowa Linebacker	A.J. Edds, Iowa
LB	Greg Jones, Michigan State	Ross Homan, Ohio State
LB	Navorro Bowman, Penn State	Sean Lee, Penn State
DB	Tyler Sash, Iowa	Donovan Warren, Michigan*
DB	Amari Spievey, Iowa	Sherrick McManis, Northwestern*
DB	Brad Phillips, Northwestern	Brandon King, Purdue*
DB	Kurt Coleman, Ohio State	David Pender, Purdue* Jay Valai, Wisconsin*
P	Zoltan Mesko, Michigan	Jeremy Boone, Penn State

Okay. While we're quite happy that Bulaga got such high accolades for the season, we can't be alone in thinking that he was hardly the best lineman in Iowa City, much less the Big Ten. He was either on the sidelines or out of sorts for the majority of the season, and we still haven't seen the elephant-tusk-covered road grader from last season on display. He totally would have deserved a preseason OL of the year, but his performance over 2009 didn't merit such superlatives.

This is hardly a new development from these postseason lists, however; generally, the lists are crafted off of the preseason lists, and anybody whose knee blew out with more than four games left was excised and replaced by someone else. After all, Bulaga was only a second-team All-BXI player last season, even though he was by far the best lineman on the team in 2008. Seth Olsen, meanwhile, had the good fortune to be a first-teamer to start the year, so he was on the first team after 2008, despite a relatively blah senior campaign; we'd have put him about fourth on the list of Iowa linemen for 2009, behind the two bookends at tackle and Rob Bruggeman at center.

Essentially, Bulaga won the award in 2009 for his play in 2008.

At the end of the day, this comes down to stats; there aren't any for linemen, despite the ill-fated attempt to get the "pancake" introduced about a decade ago (for this, we blame Orlando Pace). It's assumed that linemen are sure things, and that as long as they stay healthy, the narrative has stayed true. After all, without stats, most scribes have no time (or no idea) how to watch linemen individually.

Frankly, though it's a subjective stat, we'd love to see how linemen grade out per play (remember that Blake Larsen famously graded at 100% during his senior season at Atlantic; lord, had those knees survived...) Without having the means to undertake such an activity ourselves, we'd imagine that if you graded each Iowa offensive lineman, Kyle Calloway or Dace Richardson would probably be at the top.

If they're not, which is possible, then it would probably be the guy who didn't even get an honorable mention: Riley Reiff. He was stout in relief of Bulaga--hell, we're pretty sure O'Brien Schofield would not have batted Reiff around like a catnip mouse, unlike some Iowa linemen--and he basically forced his way into the starting lineup even before Big Dace went down. But since he wasn't even a projected starter, to say nothing of a preseason honoree, Reiff didn't have much of a chance for postseason mention. Shame, really; dude is legit, and he hasn't even filled out his frame yet.

As for the skill players, it's a little disappointing that Stanzi only made one honorable mention team. But we get how that can happen. Spievey only making second team in the media is flatly ridiculous. If he'd put together that same season in an Ohio State uniform, he'd be getting All-American talk.

Other than that, we don't have a ton of beef; Stanzi killed himself by leading the conference in interceptions when he went down to injury, and the rest of the offensive skill players were far too inconsistent or hurt to merit much consideration. Jeremiha Hunter not getting any honorable mention love is a little disconcerting, but the BXI was lo-ho-hoaded at linebacker this season; we're not quite sure whom we'd place him above. He'll get some love in 2010 if he stays healthy. Also--given the play of Jeff Tarpinian in relief--if Hunter stays healthy between now and next September, there's no position battle at weakside backer next season, right?

So, all in all, a fair list, even if the voting on offensive linemen is basically a year behind schedule. It's a year behind for everyone else, after all. Anybody else that you folks think got shafted? Did Marvin McNutt deserve a nod, or is he still a year away from recognition?

*/Farnsworth'd

The Last Gopher Friday Preview Until Pizza Pizza? Minnesota at Iowa, November 21, 2009

JG2112 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:14 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

I knew life wouldn't be good once I got kicked out of the Institute of Technology.

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Give me or Tressel the Patriots. We would have punted on third down. 10:06 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck
- from the "Not Kirk Ferentz" Twitter stream - http://twitter.com/NotKirkFerentz

Saturday is the end of the college football year, for all intents and purposes. outside of some rivalry games and conference title games. Then onto the bowls. Really, other than Florida/Alabama and Texas (or maybe TCU?) , the 66 or so bowl participants will be taking part in exhibition games in late December and early January in mostly warm climates, of which the most impressive part of the experience is usually the gifts given to the student-athletes that somehow are allowed under NCAA rules (example: last year each Gopher got a Vizio 26-inch LCD HDTV, a Bulova watch, and a Hat at the Insight Bowl.) Besides the gifts, ask Corey Wootton, Willis McGahee or Glen Mason: only bad things really happen in bowl games for the participants.

But back to tomorrow, when Tim Brewster will try for a significant milestone - his first rivalry game win. Last week Brew got his first win in November as a college coach. This week, a Big Ten win in November will increase his record in rivalry games to a robust 1-7. This comes on the heels of Maturi's weird comments to Sid in Thursday's Star Tribune, which indicated an endorsement of the program's direction but a peculiar non-endorsement of the coach. And while we can be literal and say that the only way that Brewster's job comes under fire is if they lose the next two games by 100 in the aggregate, the fact it's even being suggested is foolish in my opinion, but could be suggestive of things going on at Fort Bierman.

Iowa enters this game having endured a rough November thus far. First off, Northwestern put paid to Iowa's national championship hopes in Kinnick, and then Kirk Ferentz's lack of backbone gave away the outright Big Ten Title to Ohio State (pending their beatdown of Michigan). Oh yeah, Minnesota won't be the beneficiary of any Stanzi-balls on Saturday, either.

That really is unfortunate, because the backup QB, freshman James Vandenberg, played rather well in the Horseshoe, completing 20/33 for 233 yards, 2 TDs and 3 INTs (one at the end of the 1st half, one in OT). Playing in front of friendly fans may make him more relaxed. Then again, the pressure of Senior Day and the Pig may make him channel his inner Stanzi and get acquainted with BIG PLAYE TRAYE.

Looking at the rest of the offense, you know what you're getting with Iowa. The big hogs up front are interchangeable and generally awesome. LT Brian Bulaga is the standout. The Hawkeyes like running stretch plays where a TE (normally Tony Moeaki) will go in motion to Bulaga's side, and whichever RB is in the game (Adam Robinson, Brandon Wegher, Paki O'Meara) will plow behind those two for big chunks of yardage. As has been the case this year, Minnesota's DTs need to keep Iowa's line occupied so Campbell, Triplett, Lawrence and/or Cooper can flow to the ball, attack the lead blocker, and cut the play back for the help to arrive. If the D-line is pushed around and Iowa's line can get to the second level, this game will get ugly.

That's without mentioning Iowa's passing game, which as mentioned above, went for over 230 yards on Ohio State last week. Marvin McNutt is a former QB with significant height (please grow six inches Carter kthx) and superb speed, and I think every Minnesota fan knows about Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. Simmons (who returned to practice Wednesday after recovering from a leg ailment) and Marcus Sherels are carrying injuries which may make them vulnerable in pass coverage.

As for Iowa's defense, yikes. On the line, meet 2007 Cretin Derham Hall grad Broderick Binns (7 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks), along with Adrian Clayborn (8.5 sacks, 16.5 tackles for loss and THAT punt block against Penn State) and Karl Klug. The linebackers include A.J. Edds (65 tackles), Pat Angerer (119 tackles) and Jeremiah Hunter (83 tackles), and if you look to the secondary, meet Tyler Sash (6 INTs, 76 tackles), Amari Spievey, and Brett Greenwood.

This is the kind of defense that will give the Gopher offense fits (namely, competent and well-drilled). Iowa rarely sends its linebackers on blitzes because the front four can get pressure by itself. In almost every Gopher game this year we've watched this happen, so I'm even more concerned about tomorrow's game. Other than against Sparty, the Gophers, since the Penn State game, have had horrific pass protection which has led to Adam Weber looking like a true freshman in the pocket.

And sorry everyone, but this isn't the game to fully let MarQueis Gray loose on the football world. Brewster had his chance last week and decided not to, which suggests either coaching stubbornness or player incapabilities at this point. Gray, at this point in his development, would have been most effective against a team with slower defensive players who were frequently blitzing him and leaving him wide open running lanes, such as on November 14th at TCF. The last place you want Gray deciphering coverages is against a Norm Parker-drilled defense of veteran players, whose LBs don't even need to blitz you to get pressure.

So tomorrow you can expect Weber to be in the pocket, with lots of max protect (TEs and RBs) to provide support for Alford, Wills and Carufel in the hopes that Weber is given more than 3 seconds to wait for his WRs to break free from what are excellent Herkeye defensive backs. Once again, Hoese and Tow-Arnett will likely be utilized extensively in the passing game, trying to break the tackles of those excellent LBs. Blergh.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Brandon Green missed practice Wednesday with a knee injury and is questionable for Saturday? Calling Messrs. McKnight, Stoudermire, and yes, Carpenter, please be ready for action.

Anything else? Yeah. The forecast Saturday: around 55 and sunny.

Also, an aside: yeah, I recognize this is a conspiracy theory, BUT. The slate of games on Saturday is one of the least attractive collection of games I can ever remember this late in the season (thanks Florida and Alabama, among others, for scheduling soup cans this weekend). One of ESPN/ABC's featured games is Kansas at Texas.

Anyone else find it uniquely coincidental that ESPN is releasing an amazing slow drip of information from multiple sources (where have these former players been since August?) about Kansas HC Mark Mangino's bad temper and abuse at practice the same week it needs to drum up interest in a rather lackluster prime time game? At all?

Okay.

So what about Saturday? Minnesota has a chance here. It needs to attack Iowa's defense straight-on, because it can be run on. Weber cannot expect to spend much time, if any, looking in the pocket, and Fisch should not abandon the running game and put Weber into obvious passing situations.

As for Minnesota on defense, they need to roll support over to whoever is guarding the tall McNutt. Of course, this leaves the Gophers susceptible to either Johnson-Koulianos or Moeaki, but, you've got to try something.

Bottom line: games this year in Iowa City have been close. Northern Iowa, Arkansas State, Michigan, Indiana and NW were really all very tense, close games. Saturday SHOULD be no different. If the Gophers are not competitive, however, I guess Maturi will be having a discussion with Mr. Brewster about what is expected when the Gophers get their new TVs in Arizona. I don't see it happening.

Iowa 27 - Minnesota 20.

Even slower, my friends!

Sam @ WWAHT — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:43 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Neibergall - AP

about 1 month ago: Iowa quarterback James Vandenberg walks off the field after his team's 17-10 loss to Northwestern in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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StoopsMyAss over at BHGP recently did an excellent piece comparing the offenses of Ohio State and Iowa. The gist: both offenses may look bad, but Iowa's offense has come away looking slightly better against defenses whose average rank is a full 15 spots above the average rank of defenses Ohio State has faced. It's a completely fair assessment, and rather straightforward.

I figured I'd write a companion piece, since BHGP was just bitching (and rightfully so) yesterday that no one really seems to be willing to talk about the actual game. So, all credit for the overall layout of this post goes out to SMA. Now, let's take a look at the proverbial strengths of both teams - the defenses - and see how they stack up using a similar metric.

When SMA ranked the defenses, he apparently did so using this set of standards:

"Good": National Top 40

"Bad" : 41st-90th nationally

"Awful": Below 90th, or not ranked

While I don't necessarily agree with the terminology, I'll use it anyway to keep this fairly compatible with his post.

Ohio State has played the following good offenses: USC (40th), Toledo (18th),

Ohio State has played the following bad offenses: Penn State (41st), Navy (77th), Illinois (66th), Indiana (76th), Purdue (58th), Wisconsin (45th),

Ohio State has played the following awful offenses: New Mexico State (120th), Minnesota (106th)

The average rankings of those offensive units is 64.7.

Now let's look at the teams that SMA would deem "good" offensively, one is USC, the other is admittedly a MACrifice:

USC: 118 rushing yards allowed, 195 passing yards allowed, on 72 plays

Toledo: 13 yards rushing allowed, 197 passing yards allowed, on 58 plays

Against the two best offenses the Buckeyes have faced all year, the defense surrendered on average : 196 yards through the air, and 104 yards on the ground

Now, I want to take this a step further: against "bad offenses", Ohio State has surrendered 93.3 yards on the ground, and 185 passing. This is inclusive of the debacle against Purdue and Wisconsin's day of long, grinding, surprisingly effective drives, both of which Iowa will attempt to recreate this week.

Now, let's take a look at the Iowa defense, using the same metric as was applied to Ohio State:

Iowa has played the following good offenses: Arizona (13th), Michigan State (28th)

Iowa has played the following bad offenses: Iowa State (69th), Penn State (41st), Michigan (44th), Wisconsin (45th), Indiana (76th), Northwestern 60th

Iowa has played the following awful offenses: Arkansas State (94th), Northern Iowa (NR)

The average rank of the offenses Iowa has faced is 52.1.

Against "good" offenses, Iowa's defense gave up an average of 186.5 yards through the air, and 95 on the ground. These numbers are roughly ten yards better than Ohio State's against "good" offensive teams, and they come against two attacks that are statistically more potent on average than the ones Ohio State played.

But let's move onto the "bad" offensive comparison for the Hawkeyes, where things are a bit more nuanced: against those six teams, Iowa gave up an average of 130 yards on the ground, to go with 152.3 through the air. That still averages out roughly on par with Ohio State's numbers against "bad" teams, in terms of total yards allowed: 284.3 to Ohio State's 278.3. That, however, comes with a 40-yard uptick in rushing yards allowed over the aforementioned "good" teams (one of which - MSU - features an anemic 71st-ranked rushing attack). Fortunately for us, running the ball is our forté, and Iowa is at least a tad susceptible on the ground.

A couple of other notes: I think Iowa's game against Arkansas State - they surrendered 296 yards of total offense to the country's 94th-best offensive attack - was a bit of an aberration defensively. I think it's analogous to Ohio State's game against Minnesota, in which the Buckeyes surrendered 286 yards to the country's 104th-best. That said, the end results were vastly different: Iowa beat ASU 24-21, while Ohio State trumped Minnesota 38-7.

So what does it all mean?

I took away from it this: Iowa's defense is probably better than even "14th in total defense" would indicate, and simply cannot be faulted for the Northwestern game. Regardless, after having considered all the mitigating factors, I think it's a stretch to issue any declarative statements about them actually being better than Ohio State, which, to my knowledge, no one has actually done yet. They have faced a better set of offenses, and it wouldn't be a stretch to infer that their total D ranking has suffered as a result.

This is why I'm so hesitant to predict any sort of blowout. I know Iowa is starting the guy from Varsity Blues, and he was horrible against a terrible Northwestern defense, but that doesn't mean Ohio State will win going away. It has to score points, and them don't come easy against the Hawkeyes. You want a ray of hope? Statistically, Penn State's defense is still better than Iowa's, and Ohio State was just fine cobbling together a passing game and mowing down the PSU front with the running game. Where Iowa is strong - at DE - is a concern, but if this line can limit Jared Odrick and Jack Crawford, I think it'll do alright against Adrian Clayborn and Karl Klug. In the end, these teams are far more even than most on our side are willing to admit. Yes, maybe Iowa will score just one offensive touchdown, and perhaps their quarterback will throw three picks and no touchdowns. How can we be so sure that that negates the possibility of a victory, when the Hawks won in Happy Valley with that exact same stat line?

There's A Game On Saturday?: Bitchconsin

Oops Pow Surprise — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:35:47 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

Please let us not lose to this man. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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The title of this one is about all the woofing we'll do at the Badgers, because we are completely unenthusiastic about this game and the task in front of Iowa. In fact, we'll eschew the typical matchup approach we usually do and just focus on a few problems, one at a time.

Iowa's rush defense has quite a challenge in front of them. We're mighty big fans of both Karl Klug and Broderick Binns, who are pass rushers nonpareil and some of the most tenacious d-fenders on the team. The problem is that part of the reason that Iowa's rush defense has been so underwhelming this year is because Klug and Binns can't move a line of scrimmage on run plays. It's not really a matter of poor technique, necessarily, but being that they barely combine to break five bills, they can be moved by a talented lineman. Sure, they might shed a block, but unless it directly results in a tackle, all they're doing is letting the lineman get to the next level and harass a linebacker.

Some pundits think the fact that Wisconsin doesn't run a spread or design runs for the quarterback works in Iowa's favor. Maybe, but probably not as much as they think. If Iowa has any success against the run, it'll be because Zach Brown isn't there to keep John Clay's legs fresh for four quarters and their third string tailback is Jamelle Notonthedepthchartforareason.

Iowa has won all six of their games, yes, but in five of them, the defense was tasked with stopping a big drive late in the game. In four of those five games, the defense failed. Against UNI, the special teams bailed Iowa out twice. Against Arizona, backup quarterback Nick Foles shredded Iowa with disturbing ease en route to pushing the game within 10. Against Penn State, okay, watching Clark's confidence self-immolate was cool. Against A-State, the Red Wolves cut a lead to three by converting third down after third down. Against Michigan, Denard Robinson put together a not-that-difficult 4th quarter drive to cut the lead to two after standing on the sideline the entire game. This is not a good fourth-quarter pattern. Do you really trust Iowa to slam the door on Wisconsin with the game on the line? We kind of don't.

At the very least, we can point to the fact that Iowa's linebackers and safeties are experienced, returning starters; it's going to take more than a simple playfake to get someone wide open, in other words. So the good news is that Tolzien probably won't shred Iowa's pass defense. The bad news is that he probably won't need to.

A magnificent bastard is still a bastard all the same. Oh, Ricky Stanzi. Heismanzi has now rang up over 280 yards of passing in each of his last two games, each with some sweet long balls (LOL). He has also given away a touchdown in those games. That's fine to do against a creampuff pushover like A-State or just Michigan, but it's going to be horror if Iowa finds itself down 7-3... then it turns into 14-3 because Ricky tried to out-STANZIBALL himself (though it'll be hard to ever top his last two achievements, each stunning in their ineptitude).

At the same time, it's easily possible that DJK gets a little bit more with the program and the vaunted Iowa wideout corps actually puts together a good game and Iowa gets a few touchdowns. But considering nobody on the team averages at least 50 yards of receiving a game, this would be, ahem, unexpected.

Clogging rushing lanes like so many local fans' arteries. As Hlas pointed out in yesterday's chat, Wisconsin hasn't allowed 100 rushing yards to a Big Ten opponent yet this season. Okay, granted, OSU spent the entire day scoring without letting Pryor even take a snap, and Minnesota and Michigan State are pretty miserable. Buuut then you look at Iowa's backfield and it's two guys splitting carries--neither of whom are named Jewel or Jeff or Shonn or LaDainian (hey, we can dream). They've been somewhat productive and they don't suck, but Brandon Wegher has been largely bottled up by good defenses, and Adam Robinson is just begging for a disastrous strip from behind with the way he runs the ball. They'll probably get to that 100-yard mark, just based on the way Iowa approaches a game, but 150 seems more than a little iffy. Also, their three combined first downs in the entire Michigan game are another disconcerting omen).

At the same time, Ferentz is still juggling his line, which is historically a bad omen for success, and Bryan Bulaga doesn't look like even an approximation of his dominant 2008 self. Whether it's his thyroid still bugging him or just rust or some nagging injury--whatever--he's not blowing guys off the ball anymore. NFL scouts can't be impressed--and, we're guessing, neither are Ferentz or Reese Morgan.

All of which is to say there isn't a ton going right for Iowa in this game. Scott Tolzien struggled mightily against OSU and their tough front seven, which bodes well for Iowa, but the odds that Sco-Tolz (we just made that nickname up, believe it or not) is going to throw a pick-six in another game in a row are probably so remote that... well, we'll probably have to call up George Wine for this one.

And why does it have to be an 11:00 a.m. game? Seriously, damn it guys. And it's at the same time as the Red River Shootout. Such bullshit.

Prediction time: The Hawks are going to have to be as stout as ever on defense, because the offense isn't likely to give them a ton of help. That's not to say there's no chance Iowa gets to 27 or 28 points, but it's far more likely that they struggle to get to half that total. And really, any team would struggle to put 13.5 points on a scoreboard.

Nearly every independent pundit is giving Wisconsin the win in a close game. We--okay, I--think it'll be something closer to 27-16. It's tough to trust Iowa to get into the end zone and make the most of their red zone opportunities, and this smallish defensive line is the perfect target for the line-em-up and run-straight-ahead John Clay attack. It makes us sick to write all that and we hope we're wrong.

The Rivalry Is Watching You: Iowa LB Pat Angerer v. Michigan

grahamfiller10 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:26:30 -0000

This week, I chose to watch Pat Angerer take on the zone read of Michigan. Would the Michigan O-Line get to the 2nd level and mitigate the effect of PA? Would Pat turn Tate Forcier's lights out? Is this all-conference MLB worthy of the praise lavished on him since the Penn State game?

First Possession, First Half, 7-0 Michigan

Lined up in an offset 4-2, Angerer is almost heads up on a WR. He bumps the WR and ignores the Forcier run. If Tate doesn't slip, this is a huge play for the Wolverines. Lined up on the other side (strong side), PA adjusts and dives at Minor, missing the tackle. Now at MLB, PA sniffs out the play and easily chases down Minor. Lines up on the inside slot receiver and chases him down the field as Forcier whips a pick to Hunter.

Second Possession, 7-7

On this kickoff return, Stonum got absolutely killed by a backup Iowan, btw. PA as the MLB, gets shielded easily by the OT and Minor gets a 7 yard gain. Next play, PA run blitzes and gets picked off again by the OT. Not swimming past those blocks yet. Reads pass correctly on third down, but cannot stay with Martavious Odoms and gives up a completion. 2nd and five and PA is not fooled by the read option. Forcier looks at Angerer and falls down. PA picks up Forcier. Seems like a good guy. 4th down and the Wolverines go for it; PA bumps and holds the slot receiver while Forcier scrambles for a first down.

Hunter and Klug clean up the blocking on first down and PA gets a tackle for no gain. After a long pass, the Wolverines run away from PA and score from three yards out.

Third Possession, 14-10 Michigan

MLB, PA is eaten up by an OL and Minor flies by him. MLB again, but the Iowa outside contain works well and PA jogs over to watch his teammates clean up. First down, Forcier fumbles the ball off his foot and Iowa recovers. Angerer had read the screen anyways.

Fourth Possession, 14-13 Michigan

UM runs right at PA, who holds up the tight end until help arrives. Minor still gets 7. PA blitzes again, but Forcier throws for the first. Forcier scrambles on the read option and Angerer misses the tackle, but forces Tate back into the middle.

Fifth Possession, 20-14 Iowa

Lined up offset middle, Angerer takes on a block but the defense pretty much cleans up. Another blitz from the outside but PA doesn't get close to Tate. Hunter is a killer btw. Now third down, PA drops back in Zone and then chases Forcier down on the scramble, but someone else ends up making the tackle. Sort of a reoccurring theme.

Sixth Possession, 20-14 Iowa

The announcers have embarked on a conversation about keeping balls warm, slippery balls, and Forcier being unable to handle the Michigan balls. Anyways, Angerer is again pushed out of the way by an OL, but the run is stuffed anyways. After a Forcier scramble and the lucky long completion to Odoms, PA makes his first big play. Bombing down the line, PA and Klug slam into Minor and force a fumble.

Seventh Possession, Second Half, 20-14 Iowa

As the MLB, PA flows to the ball on first down, but is unable to make a play...so someone else does. It's punt time after a low Forcier throw and a Binns knock down.

Eighth Possession, 23-14 Iowa

Angerer drops into pass coverage and moves properly with the roll out. He does the same on the next play. Michigan is not throwing the ball anywhere near Angerer, a mistake that too many teams make. Plus, PA is never out of position. On third down, PA sticks with an inside slot receiver running an out. It doesn't matter, Binns knocks another ball down.

Other "Watching You" Articles

Corey Wooten struggled mightily when I watched him battle Minnesota's big tackle Jeff Wills.

Playing at home versus Cali, Adam Weber hates throwing the ball away and loves Eric Decker.

Ian Thomas, promising Illinois linebacker, is a coach on the field even as a sophomore against Illinois State.

Ninth Possession, 23-14 Iowa

MLB again, Angerer holds up Minor for five yards. Michigan switches to the I-Form and Angerer is double teamed - Minor picks up a first down. Now Michigan is running right at PA and a fullback cuts Angerer down, allowing Minor to fly by. UM is driving, it's first down. Forcier playactions right, but PA doesn't allow himself to be sucked into the line, holding his ground and forcing a dump off to the tailback. Now second and six, Michigan pounds the ball at Hunter and the left side of the Iowa line. PA is blocked by two Wolverines and Minor picks up another first down. The Power-I is finally moving the Hawkeye line and PA isn't able to fight off the blocks of the O-Line. First and goal, RichRod isn't throwing anymore, instead running directly at PA, who is blanketed by the offensive tackle. If your OT is getting to the MLB in the zone spread, it's a great sign. On second and goal, Minor scores easily as the d-line gets caved in.

Tenth Possession, 23-21 Iowa

Michigan is pinned at the two yard line and Iowa is hoping for a safety, ala two weeks ago. PA is offset middle; he avoids a block, chops his feet, but it doesn't matter because Klug makes a tackle for no gain. After Iowa almost gets a coverage safety, Forcier rolls right to throw the bomb and Angerer almost gets to Tate in the end zone.

Eleventh Possession, 30-21 Iowa

Angerer is getting no balls thrown his way. Dropping in coverage, Forcier simply won't toss a ball over the middle. Second down now - a Michigan draw doesn't fool PA, who gets half a tackle for helping slam Minor to the ground. On third down, Clayborn (literally) concusses Forcier and another incompletion follows; PA was running with the slot receiver downfield.

Twelfth Possession (The Denard Robinson Experience)

A concussed and struggling Forcier is benched by RichRod, installing Denard Robinson in at quarterback. As Michigan State said last week, if Denards in, their running the ball. This should provide more excitement for Angerer. First Down and 10 - Angerer collides with Minor, but Denard runs right by for an 8 yard gain. Second and 2, PA skates down the line and smacks Denard, who barely picks up the first down. First and ten - a simple Robinson run and PA hangs onto the track star until help arrives. Second and five - finally a pass, a completion to the sideline to pick up the first. First and ten - PA as a true MLB, fights off a block and stops Denard again. Second and seven - Denard scrambles, Angerer gets juked, first down Meechigan. First and ten - Denard sprint middle left and PA detaches from a block enough to make another tackle after an eight yard gain. Second and two - Robinson throws a quick sit down route for a first down. First and goal - Angerer fills the hole and Clayborn lights Mike Shaw up. Second and goal - a quarterback sweep and it's third and goal, three yards to go. Some confusion on defense and Robinson dives by Angerer for a TD.

Conclusions, Statistics, Etc.

Angerer's Statistics: 8 tackles, 3 missed tackles, no passes defensed, no sacks, 1 quarterback hurry.

PA can line up all over the field; it's obvious Ferentz has complete confidence in his veteran linebacker. I thought all those interceptions he accumulated last year were luck - I was wrong, he's fantastic in pass coverage. Not only does he run downfield comfortably in coverage, but he matches up well with slot receivers too. Oh, he's tough as nails too, but I assume that's a given for Iowa linebackers. On the final drive, we finally saw Michigan challenge Angerer, but he did well to stop Robinson from breaking a long run. It's too bad Iowa won't face that many big time passing attacks - it would be a joy to watch him against an active pass catching tight end or quick slot receivers.

Physically, PA moves his hips well and moves smoothly instead of jerking around for fakes. He's not quick, but his good football instinct allows him to make up for the lack of quickness.The Iowa defense gets contributions from so many players that Angerer (who will make all-conf bearing a disaster) didn't have to do much of anything for most of the game. Does PA have any weaknesses? He doesn't lean into offensive lineman to fight for position, nor does he swim move effectively by, instead choosing to hand fight and ward them off. The seconds he spent jousting allowed Minor to break through for first downs. But that's nitpicking - I guess we'll see how he handles the stiff arms of Pryor and the precision of Cousins.

When a player comes from a long line of dominant linebackers and sports the coolest last name in football, it's easy for the hype machine to go into undeserved overdrive. But a healthy Pat Angerer has maintained his quickness and excellent form as the season has worn on - it will be exciting to see him take on Pryor's stiffarms and the finesse of Cousins.

The Takeaway: Arkansas State

Oops Pow Surprise — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:30:23 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Neibergall - AP

2 months ago: Arkansas State quarterback Corey Leonard (1) runs from Iowa defender Adrian Clayborn (94) during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, in Iowa City, Iowa. Iowa won 24-21. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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Sure, Iowa just eked out a win against Arkansas State, 24-21. But how much do we really know? What was really important about beating A-State? What does it all mean, Basil? The Takeaway has the answer.

Things that were not a problem: Rush defense. There, that's the whole list.

Well, that went just great: We had said before the game that we wanted to see the following things:

We need to see that Bulaga and the rest of the line are up to speed. We need to see that Stanzi can start putting a team away from the first snap. We need to see that the defense can bring its A game when it doesn't need to. We need to see that Tony Moeaki can play four quarters without injuring himself. Okay, just the first three would be fine.

Okay, that would be a NO, KINDA BUT NO, NO, and ROR NO. Bryan Bulaga looked, frankly, like someone who had missed three weeks of gameplay. Stanzi had a good first half, but after his third touchdown of the game to open the second half, Bad Ricky finally showed up and brought A-State back from the brink. The defense was middling, though the rushing score streak remained intact (more on that in a bit). And at the very least, Moeaki is practicing again with the intent to play against Michigan. Fingers crossed.

What ended up happening isn't that it was a "trap game" or that ASU had any reasonable shot of winning. It's that a combination of lackluster focus, a four-year starter opposing quarterback, and poor playcalling helped get a clearly inferior team back into the game when they had no business being there as Iowa (successfully) played not to lose. In other words, it wasn't UNI 2009, but Purdue 2008. Remember that one? Shonn Greene goes bananas on Frank Duong, but a middling second half and random small mistakez aplenti means Purdue climbs back in late and the final's only 22-17.

The good news? You might remember what happened when Iowa had a more high-profile game the ensuing week. Kinnick North, bitches. In other words, you may not want to spend too much time extrapolating doom-and-gloom scenarios from this game. Maybe.

Hey, this play's working. Let's almost never run it: First, we have to talk about the playcalling. This was a 24-21 game that frankly ought to have been about 42-14. That Marvin McNutt only had four catches and 121 yards is a damned travesty, because he was bitchmaking like his name was Iowa Defense.

We would suggest calling McNutt "The bitchmaker," but come on; his name is Marvin McNutt. That'll do.

We're just astounded that the Iowa coaches didn't attack the ASU corners and safeties outside the hashes more often. It's clearly not that Stanzi doesn't have the arm for it; all three of his touchdown passes were pretty, and the couple failed attempted to go downfield didn't exactly seem to us like signs that the deep ball was closed for business. And yet time and time again, it was stretch zones, usually to the right (where Julian Vandervelde was channeling his 2007 self and getting utterly worked). Either that or play-action passes within 10 yards, which, whatever guys.

We're not saying that Iowa needed to pull a RUTS for the rankings' sake or any of that nonsense. That stuff does not matter unless it's time for the type of talk that everyone agrees is premature: BCS. No, the problem is that Iowa could have put A-State away by throwing wheel and fade routes all day long (see the second half of Northwestern, 2007) and they just wouldn't go downfield.

This should have happened like five times.

It didn't help, of course, when Stanzi gave the Red Wolves their second touchdown with one of the most horrendously lazy and ill-advised throws we've ever seen in Division I football. That is not an exaggeration. If Stanzi had turned around and tried to punt the ball through Iowa's uprights, it would have not have been a considerably worse decision than that throw. If Jake Christensen had done that, JC6 would have been murdered by a sniper in the press booth before he could get to the sideline, and the police wouldn't have bothered looking for the shooter. Hell, it would have been the largest cheer from the crowd on the day. Holy shit what a terrible fucking throw. That throw gave my eyes AIDSAWAC (Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome Also With Ass Cancer).

But why are the coaches even calling for a clearly hobbled DJK to run an underneath route, especially on 3rd down and with the linebackers playing short zone all day long? It's hard to figure out who put Iowa in less position to succeed there. That's like running a reverse with "Mr. 4.8 40" Dominique Douglas in the fourth quarter of a bowl game where you're losing by one point and oh wait this is Iowa and never mind I should expect the horror by now.

So the streak's still going. Great?: Okay, on one hand, it's really cool that Iowa has now gone for eight games and another quarter without letting someone rush into the end zone, and it's even better that they've won each of the nine games that streak encompasses.

This, as you might have guessed, was not a touchdown.

But if Iowa's still giving up long drives and touchdowns, then it doesn't really matter how the other team gets into the end zone, does it? We're taking nothing away from the Iowa rush defense, of course; their efforts have been massive, and 25 rushes for 80 yards allowed is all sorts of studly, especially as ASU was gathering just 5.4 yards per pass play.

Still, for the second week in a row, the opposition put forward an interminable drive - this one for a touchdown, unlike PSU's 20-play field goal drive - where Iowa couldn't stop the 3rd down conversion (okay, they did once, but that was an easy 4th and 1 conversion after a 3rd and 27, which is unconscionable in its own right). Part of it is missing Shaun Prater, to be sure, and Prater's going to be back against Michigan. No more Willie Lowe is a good thing at this point, and lord only knows how bad Greg Castillo would have been out there.

Look, the streak's going ot end at some point, and odds are that it'll probably be during an Iowa victory--Iowa's favored by about a touchdown against Michigan, and we can't imagine that they'll be underdogs in any more than two of the final seven games of the season. Someone's going to take a pass to the one, then push one in for a score; either that, or they'll pull a Wisconsin 2008 and run wild on a defense comprised of Iowa's 3rd stringers, band members, and yippie dogs in Hawkeye sweaters. And that'll be that, really; after all, since the win streak started against Penn State, we can't remember when Iowa's red zone rush defense has even mattered to the endgame. Maybe Arizona, but eh. Cool stat, but ultimately trivial.

Not trivial: Karl Klug's desire to kill.

And finally, it comes. This is a big week. BHGP's doing the Iowa-Michigan tailgate, and it looks like we'll be setting up shop in the Myrtle Lot and getting started at around 9 a.m. on Saturday. We were angling for parking passes closer to Kinnick, but when they're running over $200 a pop... on the prior Sunday... yes, that's a bad sign. It probably isn't even worth asking if there's any BHGP readers who won't be using their passes for next week's game, right? Either way, let's do this, bitches. We've got the Kahlua and cream if you've got the Swedish Goose.

(Picture credits: Hunter picture and second McNutt picture: John Schulz, Quad City Times; all others below the fold, Matthew Holst, Press-Citizen)

Tougher Than the Rest

Bama Hawkeye — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:50:29 -0000

In 2003, after losing to the Iowa Hawkeyes for the second straight season, one of the defensive linemen for the Michigan Wolverines (and it kills me that I can't find the man's name) made a fantastic statement about the Hawks. "I hate playing them, " he said. "They're the bullies of the Big Ten."

All that I could think as I watched Iowa's front seven push around Penn St. for the last three quarters of Saturday Night's game, was that the Bullies were back. As Kirk Herbstreit correctly noted during the broadcast, when Coach Ferentz has had his best teams, it's been seasons when the line play has been dominant. It's beginning to look like this is one of those years.

What follows is a look at some of the pretty amazing things that these Bullies of the Big Ten have been doing.

Here are five fun stats for you:

Only one team in college football has defeated a Top 5 ranked opponent in each of the last two seasons. The Iowa Hawkeyes.
Only one team in college football has won three games (with two of them on the road) against BCS conference opponents this season. The Iowa Hawkeyes.
Penn State, Arizona, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa - the four teams that Iowa has defeated this season - have a combined record of 12-4. That's right; the only team that each has lost to has been the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Penn State scored the last rushing touchdown against Iowa - in the third quarter of their game last year. That equates to more than 7 games (435 minutes and 29 seconds to be precise) without allowing a rushing touchdown.
Penn State dominated the first quarter of the game, holding the ball for more than 11 minutes and scoring in the two most excruciating ways. Long bomb? Check. Long drive? Check. However, over the last three quarters of the game, Iowa had the ball for 27:45. Penn State had it for only 17:15.

The defense has been awesome. Amari Spievey has developed into the best corner of the Ferentz era. The safeties, especially Tyler Sash, can ballhawk with the best of them. The linebackers seem to be in on every play. And the defensive line...do you remember that coming into the season, this was the question mark on the Iowa defense? As OPS noted at Black Heart Gold Pants:

There isn't a single starter on the line that didn't affect the game in a big way. Broderick Binns? 2.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, and consecutive ownings of DeOn'tae Pannell that led to an Iowa safety (this sealed Pannell's fate; he was benched shortly thereafter).Christian Ballard? Probably the most consistent resident of the PSU backfield, and he tipped the last INT to A.J. Edds, effectively ending Penn State's hopes. Karl Klug? Multiple big plays, not the least of which was recovering a Penn State fumble in Iowa territory in the fourth quarter... a good 30-40 yards or so from his spot on the field at the snap. And Adrian Clayborn? Oh, only two tackles and O HAI GAME WINNING TOUCHDOWN K THANX. Among the four, they badgered their linemen, the PSU backs, and Daryll Clark into enough miscues that when it came time to reclaim the lead, the Penn State offense really had no chance down the stretch.

Further--not that removing data is a great way to bolster your point, but bear with us for one second--excepting the 79-yard bomb to Chaz Powell, and combining lost fumbles and INTs into a generic turnover stat, here's an average of what the last 3 starting QBs have accomplished against the Iowa defense: 8-22, 83 yards, 0 TD, 3 TO.

So where can this Iowa team go from here? As every prognosticator and broadcaster has been contractually required to mention, Iowa faces the hardest road schedule in the Big Ten. They have to travel to Madison, where they'll meet a rejuvenated Badger squad. They have to travel to Michigan State, in a series where the home team has won every game since 1995. They have to travel to The Ohio State University, to face a team that they have beaten four times since LBJ became President. To put that in perspective, Iowa has more Big Ten titles than victories over Ohio State since 1963. The home schedule looks more manageable, which is more of a statement about the road trio awaiting than the home games against Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana, and Minnesota. So yes, the two-thirds of the road that remains looks difficult.

But if you think that Ricky Stanzi and his receivers can play better than they have, you could do worse than to think that Iowa may just win this thing. But if you see the running game starting to take shape, you could see the Hawks becoming more dangerous. But if you believe that defense wins championships, you could do worse than to believe in Iowa.

The Takeaway: Penn State

Oops Pow Surprise — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:00:20 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

2 months ago: In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, Penn State running back Evan Royster, left, is taken down by Iowa defenders Pat Angerer, center, and Karl Klug, right, during the first half of their NCAA football game in State College, Pa. Iowa's defense handed the Nittany Lions their first loss for the second-straight season. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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Sure, Iowa just choked out Penn State, 21-10. But how much do we really know? What was really important about beating Penn State? What does it all mean, Basil? The Takeaway has the answer.

Goodbye, Kroul and Unusual Punishment; hello, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Good merciful heavens, the defensive line: There isn't a single starter on the line that didn't affect the game in a big way. Broderick Binns? 2.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, and consecutive ownings of DeOn'tae Pannell that led to an Iowa safety (this sealed Pannell's fate; he was benched shortly thereafter). Christian Ballard? Probably the most consistent resident of the PSU backfield, and he tipped the last INT to A.J. Edds, effectively ending Penn State's hopes. Karl Klug? Multiple big plays, not the least of which was recovering a Penn State fumble in Iowa territory in the fourth quarter... a good 30-40 yards or so from his spot on the field at the snap. And Adrian Clayborn? Oh, only two tackles and O HAI GAME WINNING TOUCHDOWN K THANX. Between the four, they badgered their linemen, the PSU backs, and Daryll Clark into enough miscues that when it came time to reclaim the lead, the Penn State offense really had no chance down the stretch.

This is, of course, to take nothing from the back 7. Where do you want to start? Amari Spievey atoning for his first-play scorching with more lights-out tackling and coverage? Shaun Prater for baiting Clark into a bad interception with the Nittany Lions in field goal range? Defensive player of the week Pat Angerer for his 14 tackles, pick--and its 38-yard return that set up Iowa's only offensive TD--and forced fumble? And didn't it seem like Jeremiha Hunter (12 tackles) was in on just about every play--especially those near the line of scrimmage? In fact...

Good merciful heavens, the entire defense: It's hard to think so after watching the UNI near-disaster, but might this defensive unit be even better than the epic 2002 and 2003 units? Not to overstate the obvious, but think of this: there's no good way to attack them.

Experts don't even recommend punting as a safe deterrent.

You want to pass? Great; here's the last three starting quarterbacks to challenge the Iowa secondary: 26-68, 1 TD, 327 yards, 8 INT. Further--not that removing data is a great way to bolster your point, but bear with us for one second--excepting the 79-yard bomb to Powell, and combining lost fumbles and INTs into a generic turnover stat, here's an average of what the last 3 starting QBs have accomplished against the Iowa defense: 8-22, 83 yards, 0 TD, 3 TO. You can add decimals if you need to, but whatever.

Then there's the run game. As Bellanca has noted multiple times, the game that started this win streak--last year's win over PSU--is also the last game in which Iowa has given up a rushing touchdown. Often, as with Minnesota and ISU, teams never come close. This game was no exception.

The reason? Defensive tenacity, and that absolutely must be a product of good, hard practicing. It's why even as Royster had gotten to the corner on a stretch play for a first down, the Iowa defenders didn't panic, instead poking the ball away and fielding it cleanly (not to put too fine a point on it, but the distance between Klug's spot at the snap and where he recovered the ball is about a 40-yard run away; that he was right there to be the first man to make the play is no accident). Yes, they gave up a 20-play drive in the first quarter, but look at it another way; PSU had to run 20 plays just to get 68 yards, and they only got three points for that effort. It was their last drive of over 40 yards for the game. In fact, one would think this Iowa team is unstoppable, except...

Good grief, the offense: Look, Ricky Stanzi did go 11-26 with two picks, but that included only about 1 1/5 Stanziballs and about 8 instances of receivers going Full Herb Grigsby. You never go Full Herb Grigsby. We can bitch about Paul Chaney Jr. dropping a 3rd down slant route or balls sailing off other receivers' hands, but what good does it do? Hell, Colin Sandeman literally kicked a dropped pass over to a Penn State player. How does that even happen?! In fact, you'd rarely think this when looking at a 11-26, 2 INT stat line in a crucial road game, but Ricky Stanzi actually took a big step forward in maintaining his discipline and composure. We wouldn't believe it if we didn't see it, either.

No offense, Mr. Robinson, but you're only in these pictures by accident.

That said, though, it's really obvious this offense hasn't had much cohesion thus far. If we were to ask you at the beginning of June what Iowa's record would be coming out of Happy Valley if the rocks of consistency thus far on the offensive line were Dace Richardson and Rafael Eubanks, you'd probably say 2-2, 3-1 with some luck. Then you'd shoot us in the face for the crimes of witchcraft and aggravated pessimism. Then let's toss in injuries to DJK, Jewel Hampton, Jeff Brinson, and Tony Moeaki. Y'know, just for good measure. It's downright miraculous that Stanzi hasn't bought a sword for decorative purposes; at that point, you may as well have written James Vandenberg in with a ballpoint pen.

Our point is this: the offense was pretty bad against Penn State. The problem wasn't three-and-outs, mind you; there was only one of those, and it came on that dropped slant route we mentioned earlier. In fact, a full five drives ended in Penn State territory in the first half alone; Iowa had three offensive points to show for them. That is wasted opportunity, and a situation that an average defense usually cannot rectify.

The solution, then, is health and/or consistency. Either Iowa gets back the guys it expected to start during summer practice, or the second-stringers become part of the first unit just so the same 11 guys can start practicing together. Give credit to Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher for combining for over 200 yards from scrimmage, but without a more productive offense as a whole, Iowa could in major trouble against tough defenses.

That all said, this is one of the great post-Evashevski Iowa wins. While you only need to look back to that fateful night in Kinnick last season for the last time Iowa knocked off a top 5 team, you'll have to go back to 1990 to find a similar performance on the road; that was at #5 Illinois. There, Nick Bell demolished an entire team en route to a decidedly non-fluky victory. Here, it was the Iowa defense's front seven doing the trick. There, Iowa parlayed it into the team's last trip to Pasadena, touching off a nearly 20-year drought (yes, 2002 should have broken that, but... y'know). Here, can Iowa similarly parlay a big-time road win to big-time bowl glory? No pressure or anything.

The "I" stands for "Fuck You."

(All images credited to Matthew Holst of the Press-Citizen)

Grading The Offense: Nittany Lions Put The Turd In Saturday

Run Up The Score — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:06:50 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

2 months ago: Iowa's Broderick Binns (91) closes in on Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark (17) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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Seemed like it would be a pretty easy night after that first offensive play from scrimmage and the 20-play, ten-plus minute field goal drive, didn't it?

First, the drive chart (from espn.com):

When you hear the old cliche about football games being won in the trenches, Exhibit A should be Saturday night's game. On the 20-play drive, Penn State wasn't necessarily dominating Iowa's defensive line, but was certainly getting a consistent push. That trend slowly eroded toward the end of the drive, as Iowa generated increased pressure on Clark when Penn State entered the red zone. You can see what happened throughout the rest of the game.

Quarterback Grade: D. The numbers are horrific. 12/32, 198 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT. The opening strike to Chaz Powell was a thing of beauty, and Clark was perfectly fine on the field goal drive. As Iowa began getting pressure on Clark, however, he clearly couldn't deal with it. By the second half, Clark was simply imagining pressure in the rare instances that Iowa's defensive linemen weren't in the backfield. This led to a number of plainly awful throws on what should've been relatively simple throws. Even on Clark's final interception, which was deflected at the line by the tenacious Karl Klug, Clark tried to impossibly fit the ball into an area between three Iowa defenders. It never would've had a chance even if Klug didn't get a piece of it. Clark remains an above-average college quarterback, but he just doesn't perform well when things start to break down around him. Too many physical and mental mistakes under pressure. He's not a superstar, and it's time to acknowledge it.

Running Backs Grade: C-. Royster ran for 69 yards on 17 carries, but his fourth quarter fumble squashed Penn State's last, best chance at tying the game. It seems that the lack of blocking has taken its toll on Royster's decision making, as well. He's known for making the right cut at the right time, but it's not happening for him so far this season. His mishandling of a short Clark pass led to a backbreaking interception. Stephfon Green got a few series as the feature back. Nothing really happened.

Spectacular 100mph Train Crash Test (via diagonaluk)

Offensive Line Grade: D-. Yes, Iowa deserves credit here, but it's hard to oversell how awful Penn State's offensive line was in the final three quarters of the game. DeOnt'ae Pannell was utterly owned by Broderick Binns on two plays, the second of which led to Iowa's safety. Nerraw McCormack came in for Pannell on the next series and promptly drew a holding penalty that wiped out a big gain to Derek Moye. Stefen Wisniewski often looked lost, and his shotgun snaps are still consistently low, making Clark work a little harder to scan the field. His move to center seems like a worse idea as the weeks go by. This section could go on forever, so here's the summary: too often, the offensive line doesn't know who to block, and when they do know their assignments, they aren't getting the job done with alarming frequency. Temple caused them problems, so it's no surprise that Iowa blew them up. Spells big trouble against a team like Ohio State.

Wide Receivers: B-. Hard to get a read on their performance because there were so many breakdowns by the offensive line and quarterback. Chaz Powell created nice separation on his long touchdown catch and run. Derek Moye still looks very, very good. Everyone else was missing in action.

Coaching Grade: D. Hey, it's easy to say that the players on the offensive line aren't getting the job done, but it's up to the coaching staff to get the proper personnel on the field and make adjustments in protection. That never happened. Passing plays often too slow to develop, given the pressure that was being put on Clark. A stunning lack of emotion on the field, even when things were still going well.

Next Week: Illinois' defense was bad before they lost Martez Wilson for the season. If Penn State can't move the ball and score points against them, start planning on a third-tier bowl game in Orlando or Tampa.

The Takeaway: Arizona

Oops Pow Surprise — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:01:34 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Neibergall - AP

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Spinning side kick!

Sure, Iowa just beat up on Arizona, 27-17. But how much do we really know? What was really important about beating Arizona? What does it all mean, Basil? The Takeaway has the answer.

Okay, time for the real Iowa to face a real quarterback: As we mentioned Saturday, Iowa's defense has absolutely obliterated the last two starting quarterbacks it faced; Austen Arnaud and Matt Scott, in their two appearances against Iowa, combined for 14-36, 129 yards, 0 TDs, 5 INT, and 2 benchings. That's goddamn brutal. Scott, especially, suffered Iowa's wrath; he was 4-8 for 50 yards. Then the second half started, and he completed precisely 1 pass: a perfectly thrown can of corn to Tyler Sash, who announcers said "almost called for a fair catch" on the play. Lucky for Iowa, he didn't; Sash ended up returning the pass 43 yards, and Iowa would soon thereafter kick a field goal that put the game out of reach for Arizona.

But the one nagging issue is that Matt Scott sucks, and Arnaud's credentials are little better. Pat Grace--the one good QB Iowa has faced--antagonized Greg Castillo for a whole game, but Castillo was never supposed to be starting; that's basically Shaun Prater's job, and Prater looked pretty damned good in his first game back. Darryl Clark, meanwhile, is generally accepted as one of the two best QBs in the conference, depending on your opinion of Terrelle Pryor and--if you're clinically insane--Juice Williams.

No holding was called on this play. Not that Karl Klug cares, of course; not here, not ever.

It'll be good. No, really, it will be. Nobody thinks Iowa's going to hold Clark to the median of the last two starters' performances (7-18, 64 yards, and a statistically curious 2.5 INT), but what he can accomplish with a meh receiving corps against a legitimate pass defense does remain to be seen. We're still looking quizzically at the linebackers and their pass coverage, but does anybody really think Clark's going to victimize anybody in the Iowa secondary? Prater, maybe. Greenwood, maybe (By the way, CLICK HERE for awesome footage of the Iowa secondary in action). The real hay's going to be made over the middle for PSU, though, not over the top or outside the hashes, and it's going to be interesting to see if the Nits have the patience to stick with that. Arnaud didn't, and hell followed.

Speaking of which, holy crap Tyler Sash: Obviously, this trend of Tyler Sash and his separations of offense and possession cannot keep its pace. Sash, who we might remind you is just a sophomore, picked off his fourth pass on Saturday, and it might have been his easiest takeaway of his Iowa career. That makes 7 interceptions in his last 5 games, and it says nothing of Sash's missile-like pursuit to the sidelines.

This dominance has its costs, though, and the primary unbeneficiary of them is David Cato. Cato made his presence known by knocking Grigsby for a big loss after the Cats got to Iowa's 1. Ah, but the third down that failed on that play? Effected by Sash pressuring Scott into an impossible pass after Scott rolled out. So you see the problem here.

Making things tougher is the fact that both players are sophomores; Cato burned his redshirt out of necessity last season. But Cato is necessarily a strong safety. It seems like Ferentz is trying to get him on the field more often, usually on special teams, but someone's going to have to switch positions to get both guys playing. That someone isn't going to be Sash, who's probably the best strong safety Iowa's had since Bob Sanders (yeah, I said it). Fortunately, Cato's frame looks like it might be big enough for a move to LB; we'll see what the team decides after the season. It's a shame, because Cato looks legit in his own right; that legitimacy may necessitate a transfer for his own sake, though, and that would suck.

But we digress. If Sash keeps up this kind of production, he's going to go down as one of the best safeties in Iowa history. We're three games into his sophomore season, so it's obviously not quite the time to start deciding his place in the list of the greats; that pace has to actually, y'know, keep up first. But man, he's good.

The Paul Chaney Jr. end around: We think the novelty's worn off, guys. Yes, the defenses need to respect Chaney or he'll bust one, but... they've tried it, what, four times now? Five? And he hasn't come close to taking one to the house. Unless this is some first step in a grand scheme to pull off an epic quadruple reverse, Iowa has probably shot its "end around" load.

Two tailbacks? And neither of them are Jeff Brinson or Jewel Hampton? Um, we did not expect this: First of all, everybody who thought three months ago that Adam Robinson would rush for a C-note on Arizona, please raise your hand. Okay, thank you, Robinson family and Lincoln alumni; the rest of you are fucking liars.

On one hand, Robinson registered 101 yards on the ground and you cannot take that away from him. That said... 43 of those yards came on a busted draw on 3rd and 23, a play where the Arizona DBs would have faced sodomy from a Mag-Lite if they'd bit on any sort of play fake. That's important because the prevailing narrative about Iowa's uncaring treatment of Nic Grigsby included a caveat about 58 of Grigsby's 75 yards coming on one carry, and we cannot have it both ways. Yes, A-Rob was better per carry even with the big run taken away, but if we say Arizona's run game was taken away, we have to admit Iowa's fared little better on median; excepting the big run, between A-Rob and Brandon Wegher, Iowa rushed 34 times for 104 yards. That's about 3.1 yards a pop, and if Arizona can do that to Iowa, Penn State should expect something similar. That does not bode well.

All of this is to be expected, though. After all, we're talking about a backfield tandem of a redshirt freshman who was generally thought of as the 4th best returning tailback six months ago, and a true freshman from Sioux City. Yes, they've outproduced those bona fides thus far, but not by that much, and here comes a real Big Ten defense just wishing a motherfucker would try to go between the tackles on them.

So what to take away from the rushing game? Well, Robinson ran hard, Wegher did things nobody else on the team can do (A cannonball from the 4 on a goal line dive that scores with ease? Come. on.), and together, they're in for the fight of their young lives against a PSU defense that's going to be amped as fuck when Iowa comes to town.

EPIC ANGERER.

And finally, this team is pretty close to legit. We're not about to say Iowa was underrated when they were at #21/22 coming into the season. Based on the way the AP votes, that designation is just about all a random Team X could ask for after these first three games.

At the same time, Iowa's missed 6 of its top 7 players on offense for at least a full game this season. Don't believe us? Bryan Bulaga, DJK, Tony Moeaki, Kyle Calloway, Jewel Hampton, Julian Vandervelde. Of those six, only two are healthy now, and we're not sure how many more will be ready to rock by the time the Happy Valley date rolls around. Every one of those players Iowa gets back is one step closer to a win at Penn State. We don't think Iowa's got the victory in hand by any stretch, especially in its current form.

But Bulaga's better than Riley Reiff. Moeaki's better--especially for the run game--than Allen Reisner. DJK's better than Colin Sandeman. Even if improvements are incremental, they're still improvements, and Iowa could use all the help it can get towards getting closer to full strength for the PSU game.

And yet, Iowa's still already 3-0, and the defense is rounding into mid-season form already. Granted, this could still all end in a 40-point victory for the Nittany Lions, but we'll see how much good news Iowa gets in the lead-up to the game. Plus, if there's anything Ferentz has proven himself to be up for, it's BEATING PENN SCHTAAAATE.