Saturday was about as painful 3 hours of television I've ever seen. I want to echo Proud Clone in saying that we need to support our team more than ever and Mark in saying that next week against Kansas State will provide the looking glass for the rest of the season.
In the meantime, I wanted to review the points I made before the game.
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ISU Offensive Line Play - ISU's Offensive and Defensive lines were simply outplayed on Saturday. They were pushed around, and generally non-entities, allowing Iowa's domination on both sides of the ball. I expect better against Kansas State, but the rest of the year is frightening from a line-play standpoint.
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Throwing to the Flats - It really didn't seem to matter where Arnaud threw it on Saturday, none of our receiving corps seemed to be able to catch the ball. Yes, Arnaud threw interceptions, but they weren't what lost us the game, it was desperation time for AA. One important note we learned, is that psychologically, ISU has a hard time coming from behind. It was very disturbing to see the instant dejection on the part of the team in the first quarter.
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Fooling the Defense - For the life of me, I can't seem to remember ISU ever using the zone read. If they did Iowa didn't buy the fake for an instant. ISU's running game was atrocious, I didn't even see Alexander Robinson playing in the 2nd half very often.
- Overall Game Play - We came out running and ended up with two 3 and outs, then we tried passing and still nothing. It was a downward spiral. Run defense will be essential next week vs Daniel Thomas, and losing To'fo'ou is getting close to panic level for the run defense.
- Jewel Hampton Hype - Well, it seems for Jewel Hampton, football is an on/off switch. Both he and Adam Robinson seemed to plow for yardage on every touch. It will be interesting to see if both of them can make 1,000 yards this year. If they do, expect to see Iowa knocking on the door of a national title. God help us all.
Two games down, ten to go. next week against Kansas State is going to tell us a lot. A win in KC will go a long way in preparing for UNI and Texas Tech. I'll post again later this week with things I'll be looking for against Kansas State, but I'm actually getting married on Saturday in California, so we'll see if I get to watch any of the game.
Go Cyclones and have a great week everyone!
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