The Iowa Hawkeyes received another great running attack from Shonn Greene today as he was able to compile his highest total yardage on the year with 159 yards on 21 carries before being knocked out of the game early in the 4th quarter.
Besides the big day by Greene the rest of the game was a total disaster. 5 turnovers and many of them seemed like complete mental breakdowns. Through all of the turnovers the Hawkeyes still should have won and basically handed the game to Northwestern who looked like the worst 5-0 team in the country. The Hawkeyes gave them the game and it looked like they didn't want to take it. In the end a win is a win and they got it done. But I would like to go the final 4 plays of the game which completely confused me.
I was never a big fan of Ken O'Keefe because I can't understand the play calling half of the time but today when his offense had a chance for a comeback in the end he didn't give them the opportunity to get it done. First off, I don't care if Shonn Greene is hurt, with 1st and goal from the 8 yard line you still have to run the football at least a couple of times considering you have been able to run all over the Northwestern defense all game long. Okay well that's done and over with you don't run the ball. But at least call passing plays that give you a chance. You can't throw jump balls every play and hope your guy comes up with it. I would have liked some crossing routes or something that may mix up the defense. It didn't happen and the Hawkeyes suffered an extremely disappointing loss for the second week in a row. So please figure out how to call plays that give yourselves a chance by next week.
This is the way I felt and I would love to hear about what others think because it completely blew my mind because as today showed I think we are a much better team than Northwestern and should have won despite 5 turnovers.
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I do have to say yesterday's game was so disappointing. Northwestern has got to be the worst team with a 5-0 record, it's embarrassing. My spirits were high after our first three wins and I thought last week against Pitt was just a fluke. I just don't know how we're going to match up against teams like Penn State, Illinois and Wisco. It should be an interesting season...
I do have to say Shonn Greene is tearing it up and it's nice to finally have a running back who is consistent.
Prieboy, the main reason we lost the game is because of the 5 turnovers, specifically when Brodell fumbled the punt return and gave the ball to Northwestern on the Hawkeye 30 yard line.
Ferentz finally tried to play agressively and call timeout with over a minute to go to get the ball back to the offense with a
17-3 lead. The crowd loved it and I loved it because I'm tired of Iowa always taking a knee or letting the clock run down at the end of a quarter or half.
Well guess what? It backfired on Ferentz as Brodell muffed the punt and the Wildcats punched it into the end zone right before half to make it a 17-10 game. That was a huge momentum changer, after Iowa dominated the majority of the first half.
Now Ferentz has to be second guessing himself and will definetly play conservative the rest of the year. Some of these mistakes were elementary school mistakes, that's the most frustrating part.
The two benefits that came from the game were that Greene was a beast yet again and Stanzi cemented himself as the starter for next week, and hopefully for the rest of the season.
Yea I understand the fact that the 5 turnovers cost Iowa the game. But the fact is we still had a chance at the end of the game. If it weren't for the 5 turnovers the game would have been a blowout in my opinion. The point I am trying to make is the fact that we were given a chance and didn't finish. At the 8 yard line I would have liked to see atleast one running play. Maybe it doesn't work but we still would have been in the same situation as an incomplete pass but say we run for 5 yards like we were the whole game then we have three shots from the 3 yard line and get the defense really thinking about what we might do run or pass. I agree the 5 turnovers are what killed us but we still had a chance. Thanks for your response though and I understand it completely.
I know a lot of people are upset about the play of the football team of late, but I think some people are overlooking the fact that we are actually moving the ball on offense and have a lot more playmakers. As Kirk said in his press conference today, "We're certainly further ahead than we were last year at any given point offensively. We're a better team offensively potentially." Now all we have to do is hold on to the darn ball and then we will really see what this team can do.
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