 Marc MorehouseHi, I'm Marc Morehouse. I've covered sports for more than 15 years, mostly in Eastern Iowa. I've had Hayden Fry [...] |
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No nuance in Iowa’s approach
Hawkeyes ran the ball 9 times in first series, a definite spoiler alert
Fullback Mark Weisman follows his blocking during his 113-yard day. The sophomore walk-on rode terrific blocking much of the second half. Iowa set a physical tone from the first series. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)
IOWA CITY — Northern Iowa pretty much walked down the field for a touchdown on the game’s opening possession. Eight plays, 83 yards and seven points put Iowa’s offense in position to hold serve.
After last week’s ka-chunk, ka-chunk sputter against Iowa State, it was Saturday’s first tense moment at Kinnick Stadium.
The Hawkeyes’ answer took 10 plays, nine of which were runs. The message was clear. The Hawkeyes wanted to muscle their way past the Panthers, and they did, with fullback Mark Weisman scoring three TDs as the No. 3 running back in their 27-16 victory.
“It’s fun, we like running the ball,’ guard Matt Tobin said. “We had to check [switch out of] a lot of plays the first drive, so that’s why we ran a lot, but we liked it anyway. We like to set the tempo.”
As far as tempo setters go, Iowa’s first drive was a strong statement. Sophomore running back Damon Bullock rushed eight times for 53 yards to fuel the drive. Weisman closed it out with a 1-yard plunge.
“That’s something that we talked about all week,” freshman guard Austin Blythe said. “We knew they were a good defensive unit. We wanted to be physical.”
Iowa ran the ball effectively inside UNI’s 20-yard line, something that eluded it in a painful manner against Iowa State. It was a two-tight end set with fullback Brad Rogers leading the way that paved the way to three TDs in the red zone, the Hawkeyes’ first of the season.
“I expected them to rush the ball against us to try to establish their running game for the rest of the season,” UNI coach Mark Farley said. “So, against us, if I were the coach, I would’ve done the same thing. Try to get confidence in my run game.”
This also was one of those cumulative things. The run was part of everything Iowa did against the Panthers. When you average 4.7 yards on 43 carries, the play-action pass is convenience-store open, as in 24-7.
“We wanted to get the inside zone going and feed off that play,” Tobin said. “If we needed to fall back off that, we could. It also set up the play-action. The linebackers were coming down hard after that.”
Off the play-action, quarterback James Vandenberg zipped a 26-yard completion to wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley. This ended up with a Mike Meyer 24-yard field goal and gave Iowa a 17-13 lead in the second quarter.
On the first drive of the second half, Iowa went with back-to-back play-action passes. The fake sucked in the linebackers and the middle of the field was open for a 14-yard completion to tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz and a 51-yarder to Martin-Manley, Iowa’s longest play from scrimmage this season.
This drive was four plays, 70 yards and capped by another Weisman 2-yard TD run, and gave Iowa a 24-13 lead.
The O-line also made it possible for Weisman, a fullback who entered Saturday with four carries for 8 yards in his career, to have a career day.
“Unbelievable,” Weisman said about the O-line. “They were opening up holes and making my job easy, Brad Rogers, too. I was just running around out there having fun and they were doing the work.”
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The coaches knew this Weisman kid was great, that’s why they gave him ONE carry in each of the previous two games. Brilliant stuff. Had not two RB’s left this game with injury, Weisman would have gotten his solitary carry and no one would have thought a thing about it.
Brilliant coaching also kept UNI in this game, prevented Iowa from scoring into the 40s or 50s, and kept Iowa’s reserves nailed to the bench for the entire 60 minutes. But then who wants to get Rudock and company any playing time now just because Iowa will be losing its QB at the end of the season?
No, it’s more important for Kirk to nurture a baby lead, milk that clock, and rob the Hawkeyes of all momentum. Take the lead, sit on the ball, punt. Sit on it, punt. Watch those seconds tick away. Now that’s 21st century, exciting football, and understandable when the opponent is the mighty UNI Panthers.
Fourth and goal at the 1? You betcha. FG. Fourth and goal from a foot? Call the ONE play the defense is stacked to stop…run the lone set-back up the middle for a yard loss. See? That’s why couldn’t go for it before. The Panthers are too tough.
Or maybe you fake the dive off tackle and roll out the QB who walks into the end zone for a TD, twice.
Well, at least we Hawkeye fans can be proud we held off the mighty Panthers. Now it’s on to face that juggernaut from Central MIchigan. Kirk will do all in his power to make sure that one doesn’t get out of hand, either. And if Bullock is back, or Garmon, don’t expect to see Weisman ever carry the ball again. Remember, he only did so vs. UNI out of absolute necessity, nothing more.
I wonder how much Mark Farley makes at UNI? Some might say he does far more with far less than some people.
Mr. Sanji;
You should go into coaching, as you seem to have all the answers to what’s right and wrong in football coaching. Have you ever played or competed in a sport or you just a fan that second guesses?
Enjoy the next week.
Please everyone, be respectful.
Blow off steam here, warranted or not. We all love words and we’re all extremely, obsessively interested in Iowa football.
I knew the second-team QB complaint was coming. This team is in a fragile state. You could point to the missed back-shoulder throws as much as anything when it comes to Iowa scoring less than 40.
Rudock needs time. Given the current state, I don’t see him getting it. Up to you whether or not that’s a hanging offense.
The Weisman Initiative can be looked at a couple of different ways.
Sure, he doesn’t see touches if Bullock/Garmon stay healthy. That is an excellent and immutable point.
Another way is applauding the foresight to 1) use him at RB in practice this week (Podolak mentioned it in pre game, I immediately thought Rogers) 2) see what Weisman was capable of and putting him in position to maximize it.
Iowa coaches saw his skill set and put him ahead of Rogers early in camp. I tried to see if anyone in the postgame would bite on the “being in the Air Force Academy prepared him for something like this.” No, seeing RB reps in practice this week gave him a feel for where the holes would be and prepared him to have a shot at success.
I still wonder about long term, but Weisman is an intriguing piece to the puzzle (needs to work on his hands).
TC: I think Sanji’s point was that Hayden would have run a naked bootleg, and likely so would have Harbaugh. But that would have been too creative, perhaps, for you?
It was a great, team-building win for Iowa, but the dive on 4th and one won’t work against MSU, either.
Save the snark for subjects you understand. Sanji is making a valid point. And, I would add, I think Iowa is just setting up this play for later in the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfN83MjQUt4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTpNvo9RSc
The flipside of the same argument is that Iowa places great emphasis on the fundamentals. Thus, calling things as the coaches had forces the team to refine their “bread and butter” thereby making them that much better for later on in the season.
I think that fans too easily look at the game and see coaches as having to be strategists. In truth, the good coaches not only place emphasis on constructing effective game-plans, but they also place emphasis on things that will help the team improve and develop. As a teacher you have to always be mindful of what moments might serve as effective “teaching moments.”
There have been ridiculously many occasions early in seasons when I’ve seen the Iowa OL struggle mightily, only to show amazing choreography later in the season when we’ve faced formidable PSU, MSU, or tOSU Ds. We’re talking about defenses that could defend most teams rushing games with only 7 in the box … but they’d have to deploy extra resources to stop our running attack. While I can recall several examples of this, the one that really sticks out to me is the ’09 season. Just compare how Iowa’s blocking was early versus how they looked against Penn State.
I know that Sanji’s bigger concern possibly is the development of Ruddock. However, considering that Iowa really isn’t going to be losing that many guys on the O … the quality reps that the rest of the guys are getting by having to execute without gimmicks is arguably more valuable than ones that they’d execute with gimmicks. Besides, by that point in the game, even if Iowa had gotten the go-ahead TD, it’s not like Ruddock would have gotten a chance to see that many game-reps.
And yes, TC, I have played college football, not that that makes Sanji’s point more or less valid. Tu quoque is a poor rejoinder, and means the argument has already been lost.
Did those passing plays that worked yesterday look KOK-ish to you?
They did to me. Next post.
Yeah, Marc, I think we clearly took a half-step back in the playbook to make the guys comfortable and ensure a win.
Especially the big play to kevonte. Seems the staff is being proactive in their evaluations. Seen very few bubble screens after week one failures. Defensive 2nd half adjustments have been terrific.
As an Iowa fan, I’m elated for the victory and happy that our offense showed a little more life. However, to suggest that Weisman is capable of playing tailback the rest of the season is absurd. Weisman’s a football player. He’d succeed at TE or LB if given the chance. He’s tough, durable (so far), and clearly loves the game. He, without question, had a fantastic game when called upon yesterday.
However, if he’s our TB the rest of the season we are in some SERIOUS trouble. Your not going to be able to run over big ten defenses on a weekly basis and if it comes to us trying to do that with Weisman, our seasons over. Bullocks athleticism is what makes him great and without that athleticism (which, we clearly are lacking without him) were going nowhere fast. Garmon has shown a few flashes of this however, he’s still just a baby (in big ten years). Presuming no one is out for a lengthy period of time Bullock and Weisman make a GREAT combination to compliment each other. Yesterday, we at the most, found a short yardage and goaline back.