Archive page 41

Hawkeye Recruit Roundup: Week 11

Austin Blythe
Playoffs, Quarterfinals: L Williamsburg 0 - Solon 19 | (10-2)
Williamsburg only lost twice this year...both times were to Solon. This loss was more painful than the first as it ended the Raiders season. Solon completely shut down Williamsburg's offense as the Raiders gained on 169 yards, had just 5 first downs, and didn't score a single point. Blythe was quoted speaking about Solon: "There's no shame losing to these guys. They are good, and I'll be rooting for them."

Season Over

Riley McMinn
Playoffs, 2nd Round: W Effingham 2 - Rochester 53 | (11-0)
I hardly seemed like a playoff game as Rochester rolled up 32 points in the first quarter and finished the first half with a 53-0 lead. Rochester's runningback had a record 6 rushing TDs. The entire second half was played with a running clock and Effingham's only points were scored on a safety very late in the game. No mentions of McMinn were found.

Next Game: vs. Notre Dame - 11/12 (Playoffs, Quarterfinals)

Cole Fisher
Playoffs, 2nd Round: W Lincoln Northeast 0 - Millard North 24 | (9-2)
Millard North for the second week in a row started off slowly. The Mustangs only had 38 yards of offense in the first half, but led 3-0. The start of the 3rd quarter saw a quick shift however as Millard North had a 72 yard TD run followed by a punt return of a touchdown that expanded their lead to 17. The Mustangs added another score and won 24-0. No mentions of Fisher were found.

Next Game: vs. Burke - 11/13 (Playoffs, Semifinals)

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BlogPoll: Week 10

The picture is becoming more clear at the top. Auburn, Oregon, Boise State, and TCU all took care of business this week and solidified their places in the top 4. The big questions are: Oregon or Auburn? and Boise State or TCU? Auburn has the best resume and is thus still ahead of Oregon. Many people are moving TCU ahead of Boise State, but when I broke down their respective strengths of schedule, they were about even. At this point Boise State has been a little bit more dominant in their victories, thus still get the nod.

Things in the middle are a little tough to figure out. OK State, LSU, Arkansas, and Stanford all received big bumps this week for beating ranked teams. I think every team in the middle pack that won, I moved up (even Iowa who did not win impressively at all).

A lot of losers this week fell to other ranked teams, so didn't take too much of a hit, except for Utah, who was overrated due to their previously undefeated record. Missouri and Oklahoma take pretty good falls too and I probably would have dropped the Sooners if there had been any deserving teams. Arizona is probably too high, but I have them ahead of Iowa for now and didn't punish them too much for getting beat by Stanford. South Carolina, like, Oklahoma is still hanging around because there aren't too many teams making good cases to be the 21-25 range.

The last 5 slots were very hard to fill and for the first week there are 3-loss teams ranked. I have been trying to keep out Virginia Tech because that loss to James Madison was really bad, but they have one 7 games in a row and were the only 2-loss BCS team not ranked. Florida and Pitt sneak in despite not being very good. And UCF, who has been tearing through C-USA makes its debut.

Ferentz hits a milestone

Kirk Ferentz gets his 100th win

I'm sure that wasn't the way Coach Ferentz wanted to get his 100th win, but a sloppy and very lucky win is still a win. So, congratulation to Coach Ferentz for reaching a really cool milestone: 100 wins.

Iowa #13 all around

Despite the very unimpressive victory over Indiana, Iowa moves up to #13 in the AP Poll, Coaches' Poll, and the BCS. Iowa is no longer the top ranked 2-loss team, as Alabama fell just a few spots after losing to LSU and are still ahead of the Hawkeyes.

Mike Meyer named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week

Meyer earned his first POTW award of his young career for his 12-point performance on Saturday. Meyer went 4/5 on field goals and made a career long 42-yarder in the 4th quarter. With 4 FGs, Meyer nearly doubled his season total going from 5/6 to 9/11. He's making over 80% of his FGs, which for a true-freshman is good enough in my books, though the misses from inside of 30 yards is sure frustrating.

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Iowa at Indiana: Animated Drive Chart

On 8 of Iowa's 11 possessions, the Hawkeyes had the ball in Indiana territory. The other 3 ended in an interception, the lone 3-and-out, and the kneel-down at the end of the game. The 8 possessions on the Hoosier's side of the field amounted to just 18 points. That was pretty much the story of the day.

FULL SCREEN VERSION

A few last thoughts on Indiana

As frustrating as the game was, Iowa actually played a pretty good game. If you just looked at the stats and saw that true freshman Marcus Coker had 129 yards, Ricky Stanzi was 22/33 for 290 yards, Iowa had 22 first downs and 445 yards of total offense, while Indiana had just 313 yards, Ben Chappell completed less than 60% of his pass and threw an interception, and the Hoosiers scored just 13 points...well you would have thought this game was a blow out.

Oh the red zone

So, why did it take a wide open, for the win, dropped pass in the endzone for Iowa to win the game. You could point to a couple of minor issues (penalties, kickoff coverage, etc...) that contributed to the class game, but what it really game down to was the red zone. Iowa drove the ball 4 times inside of Indiana's 10 yard-line and came up with just 9 points (3 Meyer field goals and a miss). That's just 2.25 points per red zone trip. Iowa had been averaging 5.6 points per trip. If Iowa had converted on 1 or 2 of those trips and scored somewhere near their average, then we would have been looking at a much more comfortable lead at the end of the game.

I have been trying to figure out went so wrong in the red zone. I think part of it had to do with Robinson being out. I think Coker did an amazing job overall, but just okay inside the 20; he a rushes of 4, 4, -1, 12, 1, and 2. It seems like Robinson usually is able to take an outside zone to the left for a score, or at least get Iowa close enough to sneak it in or hit play-action out of the goal-line set. I think Robinson's absence had a bigger impact on the play calling, though. Stanzi threw the ball 9 times in the red zone...he went 2/9 for 9 yards. He over threw a couple of fades to DJK, threw it behind Sandeman (though it was still catchable), and just looked generally out of sorts. Another trip was stalled by back-to-back penalties. The red zone play was just bad.

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