*A Win is a win

[mushroomgod_1]

If you really watched the defense, they quit chasing their QB who imo was the best player on the field

I think there's been some 'give up' on this D within games, other than v. OSU. To put it another way, some players taking plays off. Of particular concern, against Akron it was there a lot of the 2nd half, including the end of regulation.

With regard to their QB Saturday, as you say they weren't running to the ball.....no gang tackling. He would dodge one guy, then another, then a third.

DThompson mentioned gap integrity, which isn't something much discussed on this board. It goes along with the DEs constantly losing the edge.

When I watch Iowa's games, they talk about staying in gaps, keeping your feet free, and staying parallel to the line rather than lunging.

I would have thought against this QB that a controlled rush would have been employed, at least after we saw what he could do on the ground. Keep him in the pocket. Keep running lanes covered. He wasn't going to beat us throwing the ball, but he was killing us scrambling. Yet there was no adjustment.

Are our players going after the spectacular looking hit all the time, v. playing their roles? Vesuvius, if you see this, could you give us your thoughts?

 

[mushroomgod_1]

The DL wasn't the issue on Saturday IMO. Most of our problems involved not having a LB spying the QB for Akron. The DL would have pretty good pressure and the kid from Alron would take off and we didn't have good contain from the middle of the defense.

I kept going back and forth between IU and OSU/ND, and I haven't re-watched the game, so I might have missed some things..........but it seemed like Casey was inactive in this game compared to the first 3. Anybody notice how many tackles he ended up with? And it seemed like the Stanford LB transfer also had his worst game.

But to your specific point, yes, it was a head scratcher why there was no spy; but also, if no spy, why no emphasis on keeping the kid in the pocket.

 

[mushroomgod_1]

BTW, Phil had a nice recorded interview with Fisch during the pregame show. It was thoughtful and well-spoken. 6 tackles was a nice showing.

I heard it as well.....very impressive.

 

[Crossblock]

I don't understand how players at a major football program can'y be motivated to practiceand play hard. Only a small percentage of You go on to play Professionally., your college football career lasts only 4 years, and playing time is Yours to earn or lose based upon effort and performance in practice.

Either the Coaching staff doesn't know how to motivate players to prepare them or the players they recruited are too comfortable with where they are and can't be motivated to work hard and improve.

If You wanted to see a contrast in styles, on the TV Broadcast of the Oregon-Colorado game Saturday they showed footage of Oregon Coach Dan Lanning with his team prior to the game. Yes he raised his voice, but the message was directed at his team. and had a purpose. It was not a loud fire and brimstone revival type speech given to a team just for the sake of Showmanship. The Oregon players can believe and buy in to what Coach Lanning is saying. In Year 7, I don't know if the Players can buy into what Tom Allen is selling, or if they have tuned him out.

 

[Fenny72]

I think the DL has been good, but not great. I don't see them getting pushed back, but they aren't doing a great job of containing the edge and keeping the QB in the pocket.

In general, too may "close" sacks that ended up in QB scrambles and positive yards.

In add the defense is not our main issue, but definitely gave up too many yards to Akron to say they had a good game. They salvaged it by getting some key takeaways and stops in OT when needed and some key erros by Akron (TD Drop, missed FG, etc).

 

[Fenny72]

I kept going back and forth between IU and OSU/ND, and I haven't re-watched the game, so I might have missed some things..........but it seemed like Casey was inactive in this game compared to the first 3. Anybody notice how many tackles he ended up with? And it seemed like the Stanford LB transfer also had his worst game.

But to your specific point, yes, it was a head scratcher why there was no spy; but also, if no spy, why no emphasis on keeping the kid in the pocket.

I saw the same thing with the LBs this game. Commented on one thread somewhere this morning.

Casey had 10 tackles, but seemed quiet to me as well (he has been outstanding in earlier games) and they chose the wrong gap to fil multiple times, which allowed the QB to break free.

 

[Hoosier Clarion]

Just think an effective game plan to restrict QB scramble/runs was something the co-DC's did a piss poor job of establishing. If it had been even marginally more successful then no OT's would have been needed even with the sluggish offense.

 

[indy1203]

I’m not looking super forward to seeing Taulia considering the problems mobile QBs have caused this year.

But I’ll be serving crab and corn chowder at the tailgate!

Close your eyes and eat well.

 

[vesuvius13]

I think there's been some 'give up' on this D within games, other than v. OSU. To put it another way, some players taking plays off. Of particular concern, against Akron it was there a lot of the 2nd half, including the end of regulation.

With regard to their QB Saturday, as you say they weren't running to the ball.....no gang tackling. He would dodge one guy, then another, then a third.

DThompson mentioned gap integrity, which isn't something much discussed on this board. It goes along with the DEs constantly losing the edge.

When I watch Iowa's games, they talk about staying in gaps, keeping your feet free, and staying parallel to the line rather than lunging.

I would have thought against this QB that a controlled rush would have been employed, at least after we saw what he could do on the ground. Keep him in the pocket. Keep running lanes covered. He wasn't going to beat us throwing the ball, but he was killing us scrambling. Yet there was no adjustment.

Are our players going after the spectacular looking hit all the time, v. playing their roles? Vesuvius, if you see this, could you give us your thoughts?

Our DL isn't keeping to their pass rush lanes and depths with DEs causing a lot of the problems by losing contain. The front needs to work together to create a pass rush especially against running QB. Learning to not create lanes and rushing together against running QBs is a must.