I finally was able to work up the fortitude to watch the replay of the game. It's taken a couple of sessions, and still haven't watched the last nine minutes, but here's some thoughts.....
1. My thought at halftime of the game was that that I had never felt so confident about our game with Iowa in years. After watching the first half replay, I felt that confidence was justified.
2. Iowa was in this game because of health dose of pure dumb luck. Iowa State was playing very well on both sided of the ball, and the defense was doing a phenomenal job. Tackles for loses and pressure on Beathard were plenty, and it was amazing how many times Iowa was in a bucket of shit and came out smelling like a rose. Three situations come to mind, the near sack, the fumble that got picked up and run into the endzone, and of course the 50 yard pass by Beathard.
3. Give Beathard credit where credit is due. He is a hell of a scrambler and hard to take down. If Ruddock had been the quarterback this year, this game wouldn't have been a game. And quite frankly, Beathard does not perform all that well under pressure.
4. The long pass by Beathard was agonizing. Quite frankly, with all the time in the world due to a three man rush, there was one...and only one.....receiver that could have gotten Iowa out of that mess. I think it was the right defensive call. It took a combination of not being able to get to Beathard, one receiver able to break free, and most importantly Beathard being able to throw a picture perfect pass.
5. With the way that Beathard plays, Iowa is more than likely to find out eventually what it is like to have to play with a hobbled up quarterback. I don't think Iowa has a legitimate backup to a gun slinger reliant offense.
6. I don't see where Richardson had a bad game. Indeed, I would say that Richardson had a very good game. As a matter of fact, it was impressive hell at critical moments, including his two touchdown passes. His stats and issues in the second half should not fall on his shoulders.
7. Holy crap! I have never seen Iowa stunt so well. What they did in the second half was impressive, and quite frankly very embarrassing for Iowa State. The number of times we double blocked a defensive player, only to have stunting lineman come around and go through the slot was hair pulling.
8. Our receivers simply did not get open in the second half. For the life of me, I do not understand why. From what I saw, Richardson didn't miss finding open receivers until after he had checked off some, but ultimately got hurried. And quite frankly, I thought it looked to me that Iowa was trying to bait Richardson into passing in to uncomfortable passes for him, especially across his body. (That is just conjecture on my part.)
9. I would have punted on fourth down. Indeed, every time under those circumstances. I wouldn't even have debated it. Everything was favoring us at that time, Iowa had little going for them. Pinning Iowa down deep in their territory was nearly an assured thing. There is no such thing as a sure thing 4th and short at mid-field. It may have panned out that wee made the 1st down, but there was no reason to gamble away a decided advantage at that point of the game.
10. The fake field goal was the stupidest call I have seen Kirk Ferentz ever make. For the same reason as the punt decision above....he traded a near assured thing in a field goal, for an almost impossible chance to make it into the endzone.
There are times to gamble. But there was no reason for either coach to gamble away such assured things...for such unlikely things with huge consequences.
Iowa and Iowa State fans alike tend to analyze and remember details of this game more than any other. Understanding the better team on a given day is the team that wins the game. In watching the replay with a sense that Iowa State was the team that had the bull by the horns. Iowa had some serous luck, and Beathard on their side, and that ended up being the difference in the game.
With Beathard, I think Iowa is quite a bit better than we want to give the credit for, but I also think that he is the one and only difference between being pretty good, and being pretty bad.
Likewise, I think Iowa State is better than fans want to give us credit for. Unfortunately it's a moot point. Regardless of how good we are (or not), I perceived Iowa as a must-win game. And we lost.
It is games exactly like this that makes it nearly impossible to go 5-0 against virtually toss-up games.....
As I see it, Iowa had three near miracle plays to massively flip the field advantage: 1.) The Beathard run after the near safety, 2.) the 50 yard pass with 4th and infinity 3.) The huge punt return when we had the returner double covered.
That does not even take into consideration that Iowa has three redzone fumbles and recovered two of them, one for a touchdown.
That's a lot of crap that went their way. Ohhh....the anguish.
(In my opinion.)
1. My thought at halftime of the game was that that I had never felt so confident about our game with Iowa in years. After watching the first half replay, I felt that confidence was justified.
2. Iowa was in this game because of health dose of pure dumb luck. Iowa State was playing very well on both sided of the ball, and the defense was doing a phenomenal job. Tackles for loses and pressure on Beathard were plenty, and it was amazing how many times Iowa was in a bucket of shit and came out smelling like a rose. Three situations come to mind, the near sack, the fumble that got picked up and run into the endzone, and of course the 50 yard pass by Beathard.
3. Give Beathard credit where credit is due. He is a hell of a scrambler and hard to take down. If Ruddock had been the quarterback this year, this game wouldn't have been a game. And quite frankly, Beathard does not perform all that well under pressure.
4. The long pass by Beathard was agonizing. Quite frankly, with all the time in the world due to a three man rush, there was one...and only one.....receiver that could have gotten Iowa out of that mess. I think it was the right defensive call. It took a combination of not being able to get to Beathard, one receiver able to break free, and most importantly Beathard being able to throw a picture perfect pass.
5. With the way that Beathard plays, Iowa is more than likely to find out eventually what it is like to have to play with a hobbled up quarterback. I don't think Iowa has a legitimate backup to a gun slinger reliant offense.
6. I don't see where Richardson had a bad game. Indeed, I would say that Richardson had a very good game. As a matter of fact, it was impressive hell at critical moments, including his two touchdown passes. His stats and issues in the second half should not fall on his shoulders.
7. Holy crap! I have never seen Iowa stunt so well. What they did in the second half was impressive, and quite frankly very embarrassing for Iowa State. The number of times we double blocked a defensive player, only to have stunting lineman come around and go through the slot was hair pulling.
8. Our receivers simply did not get open in the second half. For the life of me, I do not understand why. From what I saw, Richardson didn't miss finding open receivers until after he had checked off some, but ultimately got hurried. And quite frankly, I thought it looked to me that Iowa was trying to bait Richardson into passing in to uncomfortable passes for him, especially across his body. (That is just conjecture on my part.)
9. I would have punted on fourth down. Indeed, every time under those circumstances. I wouldn't even have debated it. Everything was favoring us at that time, Iowa had little going for them. Pinning Iowa down deep in their territory was nearly an assured thing. There is no such thing as a sure thing 4th and short at mid-field. It may have panned out that wee made the 1st down, but there was no reason to gamble away a decided advantage at that point of the game.
10. The fake field goal was the stupidest call I have seen Kirk Ferentz ever make. For the same reason as the punt decision above....he traded a near assured thing in a field goal, for an almost impossible chance to make it into the endzone.
There are times to gamble. But there was no reason for either coach to gamble away such assured things...for such unlikely things with huge consequences.
Iowa and Iowa State fans alike tend to analyze and remember details of this game more than any other. Understanding the better team on a given day is the team that wins the game. In watching the replay with a sense that Iowa State was the team that had the bull by the horns. Iowa had some serous luck, and Beathard on their side, and that ended up being the difference in the game.
With Beathard, I think Iowa is quite a bit better than we want to give the credit for, but I also think that he is the one and only difference between being pretty good, and being pretty bad.
Likewise, I think Iowa State is better than fans want to give us credit for. Unfortunately it's a moot point. Regardless of how good we are (or not), I perceived Iowa as a must-win game. And we lost.
It is games exactly like this that makes it nearly impossible to go 5-0 against virtually toss-up games.....
As I see it, Iowa had three near miracle plays to massively flip the field advantage: 1.) The Beathard run after the near safety, 2.) the 50 yard pass with 4th and infinity 3.) The huge punt return when we had the returner double covered.
That does not even take into consideration that Iowa has three redzone fumbles and recovered two of them, one for a touchdown.
That's a lot of crap that went their way. Ohhh....the anguish.
(In my opinion.)
