Wisconsin Film Review

Same Format as usual.  Iowa overcame its usual slow start to overwhelm Wisconsin and completely control the second half, winning 20 to 10 and really it wasn't that close.  Iowa's defense was so dominant after the third offensive series for Wisconsin it was breathtaking.  Wisconsin had eight series after Monte Ball's Touchdown with 8:10 remaining in the second quarter. Five of them ended as 3 and outs and the other three as interceptions.  Wisconsin rushed the ball 10 times for 14 yards.including three negative plays not including sacks.  Iowa's Linebackers completely controlled the middle of the field in the passing game and A.J. Edds may have played the best game of his Iowa career.  His tackling of receivers in open space was incredible and his interception was a thing of beauty.  His coverage also forced the first pick for Spievey.  I came away impressed with Scholfield, Clay had better feet than I thought,Oglesby, Zietler and Konz will be tough to deal with for the next few years, and Taylor and Borland give Wisconsin a pair of playmaking linebackers to build a defense around.  Wisconsin loses only a few players and if they hold on to O.C Chryst they will be a formidble opponent in the years to come.  Now for the Negatives, Postives and Coaching comments.

Negatives:
Offensive Line Play (first half):  Iowa is still struggling to find its stride here and this is part of the slow start plaguing the team right now.  I can't put my finger on one thing.  I wonder if teams are jumping the snap count.  That is just a wild-ass guess.  Scholfield could just be that good.  I just have never seen Bulaga look that silly two weeks in a row.  I understand that he is still rounding into form after a three week lay-off and missed some camp also but I expect he will be wearing an Iowa uniform next season now.  Calloway struggled with the speed rush of the OLB Borland on third downs when Whisky ran their dime or nickel packages and Reiff seems to be a little too light to play guard.  He seems a more natural fit for the tackle position.  Not all of the running games struggles can be laid at the feet of the Oline as five players cannot be expected to block eight, and Moeaki really seemed to struggle with his run blocking in the first half as well.  I also felt the team wasn't always put in the best position to succeed formationally(much more on that later).  Iowa seemed to gain its stride throughout the game and was dominating by the end of the game.  The pass protection in the second half was close to flawless.

The Zone Play to the Short Side of the Field:  Last week it was the flare or three yard out to the slot receiver out of the ace formation (3 wide, 1 te, 1 back), but this entire year it seems to be the weak side zone play regardless of the formation or personnel.  Iowa is seeing 8 man fronts on first or second down almost 80% of the time.  Usually a safety or a corner is in the box and sometimes both and Iowa is still trying to run to the weak side of the formation where they don't have a numbers advantage.  So they can't possibly block everyone.  Robinson has done a nice job of recognizing cutback lanes occasionally, but most of the time this has led to a no gain or a run for a loss.  When Iowa switched things up in the second half and began running out of the first formation I mentioned good things began happening.  Another thing that may help is for Iowa to set up a dummy audible.  For Stanzi to act like he is changing the play ala Peyton Manning and wait for the defense to adjust and then run whatever genius call KOK dialed up.

After a win like that I'm really just carping.

Positives:
The Linebacking Corps:  This was the most complete and physical game that this unit has played all year.  This was the type of performance I have been looking for all season and hope to see for the rest of the season.  Even early when the Badgers were having success running the ball, the players trusted the scheme and played there responsibilties.  When the Dline started taking over the LOS Angerer, Hunter and Edds started cleaning up and punishing Clay and Ball.  They punished receivers when Tolzien could complete a pass over the middle and forced him to make bad throws by playing excellent coverage by getting great depth in their drops.  I don't know if Edds has ever played better.  He should get half of Spievey's first pick.

Rick Kaczienski:  I probably murdered his name as I am going off of memory.  He is Iowa's Dline coach and he is doing a masterful job of coaching his unit.  Something that I think is underappreciated is the amount of passes this unit is knocking down or altering by jumping.  Binns and Edds forced Tolzien out for a loss once but it happened because Binns jumped up instead of continuing to pursue giving Edds the time to force the QB out of bounds.  Against Michigan Binns had two pass deflections and one was almost picked.  Klug had one early against Wisconsin.  Inserting Mike Daniels early in the game giving Klug and Ballard some rest seemed to keep both fresh and Daniels was a real difference maker.  I would guess he played his way into the regular rotation.  I would look to see more of Lebron Daniel and Cody Hundertmark for the rest of the season if not this week, than against Indiana and Northwestern. 

Rick Stanzi:  Stanzi played very well.  I have no negative marks in my game notes about him.  Even the fumble was really not his fault.  The rush got to him so fast he really didn't have a chance to react.  He really seems to be more comfortable away from Kinnick which should bode well for Iowa this week.  He was really on target and on time with all of his throws and used the whole field.  He showed decent pocket awareness and used his feet to get out of trouble and scrambled to make the biggest play of the game offensively for Iowa the 24 yard TD to Moeaki. 

Adam Robinson:  Robinson has really impressed me with his vision which may be the single most important attribute for a runner in Iowa's system.  He really finishes his runs well too.  Robinson just seems to have a better feel at this time for where the hole is going to be and for when to hit it.  He also seems to have a little something for the first guy who makes contact with him and runs through traffic extremely well.  It may be time for defined roles for Iowa's freshman duo.  If Robinson is up to the extra work Iowa should give him two or three series in a row to see if he can handle the work load.  If the rumors floating around about Wegher are true Iowa may not have a choice.

Coaching:  I want to start with the good.  Norm Parker set the tone early in this game by blitzing on the first third and long that Iowa forced.  The result was a sack.  Iowa looked a little shell shocked early and took some time adjusting to facing an old- fasioned power team, but once they did it was game over.  When the Dline got their bearings and started pushing back Iowa took over the game.  When Iowa is on schedule Defensively and forces third and longs they are much more aggresive than you might think.  This tells me two things.  Norm trusts this team- i.e. he is willing to play more players (more nickel and dime this season and last) and he thinks they are a good tackling team- he is more willing to blitz.  He isn't always looking for the sack, just an early throw short of the chains.
Now the bad.  The bad KOK was back in the first half.  Real bad.  Iowa was so predictable in fact that I think Wisconsin was probably calling out the plays.  Iowa used 13 formations on Saturday.  2 of them were for passing only.  Iowa really only has 4 basic running plays outside of the redzone.  They can run those same plays out of any of the 11 other formations.  One of the biggest problems I have is the slot receiver's motion.  This is generally a dead give away to where Iowa is running the football.  It is my opinion that Iowa would be better off running out of balanced formations or out of the 3 wr, 1 te, 1 back formation.  They did this alot in the second half and had much more success running the football.  They usually had the SLB out of the box.  Teams are slanting their Dline and guessing correctly the direction of our zone run.  It is amazing that neither Robinson nor Wegher have fumbled given how often they have been met 3-4 yards deep in the backfield.  Iowa needs to continue to open games aggresive passing to soften up defenses and get the safety out of the box.  KOK needs to be more creative formationally if he wants to continue to stubbornly run.  At least run to the strong side of the formation more often than not where you have a numbers advantage.  Don't try to be so tricky.
Finally KF had done a better job of managing the clock so far this season but this week was kind of a disaster.  Iowa did not run a two minute offense with the ball at the end of the first half, punted stopped the Badgers, called two TOs, didn't like the Field Position and ran out the clock.  Run the two minute offense the first time.  Or don't call the Time outs.  Or at least try to block the punt.  That was just bewildering.  Finally the last offensive play was a qb keeper where Reisner was wide open for a TD.  There was a spirited debate about what KF's smile meant.  I don't care what it meant, I still remember Northwestern 2005, and you score TDs when you can.  That was inexcusable.  If you trust Stanzi you let him throw the ball there.  A JV QB could have made that play.
Ferentz is a very good coach but that kind of coaching is what lets Iowa be 16 points away from being undefeated last season and  9 points from being 4 and 3 this season.  It is time to start putting teams away when they have a chance.  Great win, great effort, just need better management and some tweaks for this to be a very special season.  11 in a row.