I wasn't planning on writing this post. In fact I had two in the can,and was looking foward to having a relatively easy week. This post is going to concentrate on the play of James Vandenberg. I have read alot of message board critiques of his play some of them fair and some of them so far off the mark I don't know what game those people were watching. My initial impression was that he didn't lose the game. I did my regular review of the game and then watched every throw at least once more and usually two to three times. I came away even more impressed. I thought he made two bad decisions all day. One on his first throw and one forcing the ball to DJK on the desperation drive 3rd and 10 on the last series. I have every one of his plays charted and will try to post that on the message board eventually but it will take forever and there is to much to get to in this post tonight. First to wrap up the NU game.
I hate Northwestern. But I tip my hat to them. Pat Fitzgerald, Mick McCall and Mike Hankwitz ran a very effective scheme against Iowa both offensively and defensively. Once Stanzi went down they started bleeding the clock immediately. I am pretty sure they didn't have that many running plays worked into their regular gameplan. Hankwitz also ran a very clever blitz scheme, but he lucked into some of those calls in the second half. Wootton deserves all the praise he garners, Phillips is a very smart and solid football player who is much better in coverage than I had anticipated. Hahn and Bryant did an excellent job of clogging up the middle and Iowa inexplicably chose this opponent to run the most middle runs of the season. I thought Mabin played well but he was beaten badly a couple of times. NU lucked out a little too. It is tough to use the injury excuse on a team that is more beaten up than Iowa, though. Kafka was a shadow of himself and Concannon is gutty, but he won't be their feature back next season. Their Oline did just enough to keep them on the field, too. In the end they won the game with disciplined play and some clever zone blitz schemes that Iowa's line never figured out.
Before I get to the meat of this post I want to address the biggest controversy of the game: KOK's playcall at the 6 that ended Stanzi's season. I know what I said about Wootton. I am tired of reading how that is the same playcall that worked against Indiana. It isn't, its a different play and completely different formation. Iowa had Morse in as a 3rd Tight End and before the play you can see Reisner say something to him before the play. I am sure that one of them is supposed to get a better chip on Wootton but Stanzi is responsible for Wootton on that type of play and he had time to ditch the ball. JVB had more throw-aways in this game than Stanzi has in his career and that was a clear case of some of his issues catching up to him. Again his head came around late. He could have chucked it away without fear of penalty- he had both Reisner and Morse in the area. And you would hope he would be aware that Wootton is on that side of the field on that kind of playcall. I am sorry he is hurt. He probably would have won this game for us. But the playcall in itself ( while kind of dumb) shows the confidence the staff has in him. He didn't live up to his end of the bargain there. I understand that is pretty harsh. I have watched the play proabably 50 times and I can't see it any other way. If he didn't like what he saw there he had the option to audible to the run. NW had 2 deep safeties there. Live to play another day.
The other big play was the hold on Eubanks. That was a terrible call and again sucked the life out of the Hawks. The ref had a poor angle and that looked like a good old fashioned pancake to me. The 11-09 daily links has some excellent articles today that are relevant to a lot of what I am discussing here and one of them (I can't recall which one) has some classy quotes from Eubanks taking the high road. It is hard not to like these kids.
Marc Morehouse has an excellent column about the subject of the rest of today's post that can be reached from the same link. Again I am going to throw some #s at you that won't match up to the game stats.
I am going to try to do a column type deal here and every time I have tried this it has failed. I apologize in advance. What I am trying to establish here is that while the general feeling was that JVB was unprepared, I disagree with that sentiment and apparently so did the coaching staff. While the game circumstances were certainly different I am going to try to show run/pass break down, first down passes called and how often Stanzi and JVB throw to their first read.
Name Formations Runs Passes P/action 1rst Read Play Variation 1rst Down Passes
Stanzi 10 9 10 4 5 18 4/9
1h JVB 8 6 5 1 1 11 3/5
2h JVB* 7 8 17 3 7 23 6/10
LD JVB 2 0 8 0 5 6 2/2
*doesn't include last drive LD is the last drive.
I guess what I am trying to explain here is that Vandenberg ran at least 34 plays from 10 formations before the last drive. Most of those were passes, and several were runs that I hadn't seen very often if ever from this Iowa staff. To put that into perspective- Stanzi ran 15 formations, 45 different play calls in an entire game last week. There was only one formation that Stanzi ran in this game that Vandenberg didn't and it was a 2 tight end I formation that Iowa has shown one pass out of all season. He seemed to understand what he was doing running the offense. I didn't see any fumbled snaps or poor timing on hand offs. He has some coachable flaws. His grasp of the offense doesn't seem to be that much of an issue. It looks like he prepares very well.
Iowa ran essentially the same scheme with Vandenberg as it did with Stanzi. I think KOK tried to take advantage of his ability to throw the out a little more often and I didn't expect that arm strength. Stanzi makes more run audibles. I don't think it matters as teams are on to them as it seems to be the Hawk's only audible- run to the short side if it is a pass, opposite side if it was a run. I saw only one audible out of Vandy and that was on the second play. It went for 10 yards. I have seen Vandy take some heat for bouncing a couple of balls but if you watch the game again you would realize that #98 Bryant goes completely unblocked on 3 step drops twice (between Eubanks and Vandervelde) and hurries a throw that where pressure shouldn't be an issue. One was from the Empty set on a zone blitz ( he identified a hot receiver Moeaki just didn't have time to set and fire) and the second was from the I formation (pass intended for DJK 7-8 yard hitch).
The encouraging thing to me in this game was that almost every time he threw to a receiver it was a good read, after his first throw (that was a bad playcall imo). He had a couple of outstanding throws from the opposite hash- one to McNutt where he threw the ball before he made his break, and one to DJK where he threw off his back foot while being pressured that was incomplete. He also threw a ball to Moeaki that was on the money before he made his break (the play on the last drive where his Jersey was grabbed). Unless he was making a 3 step drop he rarely stared down his receiver and even looked off a safety on his long miss to McNutt in the First Half. He is very poised for someone of his experience level. While he might give up on a play too early, when he scrambles his eyes are almost always downfield. Some of his best decisions were to throw the ball out of bounds. With the defense he has behind him he can afford to live for the next drive. He was able to throw to either side of the field, although he seemed afraid to test the deep middle after his pick. I am not exactly Ron Jaworski but on his 30 called passing attempts I thought that he had only two terrible throws. He made winning decisions.
On the discouraging end, he could use some touch on his shorter passes. He hit DJK on a crossing pattern that ended up for nice gain but I think he was bailed out on that catch. He was almost picked on the last drive after drilling Stross from about 8 yards away on the same route. His first interception needed to be dropped in over the second level, not thrown through it. He could probably check down to an outlet receiver some of the times he threw the ball out of bounds but it looked like to me he was only being asked to read one half of the field. He isn't going to win a footrace with too many linebackers. But, he showed decent pocket awareness, although he was flushed from phantom pressure at least four times. That will come with more game experience. He also missed a wide open DJK for a game tying TD. He wasn't just a little open either. He could have put a lot more air under that pass. I hope that too will come with time.
What JVB can't possibly possess right now is Stanzi's leadership or intangibles. Stanzi just flat out wins games. I think in spite of all of the foolish things he does, he still will go down as one of the greatest Iowa QBs ever. He had a 13 game win streak, he has freakish composure and has some incredible physical abilities. Vandenberg doesn't yet have Stanzi's touch on the deep ball or his confidence to audible out of bad plays. That may come this season but I am not sure. He certainly didn't have Stanzi's 2 minute magic but I am not sure how much of that goes on him.
I don't feel like he was put in the best position to succeed in this game. Iowa struggled to run the ball for most of the game, but sometimes they are their own worst enemy. The reverse play made no sense for this game. The backside end wasn't crashing, he wasn't the problem with the run game. If Iowa is going to try to line up and physically dominate the opponent that is fine, but they must stick to it. Iowa has only two formations that might make the opponent guess- the I and the Ace slot (3 receivers, 1 TE, and 1 TB). Every other formation you can play tendencies and not get burned, especially if Iowa motions. A couple of plays need to die- the max protect 2 man play-action out of the I. That doesn't work. It really doesn't work when you don't have a running game that teams fear, and they don't have to pack the box to stop the run. The Bubble screen to the Split is also a dumb playcall. Dlineman and LBs are already keying for the stretch and they react to quickly for lineman to get out to block on the short side of the field. Iowa's regular zone scheme was working. Sometimes Wegher or Paki didn't choose the correct hole but I think that the middle runs by design were not the answer.
The final drive was also a disaster. I don't know exactly what was going on there but it kind of looked like KOK was drawing plays up in the sand there. The crossing patterns executed by Moeaki and McNutt looked very well rehearsed, like me sitting in with Pearl Jam. I have seen that play 0 times this season. Iowa was trying to run a lot of Pick type routes- freeing receivers over the middle but it didn't look like that should have been necessary as the middle was manned by the MLB and WLB who were slow footed and just looking to keep receivers in front of them. Where is a screen to Wegher there? I know hindsight is easy, but reliving that was extremely painful.
KF, KOK and the rest of the offensive staff have a week to get ready for the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes have much more talented personnel than the team the Hawks just faced. NU just gave OSU a scheme with which to wreak havoc on the Oline. They have a talented Redshirt Freshman getting ready to make his first start. They have the Big Ten Title on the line. Iowa is scheming to get Moeaki the ball. He has lined up in the slot several times, and also appeared as the "H" a time or two. Iowa needs to break out the game tape of the PSU gameplan. Even though the offense didn't execute there were some really solid playcalls in that game and they should be throws that JVB could build a rhythm with. Forget the home run for a quarter or two and just try to possess the ball. No more deep throws on 3rd down. Move the chains. 2 first downs and a punt is a win. Play physical and smart football. A five yard out is as good as a 5 yard run. Right now your best offensive weapons are on the perimeter of the field. Vandy is capable of keeping Iowa in this football game. Give him a plan he can succeed with.
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