What Went Wrong With the Offense?

Iowa strives for balance on offense.  That is the mantra repeated from the staff.  Usually by the end of the season the rushing attempts and passing attempts are incredibly close in numbers.  This season will probably be skewed more towards the pass and would have been even more if sacks weren't kept as rushing stats for college.  With Stanzi as the QB Iowa had evolved into a pass to set up the run team.  In the Northwestern game Iowa basically abandoned the run and passed at a 4 to 1 ratio.  OSU was a much more balanced gameplan although still 60-40 tilted towards the pass.  I believe the gameplan against the Gophers was to establish the run and try for big plays in the passing game.  However when Robinson went down the running game went off track and the passing game that was designed never really got on track.

Jon sent me an email that said he didn't think the coaches wanted JVB throwing over the middle and I think he is absolutely correct.  In the first half JVB ran 15 passing plays.  He threw two over the middle: one an incompletion deep for Stross into double coverage and one to his second read to DJK that could have gone for more yards if he hit him in stride.  In the second half he attacked the middle twice in a row for Tony Moeaki on the second series.  That was it for the game.  I understand the staff protecting a young QB but I felt he was capable of more in this game.

The playcalling on the first drive was very good until they got into the red zone.  Minnesota had played Iowa with 7 in the box until Iowa entered that area.  Iowa still tried to run the ball twice in a row, once into an eight man front and once into a nine man front.  They still almost scored a TD on the drive on a nice audible by JVB on a slant pattern to DJK that wasn't executed. 

The playcalling early in the game was a little disjointed to me.  Only 4 of the first 16 plays were passes.  Then the next 4, and 7 of the next 9 were passes.  Iowa was a disaster all game on 3rd and long and the playcalls on that down didn't seem to do a young QB any favors.  Kevin Cosgrove obviously watched a lot of the Northwestern gametape because a lot of those blitzes seemed familiar.  Iowa needs to execute against zone blitz schemes much better in the future.  I think there is plenty of blame to go around.

On Iowa's TD scoring drive the Hawks basically only ran two passing plays, the same play action pass out of different formations, and a nicely executed slant out of a two tight end, two wide out set.  They ran the ball with the fullback in and scored with Wegher doing his trademark leap in the Goalline formation. 

Iowa had six 3 and outs.  They had very good field position for much of the day.  In the first half they used a three receiver formation on a first or second down one time.  They did run a couple of receiver screens- one for a one yard gain and the second was a dropped interception.  Iowa didn't run a screen for a running back or a tight end.  For some reason Iowa is more likely to run the ball to the short side of the field when Wegher is in the game instead of Robinson.  I think the reverse makes sense. 

The good news is the two defenses that gave us the most trouble- Northwestern and Minnesota, graduate all of their key players.  The bad news is they were among the least physically talented that Iowa faced all season.  Kevin Cosgrove is a very good, veteran coach who had matched wits with the Iowa staff for several years when he was with Wisconsin.  He blitzed every team I watched Minny play preparing for the match ups article, so it is pretty disappointing that Iowa had so much trouble with the Gopher's blitz package. 

 I don't think the injury excuse is really an excuse at all. I think it is a legitamate explanation for some of Iowa's offensive issues.  Wegher probably shouldn't have been playing as hurt as he was, and Robinson was playing incredibly well for as hurt as he was.  Richardson was Iowa's best interior lineman all season and Iowa never really recovered from his loss. As well as Vandenberg played he still was up and down and sometimes that was on the same drive.  He flashes so much potential, though, it is scary.  I haven't been as excited about an Iowa QB's upside since Tate.  And Vandy has NFL size.  But Stanzi made winning plays.  He has a very nice touch on his intermediate throws which is what JVB is missing right now.  I am sure that will come with time.  Iowa missed Moeaki, Bulaga, DJK, Chaney, Sandeman, and Vandervelde during the season to injuries at some point during the season.  Not to mention Hampton and Brinson all season.  That is a lot for a team to overcome.  Ferentz's other 10 win regular season team was in 2002 and they had a remarkably healthy run.

This unit as a whole should improve next year.  I am not sure why people thought the offense would be better than last season's team and especially after we had to replace Shonn Greene and Jewel Hampton.  Seth Olsen and Rob Bruggeman are playing in the NFL.  Shonn Greene is playing in the NFL.  Brandon Myers is the NFL Special Teams Player of the week (got get that Jasper County Plug in there).  Moeaki will probably play in the NFL, but Eubanks is a longshot.  Reiff (in effect Olsen's replacement) is a red shirt freshman playing out of position.  Robinson and Wegher have done outstanding but they had huge shoes to fill.  Andy Brodell was a very underrated punt returner.  It took half of the season for the staff to realize that Sandeman may have been Brodell reincarnated. 

There is only one stat that gets me excited and that is wins.  I didn't always feel that way and sometimes after a particularly ugly win I might take a few minutes to cool down and I might secretly curse some members of the coaching staff.  I might make some jokes about missing letters of some of their names.  But after 11 years I have come to the conclusion that Ferentz and his staff know what they are doing.  When January comes around this will be a new team.  It will be a team that scores points.  They will be able to run and pass.  They will be fun for anyone to watch until the second half gets out of hand unless you are a Hawkeye fan.  When we roll whoever our opponent in the bowl is and you can't guess our plays because KOK breaks tendencies in the bowl game early on- remember you read it here first.