Hawkeye Football
The Hawkeyes must have thought the red in red-zone meant stop because they struggled all day with moving the ball inside the 20 yard line. They breached the zone multiple times but their one TD came on a Damon Bullock run from the 23 yard line. That was the offense’s biggest problem of the day but hardly it’s only one, the defense struggled with the most fundamental aspect of playing D, tackling. Bad positioning, bad form and bad angles were unfortunately the norm for the afternoon. I re-watched the game the other night even though I was sure I would come away even more upset then the first time I watched it live but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Let’s break it down.
Offense:
The Good: This is a short list so I’ll get it out of the way.
-Damon Bullock- We seemed to have found a legit RB as Bullock carried the ball 30 times for a 5 yard average. His 23 yard TD run late in the 4th quarter was the highlight in an underwhelming offensive performance for the Hawks. Like I mentioned in a previous post our RB’s are better running to the outside than on the inside and I think this game was a clear example.
-Going for it- The Hawkeyes got the ball with about 1:15 left on the clock in the first half and they actually tried to do something with it instead of kneeling down. It didn’t go as planned as James Vandenberg ended up intentionally grounding a ball causing a 10 second run-off and then got sacked as he dropped back for a hail-mary pass attempt. The execution was lacking but at least they went for it.
The Bad: This list could get long.
-Red-zone Offense- I already mentioned this but it needs repeating because it was atrocious. Last year the Hawkeyes scored touchdowns on 63% of their possessions in the red-zone and so far through one game they are at 0%, that’s not good.
-The passing game (this is actually 3 things that I made into one item on the list) – It wasn’t the play calling it was the execution. Unfortunately it wasn’t just one part of the passing game. Three of the things that have to work for the passing game to be effective didn’t for the Hawkeyes; the offensive line has to block, the wide receivers have to get open and the quarterback has to be accurate. It seemed like the Hawkeyes could never get all 3 of these things working at the same time. When Vandenberg had time his receivers weren’t open, when they were open he was running for his life and getting sacked and when he had time and the receivers got open he couldn’t seem to put the ball where it needed to be. Our offense seems to include a lot of screens passes; screen passes to the WR, screen passes to the TE and screen passes to the RB. Unfortunately the blocking on screen passes was horrible. I’m not sure if the offense was tipping off the defense that the screens were coming or what but NIU seemed to always be able to get someone through the blockers and stop the play. I like the idea of throwing screen passes to Kevonte Martin-Manley, Don Shumpert, Damon Bullock and even CJ Fiedorowicz but the execution is key and the Hawks have to work that out.
-The Blocking- I’ve already mentioned it in reference to the passing game and specifically the screen game but it gets its own spot on the list. Giving up 6 sacks and many more QB pressures to a MAC team doesn’t bode well for the conference season. NIU has some good defenders on the d-line but it isn’t going to get easier from here.
-The inside running game- Damon Bullock played great but he is most effective running to the edge. The Hawks aren’t used to having a RB that has the speed to get to the edge and beat people but Bullock has it and they need to take advantage. Running up the middle is nice and all but when your backs aren’t as effective that way use the run to the outside to spread the defense out a little and it makes the inside run a little easier. I’m not suggesting the Hawks run a toss-sweep every time but running off-tackle is a better place for Bullock (and Garmon) than running right up the back of the guard.
Defense:
The Good: The defense was pretty good for the most part. I was impressed with the d-line overall and that was my main concern going into the game. They didn’t get a lot of sacks but they put enough pressure on the QB, Joe Gaglione caused a fumble on a strip sack and they rotated guys in. They didn’t run out of gas at the end of the game and actually probably got stronger as the game went on.
The Bad: The tackling left a lot to be desired. NIU seemed to always break the first tackle and pick up extra yards. The big play for NIU was Jordan Lynch’s 73 yard TD run which was the result of LB James Morris playing too close to the line of scrimmage and getting caught up in a block and FS Tanner Miller taking a ridiculously bad angle and letting Lynch run right by him.
The good news is that the problems seem to be correctable. The bad news is that after a month of camp the Hawks have this many problems to solve before Saturday’s game against Iowa St. The biggest concern is the passing game, or lack thereof, given the Hawks have a senior QB coming off a pretty good year. Getting all of the issues worked out in a week is a tall order and now the element of surprise that was Damon Bullock last week is gone. They always say the biggest leap for a team is between week 1 and week 2 of the season and Hawkeye fans better hope this team has a Carl Lewis long jump in them this week.
College Football Weekend: The Hawkeyes weren’t the only team I watched this weekend.
-Alabama destroyed Michigan. Not many teams could lose a RB like Trent Richardson and actually improve their running game. Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon are the Tide’s version of thunder and lightning and they are scary good. Alabama’s offensive line is remarkable and the defense is as good as always. The Tide jumped USC to take the top spot in the polls this week (apparently demolishing Hawaii just wasn’t that impressive to the voters). Michigan may have come in slightly overrated at #8 but they aren’t far out of the top 10 teams in the country and Alabama dismantled them. The Crimson Tide are that good.
-Matt Barkley kicked off his Heisman campaign with 372 yards and 4 TD’s passing. I didn’t see the game just the highlights but I’m guessing Barkley, with help from his WR’s Robert Woods and Marquise Lee, is just getting started.
-Michigan St. pulled out a win over Boise St. in a game they tried very hard to lose. Le’Veon Bell carried the Spartans on his back and the Michigan St. defense was as stingy as advertised. Bell had 44 carries for 210 yards and 2 TD’s and Boise St. was held to 13 points. Defense and a running game are apparently how the Spartans plan to win this year as Andrew Maxwell got off to a tough start throwing 3 picks in his first start.
-Wisconsin got a scare from Northern Iowa, I usually cheer on Big Ten teams in the non-conference but I was pulling for the Panthers and they gave Wisconsin all they could handle.
-Oklahoma St. beat Savannah St. 84-0 and the Cowboys starters didn’t even finish the second quarter. I only mention this game to say…who the hell scheduled this? You might as well take on the flag football champion of your Rec League.
-Notre Dame beat Navy 50-10 in Dublin, Ireland. Notre Dame is not that good Navy is just that bad. Manti Teo, the star LB for the Irish, is that good though.
Some quick NFL fantasy football notes.
-My not really a sleeper sleeper. Brandon Lloyd WR Patriots. The cat is out of the bag on this one, he could have a very big year.
-My real sleeper pick. Eric Decker WR Broncos. He had 44 catches for 612 yards and 8 TD’s last year with Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow throwing to him. Now he has Peyton Manning. It’s like he traded in his Ford Focus for a Ferrari, he goes for at least 90 catches for 1100 yards and 12 TD’s this year and I can’t believe I’m saying this about a former Minnesota Golden Gopher; I may break out in hives.
-My deep sleeper pick. Donald Brown RB Colts. No more Peyton Manning offense in Indy which means Brown may actually be used like a real RB and he may actually get more than 10 carries in a game. I’m still a little worried about Indy’s o-line but their offense can’t be anywhere near as bad as it was last year.
-I got both Brandon Lloyd and Eric Decker on my fantasy team this year so I’m pretty happy with my team. I’ve got 4 QB’s which seems like a lot but we start 2 so it’s not that strange. Here’s my team; QB- Tom Brady, Matt Schaub, Carson Palmer and Sam Bradford. RB- Matt Forte, Fred Jackson, Doug Martin, Beanie Wells and Michael Bush. WR- Andre Johnson, Brandon Lloyd, Eric Decker, Mike Williams and Danny Amendola. TE- Jacob Tamme and Jason Witten. I will try to get to a more detailed fantasy football breakdown later.
The NFL season is about to kick off and that makes me very happy.
Go Hawks, Beat State.
Nate
The Hott Read 
That was a very rough Hawkeye game to watch and I had very little desire to re-watch that game. You get bonus points for doing that! Hopefully it was a little bit of the Hawks playing down to their competition and the MAC school playing up. You mentioned flag football but you didn’t say anything about L-Train’s Pimps so you lose that bonus point, lol. The beat down that Savannah St took last week might not be their worst of the season. Do you think FSU is going to try and crack 100?
Another good read though!!!! Keep ’em coming. Maybe if the Sox take 3 of 4 from the Tigers they will get some love
First of all I was the offensive coordinator for L-Train’s Pimps so no way do we get shut out in a game so that’s not a good comparison for Savannah St. If FSU’s defense could somehow make Savannah St. have negative points than yes but zero is as bad as it gets. FSU’s offense is good but we will see if they pour it on or not, Oklahoma St. actually could have scored about 150 pts if they had left their starters in, Joseph Randle had 6 carries for 107 yards and 2 TD’s and I’m pretty sure he only played about 2 series. If the White Sox win the World Series I might mention them, might.