Well, I never thought I'd feel so dissatisfied after an 8-1 start. Although I guess our sluggish starts were due to come back and get us at some point.
1.) Ferentz was playing like a dick at the end of the first half. I know, no one will play me in NCAA football for this very reason. But acting like a jerk aside, I do believe there was a legitimate method to the madness. We had outscored our opponents 23-0 and 28-10 in the second half of games in the last two weeks. Ferentz may have been up 30-0, but he was right to play it safe I think.
2.) You're down 17-0 at the end of the first quarter and this did not have the feel of the Northwestern game to me. Why play Chris L. Rucker at all? If you're not going to win or even come close, I don't see what that does for the team or your relationship with the media.
3.) Why in the hell was Antonio Jeremiah playing DT in the fourth quarter? For that matter why was anyone who won't be here next year playing in the fourth quarter? Or anyone necessary for the big ten title run?
4.) I want to slap anyone who is upset with Kirk Cousins for yesterday. He had a bad day in a tough place to play against a very good team. The guy singlehandedly won us the Northwestern game and was instrumental in winning the ND, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois game. Are we 8-1 with a lesser mortal at the helm, I think not.
5.) Not a whole lot of bright spots from yesterday outside of this: We lost the only game on our schedule that I thought was unwinnable in the preseason. The last 3 are quite winnable and two of them are practically gimme games. There's a great chance we're going to be sharing the Big Ten Title this year. There's a great chance we're going to be sharing the Big Ten Title this year. Coming into the year I thought we had a chance to be 3rd or 4th in the Big Ten, but we have a great chance to share the conference title.
Still, 37-6. Ouch. I'm glad we're getting the O-fers this week.
Been reading since Illinois - great new blog.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit, I wasn't paying full attention after the first quarter. You're absolutely right, it didn't have that "it's still possible" feel of the NW game.
That said, I'm wondering how you thought Ferentz was being a dick. A friend made a similar comment, and all I saw/could remember were the timeouts he called so MSU couldn't take a knee and run the clock out at the end of the first half. That and playing Stanzi and other first-stringers the entire game.
Hi Brock,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you're my first commenter that wasn't Ty. I might frame your comment like businesses frame their first dollar or something. That'd probably be weird, so I'll just say thanks.
Here's the drive chart after the MSU kick. I had to reformat so it read a bit cleaner.
1 - 10 Keith Nichol rush for -2 out of the wildcat.
2 - 12 Caper rushes for no gain.
IOWA Timeout #1 with :07 on the clock.
3 - 12 LeVeon Bell rushes for four yards.
IOWA Timeout #2 with :03 on the clock.
4 - 8 Bell tap dances around to run out the clock.
If Ferentz was upset because we didn't kneel and was trying to make a point I guess I kind of see it. It doesn't seem THAT out of place to me to run to close out the first half instead of kneel. If Ferentz had gotten the ball back with 07 seconds to go, he would have taken a knee, so why prolong it? Just seemed like a dick move to me.
Thanks for reading!