[ColoradoTree]

The folks in the open football forum at http://iowa.forums.rivals.com/ found the comments in this thread about the Stanford players who purportedly were keyed up about the prospect of playing Ohio St. Means nothing of course, just sayin'.

The folks in that forum seem awfully confident--far more confident than I think is reasonable given how explosive our offense is.  One commenter even said that Stanford's offense would be the second-best they faced this year, behind Indiana.  I'm sorry, but that's bonkers.  Iowa hasn't played an offense as explosive as ours all year.  In fairness, Iowa might have the best run defense we've faced all year, but Stanford gained 478 yards and scored 31 points against Washington, who is the #1 defense in the country according to Football Outsider's FEI rankings.  (And ND, SC, and UCLA weren't exactly slouches either.)  Also important to consider is that we run differently than Michigan State does.  Much is made of our short-yardage personnel groupings, but that's hardly all we do.  Indeed, for most of our rushing yards, we're not running into the teeth of the defense--we're using an extra OL on a LB and running off-tackle or doing something else to get McCaffrey in space. 

Another commenter noted that if they neutralize McCaffrey, "the game is won."  But the ND game shows why that way of thinking is a mistake.  If you commit 8 guys to the box to "stop" McCaffrey (meaning to hold him to around 100 rushing yards on the day), you're just inviting Hogan to take advantage of the middle of the field on play action. 

I absolutely think Iowa could gain 250 rushing yards against us.  But that's not going to be enough, assuming our defense continues its strong run of holding opposing offenses to field goals in the red zone.  Iowa will need some big plays from Beathard to win, particularly if we can get an early lead and force Iowa to get away from its bread and butter. 

All in all, it seems like Iowa fans are focusing on our loss to Northwestern and concluding that we can't hack it against Big Ten defenses, and that we'll therefore be unable to gain yards against Iowa.  We can only hope the Iowa coaching staff has similar tunnel vision. 

[ColoradoTree]

The folks in the open football forum at http://iowa.forums.rivals.com/ found the comments in this thread about the Stanford players who purportedly were keyed up about the prospect of playing Ohio St. Means nothing of course, just sayin'.

The folks in that forum seem awfully confident--far more confident than I think is reasonable given how explosive our offense is.  One commenter even said that Stanford's offense would be the second-best they faced this year, behind Indiana.  I'm sorry, but that's bonkers.  Iowa hasn't played an offense as explosive as ours all year.  In fairness, Iowa might have the best run defense we've faced all year, but Stanford gained 478 yards and scored 31 points against Washington, who is the #1 defense in the country according to Football Outsider's FEI rankings.  (And ND, SC, and UCLA weren't exactly slouches either.)  Also important to consider is that we run differently than Michigan State does.  Much is made of our short-yardage personnel groupings, but that's hardly all we do.  Indeed, for most of our rushing yards, we're not running into the teeth of the defense--we're using an extra OL on a LB and running off-tackle or doing something else to get McCaffrey in space. 

Another commenter noted that if they neutralize McCaffrey, "the game is won."  But the ND game shows why that way of thinking is a mistake.  If you commit 8 guys to the box to "stop" McCaffrey (meaning to hold him to around 100 rushing yards on the day), you're just inviting Hogan to take advantage of the middle of the field on play action. 

I absolutely think Iowa could gain 250 rushing yards against us.  But that's not going to be enough, assuming our defense continues its strong run of holding opposing offenses to field goals in the red zone.  Iowa will need some big plays from Beathard to win, particularly if we can get an early lead and force Iowa to get away from its bread and butter. 

All in all, it seems like Iowa fans are focusing on our loss to Northwestern and concluding that we can't hack it against Big Ten defenses, and that we'll therefore be unable to gain yards against Iowa.  We can only hope the Iowa coaching staff has similar tunnel vision.