It is a good thing I am not a gambler after the predictions I made last week. Oh well. At least I’ve still got my good looks.
Fortunately, the only thing I mostly got right was Ohio State beating Texas so I did not wear my sweater vest today. Instead I opted for my humbling Iowa -vs- Florida shirt from last year’s outback bowl.
So PSU looks like they are not going to match the magic of last year and the Gophers are never going to make it to the top 25 before starting their death spiral. Should be an interesting year in the middle of the Big 10.
But what about those Hawkeyes.
Who knew that Tate wasn’t going to play? I don’t even think Manson knew until after he tied his shoes in the locker room. Talk about pressure.
And he showed some pressure. 4 interceptions against Syracuse is a subpar day for any college quarterback no matter how deep they belong in the depth chart.
One of those was a ball was thrown a little too nicely for Moeaki to hold on to. That one was totally Tony’s fault.
Another was a deep floater into the end zone. The ball needed to be thrown about 5 yards further, but it wasn’t. That’s Manson’s fault. The receiver should have come back to the ball and at least prevented the DB from catching the ball. Instead he just slowed down and waited for the ball to get there…which it never did. That is the receivers fault.
There was another moment in the game where a receiver was charging back toward Manson and as soon as Manson threw the ball he slowed down and the defender didn’t. I can’t remember if that was one of the picks or not, but the receivers need to spend a lot of time watching the video this week to learn how to make sure they are the only person that can catch the ball. Young receivers can be taught and I expect them to make strides in this area by next week.
One thing I did like about Manson is that he never really looked panicky out there. Even after 4 picks. Another thing is the team never looked panicky which indicates how much they trust Manson. That could come in handy next week if Tate does not heal enough before the Iowa State game.
I was among the fans begging Ferentz through my TV to try a different QB. I need to remember to stop that. I did that a couple times during the Chandler for QB year and all he did was lead the team to the most wins by an Iowa team ever.
Trust Ferentz. He knows who belongs on the bench and who belongs on the field. If Manson is on the field, he is the best option on that day.
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