Talk Hawkeyes

What gets fans of college football teams like USC and Florida excited?  They go into the season knowing they should win all of their games.  They get pushed a couple times a year but normally manage to pull out the win in the end.  They get any recruit they want so they know going into the season that they are more talented than all of the teams on their schedule.

Rooting for the Iowa Hawkeyes is another thing altogether.

They win a fair number of games but also regularly lose to teams like Iowa State, Indiana, and Northwestern.  They frequently lose out on big recruits.  They regularly have walk ons end up playing as starters.

All of which is part of the fun of rooting for a team like the Hawkeyes.  Sure losing to ISU 7 out of the last 10 times sucks but it makes it all that much sweeter when the team goes crazy and wins every other game like back in 2002.  It makes it that much more fun when the top 5 recruits from Illinois come to Iowa in one year.  It makes winning games at Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State something to actually cheer about rather than just being happy they didn’t lose.

So when Iowa falls apart against a team they should easily handle handle, don’t stress for more than a couple hours.  They are just setting us up for a special memory somewhere down the line.

Let’s hope they are planning one of those memories for this Saturday against Wisconsin.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, college football

This game is much closer than it should be. Go Hawkeye Momentum!

Field goal attempt hits the upright and bounces the Hawkeye way.

ISU 12 - Iowa 10. Still.

Christensen on the QB keeper for 9. 3rd and 1. Young stuffed for a loss. No first down. Punt goes down to about the 23.

13:23 left, ISU ball. QB keeper and Meyer’s chest meets somebody on Iowa that it isn’t happy to meet, Humpal I think.

3rd and 8, King deflects the pass. Punt team!

Sims catches the screen for 13 or so. Is Young injured? I haven’t seem him since his shoulder got drilled on a play. Christensen scrambles up the middle for a first down.

2nd and 8, Sandeman makes a freak stud catch while getting clobbered. That was the play of the game so far. True freshman.

Christensen sacked, fumbles, recovers. back on the 15. Field goal attempt. Signor. Blocked.

Still ISU 12 - Iowa 10. 7 minutes left.

ISU throws deep to Blythe but well covered. Blythe actually had to almost interfere to keep the ball from Shada. Short pass for nothing. 3rd and 10. Incomplete. Bring out the punt team. And the announcers are absolutely wrong. Shada did not hold Blythe.

Iowa with good field position with 6:35 left.

We need to score right now.

Christensen complete to Moeaki going for about 15. Young gains about 6. He must have just been resting earlier. Young with a nice little juke to gain the 1st down.?

4:40 left. Christensen barely manages to throw the ball out of bounds. Can somebody do something with Bowen please? QB keeper for 7. Nice block by Young.

Cleveland just about makes a nice play but changes his mind at the last second and drops the pass. Time for another fieldgoal. 41 yarder, Signor kicking. Up and GOOD!

Iowa up 13 - 12.

Kickoff to the 20. Stopped at the 32.

ISU ball with 3:34. Meyer complete for 9 to the 41. 3:00 left. ISU plows ahead for about 7. 1st down. I think ISU has all of their time outs left. Meyere sacked by King. 2:22 left.

That should have been offensive interference. No call. Completion way down the field. Why was Klinkenborg covering a WR? ISU on the 17.

I can’t believe that ISU is going to win this. I guess we can still root for an Iwebema blocked field goal kick. 45 seconds. ISU runs up the middle to run the clock. ISU will call the timeout with seconds left, 5 to be exact. 3rd down and ISU will attempt to kick the FG for the win.

Iowa calls a time out to ice the kicker which absolutely never works.

Here comes the kick. Lined up right in the middle 28 yards away. Up and good. ISU will win unless the Hawks run it back.

I am constantly amazed at how bad Iowa is on the road. One second left.

No seconds left.

ISU 12 - Iowa 10.

Quite a run back, but still a loss.

More to come after I find some food.

Because of our stupid decision to always take the ball first at the beginning of the game, ISU will start with the ball.

Shada almost intercepts the ball but takes the opportunity to prove that he belongs on the defensive side of the field by dropping the ball.

FUMBLE. Iowa’s ball. Meyer runs the ball one to many times. Iowa takes advantage by false start on 1st down. 1st and 15.

Christensen complete to Brodell for the 1st down. Is that an offense I smell? Young takes a big hit, but after an 8 yard run on 1st down. Sims for 1. 3rd and less than 1. So, the Iowa guy runs for about 6 and the ref happens to catch that his knee went down after only inches. 4th and 1 and we’re going for it. Bootleg run. TOUCHDOWN!

Iowa 7 - ISU 12.

Quote of the day, “That drive was caused by the fumble.” Thanks Mr. Announcerman.

Kickoff, that guy should have taken the knee since he got clobbered on the 20. ISU ball 1st and 10 from the 20.

Meyer continues dinking. No word on whether he is still dunking or not. Short pass. Even shorter run. 3rd and 6. Short pass and Moylan nails the receiver short of the 1st down. Friends, let’s teach a quick lesson here. On 3rd and 6, throw the ball more than 6 yards or just punt early. Bad kick, Iowa at midfield.

Sims sneaks up the field 17 yards. The momentum seems to be swinging.

Sims runs for a loss of a few and a flag on the play. Facemask, 5 yards. 2nd and 5. Christensen tries to throw an INT but nobody on ISU wants to catch the ball. 3rd down on the ISU 21. Shotgun. Christensen was obviously not listening to my lesson a couple paragraphs ago. 4th and 2 after the completion. 35 yard field goal is good.

ISU 12 - Iowa 10.

Kickoff returned and the ISU guy is clobbered again.

ISU 3rd and 5. ISU receiver goes 6 yards. Shada covers him at 7 yards. Somebody read the lesson above and somebody else didn’t.

See above. It just happened again.

That was holding on Klinkenborg. No call. But he still tackled the runner. 3rd and 6. Let’s see if we have this figured out yet. ISU helps the cause by running for nothing. 4th down. End of the third.

4th quarter to come.

Hopefully getting the wind this quarter will help a little.

ISU continues to pick the defense apart with short stuff until a odd reverse looking thing gets stuffed. Then an invomplete pass. 3rd and 10. Short pass back to line of scrimmage and then tackled. The defense keeps them out of the endzone. 42 yard attempt, good. Apparently the wind isn’t our problem.

ISU sets up the kick. Squib kick that Iowa lands on the ball on the 34. Christensen incomplete on the bootleg. Maybe 1.5 yards for Sims on second down. 3rd and 9. Christensen throws deeps to nobody…well somebody but I couldn’t see between the two ISU guys. 4th down. Time to punt again. Our specialty.

42 on the kick with the wind. ISU ball after the TV timeout.

Can we start scheduling all of our games at home. I hate watching them play on the road.

They just showed Christensen getting stretched by the trainers. Who is the backup? I don’t really want to find out today.

4th and 1 and ISU is going for it and gets it way too easily. They just ran the ball right off the tackle.

3rd down and 5. The defensive guys let a guy park 7 yards down field and catch another easy 1st down.

ISU goes for the deep TD, no good. And another field goal right down the middle.

ISU 12 - Iowa 0.

ISU gets a penalty on the Iowa runback, so we will be starting with good field position. 1st down on the 44. Sims wiggle ahead for about 8. Christensen is still in the game.

So far 4 possessions, 4 punts. 18 yards is the most we’ve had any series.

A goofy bubble screen for a 1st down to Brodell. We just get across midfield and then get sacked for 8 yards back to the other side of the field. Sims run back to the original line of scrimmage. 3rd and 11. 1:25 until half. Christensen incomplete. The punt goes into the end zone. ISU 1st down on the 20 with about 1 minute left.

ISU continues running for easy yards. Iowa burns a couple timeouts to force a punt with 17 seconds. Nice 5 yard punt. Iowa gets to take a hail mary from the 45 yard line. Or a short pass for zero points.

Half time.

Stay tuned for the 3rd quarter.

I’m watching Akron beat Indiana late in the 1st half. Could there be another big MAC win in the near future?

We’ll be watching the game on a nice 50″ plasma. I might have to start being nice to my parents to make sure the TV goes to the right house in the inheritance.

ISU Coach is asking all of his players to never look at the score board and look for little victories on every play. Not looking at the score board might be good advice.

Wisconsin seems to be struggling against Citadel. It was 14-14 when we changed channels. Wisconsin had the ball about to score on the 1. Before we could blink both teams had scored a touch down.

Is the turf at ISU as bad as it looks on TV?

3 freshman, 1 sophomore, 1 junior. That O-line is going to be brutal over the next couple years.

3rd and 10. Christensen throws it away deep. Bring out the punter. I hate taking the ball first every game. We always end up punting. And they end up with the ball at the 43.

Iowa gets pressure and Meyer runs right around it for an easy first down. So, ISU is officially starting off better than Syracuse.

ISU 3rd and 1 and they easily get the first on the ground. Ball at the 25. 1st and ten. Deep throw and Godfrey is busy humping Blythe’s leg and gets the penalty called for it. ISU 1st and 10 on the 10. A short pass and another short run. 3rd and goal from the 4. Alley oop pass to Blythe; incomplete. Daulton was grabbing the jersey buy no penalty. Still no TDs against the Iowa D. Field goal is good. ISU is up 3-0. Stupid Cyclones. TV timeout. Stupid timeouts.

Another touchback and the Hawkeyes will start on the 20. Christensen audibles which pretty much guarantees a run…it also pretty much guarantees 5 yards. 2nd and 5. Young for another 8ish. 1st down. Play action and the ball ends up in Moeaki’s hands for another first. Iowa out to the 45. Sandemen takes a pretty decent hit and can’t hold on to the slant route. 3rd and 9. Sack/funble/Christensen holds onto the ball.

We officially look like crap so far. I hate how much worse we always seem to play away from Kinnick.

Punt and another TV timeout.

ISU spreading the field with short passes and then just ran the ball up the middle for about 12. Meyere on the keeper for another 13. So the defense is looking pretty bad so far, too. Everybody needs to settle down. A couple short plays later, 3rd and 8 with 4:00 left. Pass short of the first and pushed out of bounds. 4th down and the field goal squad takes the field for a 33 yd attempt. Right down the middle.

ISU 6 - Iowa 0.

Sandemen bobbles the kick off in the end zone and just takes the knee. By the way, that Sandemen is VERY fast. Iowa 1st and 10 at the 20. Audible. Play action pass to Cleveland for 5. Hawks run for 4. 3rd and 1. Young pounds ahead for the 1st down. Christensen sacked again after the play action leads to nothing. Shotgun. Chased out of the pocket. Pass to Moeaki…but off his finger tips. Punt team - into the wind…but it doesn’t matter since it went off the side of his foot and straight out of bounds after 14 yards.

Meyere runs for about 15 to end the quarter. I’m going to start a new post for the 2nd quarter.

Is it a bad omen when the family hamster dies on game day?

During my drive over to my dad’s house, I was listening to Sirius Radio and happened to stumble onto the Iowa State coach’s show. Some of the highlights included:

• Iowa’s defensive line is really good.
• Iowa’s linebackers are really good.
• Iowa’s running backs are really good.
• Iowa’s offensive line is really good.
• Iowa’s quarterback is really good.
• Iowa’s punt returner is really good.

It sounds like their game plan is to hope they can throw the ball deep into the secondary and hope we fumble any kickoffs.

Also, I ate too many Long John Silver’s fish, Cheetos, and strawberry milk on the way and I think we’ll be ordering pizza later. It’s a good thing that I won’t actually be going to the stadium any more so I won’t eat all the junk trip from the road games.

Also, there will be no proof reading during any of the game notes. Feel free to make fun of any typos.

Firstly, as long as I can get my laptop hooked up with my parents wireless router, I will be live blogging during the Iowa - Iowa State football game tomorrow probably starting with a couple notes around noon.  Feel free to join in and help fill in the gaps.  The last time I did this was during the last bowl game.  I covered the first half and the second half in different posts.  I’ll probably do that again or maybe split each quarter into its own post depending on how much typing I end up doing.

Secondly, I just signed up with a Hawkeye forum.  It is a very friendly, fun forum that just needs a Hawkeye fan like you.  All Hawkeye fans should go over and sign up.  Right now.  Go.  Wait.  I forgot to give you a link.

Go sign up at Hawkeye Hideout.

When you sign up, let me know what your name over there is.  My name in the forum is TalkHawkeyes.  That should be easy enough to keep track enough.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, college football, live blogging

During the Syracuse game last weekend, there was a guy, not this guy, who was constantly yelling at the Iowa coaching staff to “Just run the ball down there throats.”

For the record, Iowa ran for 118 yards but only 2.9 yard per carry and was definitely not shy about running it.  There were 41 total rushes by the Hawks.

In the end though, I think there was a definite focus on the passing game for a few reasons.

First of all, almost everybody on Syracuse was committed to stopping the run which just makes it too easy to throw the ball.

Also, there were 8 dropped passes against Northern Illinois and quite a few bad early throws by Christensen in that game.  I think Ferentz decided that the passing/catching game needed fixed ASAP before getting into the Big Ten games.  If we have 8 dropped passes against Wisconsin, there is little chance of winning that game.

Everybody knows that between the offensive line and a couple really talented running backs that the running game should be fine.  But that will only work if the passing game is good enough that teams have to pay attention to it.

I am a huge fan of a brutal, pounding, clock killing running game but in the era of TV timeouts between each possession it is getting very difficult to just completely wear out the defense and let the running game take over in the second half.  Being able to pass the ball keeps the defense covering the whole field which makes it much easier for the running game to work.

I guarantee you that seeing Moeaki have such a huge game is going to be very disturbing for the linebacking corps of the Big Ten teams.  Do they stuff the run and get beat with the 10 yard pass over the middle or do they drop back and end up not getting back to the running back until he is already 5 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Personally, I don’t care what the other linebackers do.  Iowa used the Syracuse game to prove that they can flourish either way.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, college football, football, sports

Dear Punk Guy,

Mitch King is not your buddy. No matter how many times you yelled, “Yo Mitch” or “Nice play, Mitch” or just leaned way forward screaming “Mitch” he did not make eye contact or even give a quick head nod one single time.

When a lady asks Herky for a picture, don’t take that as an opportunity to throw your arm around Herky and grin that goofy grin while the lady says “Why am I taking a picture of this guy with Herky?” Just let get out of the way and let her photograph the bird. I know you think that any friend of Mitch King’s deserves to be in the picture, but see the first point. You are not his friend.

You might have had a couple beers with Andy Fenstermaker before the game but I bet he was secretly wishing you would go into the stadium early to watch the band and stop talking about Mitch King.

Finally, no matter how many times you tell me that one of your buddies on the team hooked you up with that sweet first row tick on the 35-yard line, I am not going to believe it. You see, that was my sister’s ticket. She was sick over the weekend and had to stay home. So we sold her ticket to a scalper.

However, kudos on the frequent high fives, general positive enthusiasm and giving us somebody to make fun of on the drive home.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, college football, football, sports

Do you think the Hawkeye defensive line is eating like normal this week or are they fasting this week so they are nice and hungry at game time for the Cyclones?

I was looking at the stats and Iowa State managed to put up decent running yards against both Kent State and Northern Iowa.  I have a feeling that that is going to change very dramatically this weekend.

Which means the Cyclones are going to have to rely on the passing game and Meyer already has 4 interceptions this year (2 in each game).  I have a feeling that if the running game gets smothered and he is forced to carry the team, that the Iowa secondary will have a good chance to make some plays.

That is if the defensive line gives Meyer a chance to even get rid of the ball.