The Good: The Patience of Phil Parker
At a glance you’d see that Iowa gave up 27 points to Wisconsin and say “Well, that’s not all that great.” You have to dive into the numbers to see why Iowa’s defense was the relative lone bright spot of the game. The Badgers had some legitimate drives, no question, but some very bad choices by the Hawkeyes is how they ended up winning comfortably. Iowa had the ball at their own 14-yard line when Spencer Petras was sacked and fumbled, giving the Badgers the ball at the Iowa 8-yard line. Iowa’s defense put up a hell of a stand, leading to the Badgers turning the ball over on downs after a 4th-and-1 stop on Iowa’s 1-yard line.
Iowa then immediately turned the ball back over following a botched hand-off between Petras and Ivory Kelly-Martin. This set up an easy Wisconsin touchdown.
Later, when the Iowa defense stood tall and forced a punt…Max Cooper fumbled it resulting in the Badgers getting the ball at the Hawkeye 18-yard line. The defense held them to a three and out, resulting in a Badger field goal to make the score 20-0.
In all, Iowa lost three fumbles, all setting the Badgers up inside the Hawkeye 20-yard line. The Iowa defense held them to 10 points on those turnovers. This thing could’ve been even worse than it was, but thanks to some tremendous play by the defense, it wasn’t. I mean…it wasn’t good because Iowa’s offense was a dumpster fire but it could’ve been a REAL laugher and Phil Parker prevented that from happening.
The Bad: Kirk, Brian and Petras
This is the third post-game piece written on the topic so it’s not going to be anything you haven’t seen. That said…there’s this:
What activities pic.twitter.com/dsbRpGx6Kl
— Go Iowa Awesome (@IowaAwesome) October 30, 2021
Kirk and Brian couldn’t give depositions because they were too busy with the bye week “activities.” Iowa’s offense managed to only accumulate nine first downs, the first coming when it was almost halftime, 156 total yards, seven points and two offensive turnovers. What the hell were the "activities" that they were doing? This team looked wholly unprepared.
Why did Brian keep calling slant routes when Petras can’t throw them? Were some balls dropped? Yes. Still, can Spencer Petras not throw a slant route? And there’s this:
They called a fullback dive out of a timeout. Send help. Help us.
— Go Iowa Awesome (@IowaAwesome) October 30, 2021
I have never. Never. Seen anything like what transpired in the third quarter of that football game. Back-to-back fullback dives? Everyone is focusing on the fullback dives and forgetting what happened on the very next possession. Down 27-7, facing a 4th-and-13 on Wisconsin’s 39-yard line Petras… threw... the… ball… away. No, seriously. He threw the ball out of bounds on fourth down. Instead of giving someone a chance, even if it would’ve resulted in an interception, he just threw the ball out of bounds. I have never seen anything like that either. How did we get here?
Well,,,
The Ugly: The Offensive Line
Has Iowa ever had an offensive line this bad? Petras was sacked five times. Padilla was sacked twice. Tyler Goodson only averaged 2.1 YPC. Why? Well, here’s the makeup of Iowa’s offensive line:
LT: Mason Richman, FR(RS), 3-star OL whose best other offer was Kansas.
RG: Kyler Schott, JR, walk-on.
C: Tyler Linderbaum, JR, best center in college football.
RG: Connor Colby, FR, 4-star OL whose best other offer was Ohio State.
RT: Nick DeJong, SO, walk-on.
Iowa’s starting offensive line against Wisconsin featured three underclassmen, two walk-ons and a left-tackle whose only other FBS offer was from Kansas. I’m sure Connor Colby will be great but he is literally 18 years old right now. Tyler Linderbaum can do a lot. He can even block two guys at once. But he can’t block three. Or four. Or five. Or six. And that’s what he’s up against, with little help.
That’s why Tyler Goodson can’t run. That’s why Spencer Petras keeps getting sacked. That said, maybe there’s a reason Petras was a 4-star recruit who broke some of Jared Goff’s high school records but only had a handful of offers from Power 5 schools. Maybe the coaches watched the tape and saw someone who panicked when he was under pressure. I don’t know. But that’s what I see now. With Iowa’s offensive line being so spotty, you figure they’d call plays to try to get Petras out of the pocket. But Petras doesn’t want to be out of the pocket. He wants to stand there and if things get dicey, he appears to have zero idea what to do aside from: 1) fall down; 2) get sacked.
Alex Padilla showed a willingness to actually scramble out of the pocket, completing a pass to Sam LaPorta, Iowa’s longest pass completion of the day. Padilla was no 4-star recruit out of California that broke some of Jared Goff’s records, but he was a 3-star recruit that had five offers from Ivy League schools and Georgia. I like to think Kirby Smart is familiar with how to recruit quarterbacks. But what do we know?
As it stands, Iowa’s offense is coached by someone that is wholly incompetent, the offensive line is a dumpster fire and their quarterback is a statue. The appropriate action to take would be to demote Brian to offensive line coach, hand over playcalling duties to Woods/Copeland/Betts or ::GASP:: Ken O’Keefe and see what Padilla can give you. The scheme obviously won’t change but maybe some better judgment can be exercised and Padilla’s mobility allows you keep plays alive a little longer.
Unfortunately, none of that will happen, and we’ll be back here again in approximately one week.
See you then!
