Solar

I don't think it's really debatable at this point. We have gone against some of the best rushing defenses in the country in conditions they knew we would be running the ball and still averaged 6-7 yards a carry. Nobody does that. It isn't necessarily the James, Barner, DAT style from a decade ago, but it works against everyone. The big question is how to maximize that against our opponents the remainder of the year. Just because we can play Iowa ball doesn't mean we should. Playing that style 4 quarters every game is only good for convincing yourself you can hang with anybody, not actually consistently winning. We can certainly use it at the end of games when first downs become more important than touchdowns. We can use it to retain leads and shorten games. We can certainly use it in place of bubble screens. We can use it to set up play action pass to keep the pass rush honest and create more space behind the LBs. I think in short we need to go to a more pro style offense. A little spread is okay to keep defenses honest, but the rule should be to run it down their throats and pass it over their heads. Maybe not as clever or cute or entertaining as we'd like, but we have to play to our strengths.

I was preparing myself for disappointment the entire game. When we made the field goal it was like everything went silent and the earth stood still. I'd be just fine if we never played Iowa again. Their style is high risk season wrecker style of ball. They don't care if they win that much as long as they at least have a chance of winning late, and any time you can have a low scoring game you have a puncher's chance. Screw them. That could have ended our bid for the playoffs. I mean, we beat them at their own game, but I don't want to play that game, you know? I'll be a million times happier watching us play our last 3 games.

My parents asked why the review was taking so long and I said they were on the phone with vegas looking for a big enough bidder to uphold a blatant fumble as not a fumble.

There is a psychological effect of others feeling the need to pick up the slack when the best players go down. We need our possession receivers Lowe, Perry and Bryant to show up, and our TE Johnson.

That's quite the list. Sounds like we attacked the bye week and it attacked us back.

I watched the Indiana vs. Iowa game highlights this morning. Iowa's front 7 is fast and gets really skinny to get between the offensive linemen. We absolutely shouldn't be be handing the ball off to an RB on 3rd or 4th and short. I'm not feeling very good about our chances to put up points on offense unless Moore can get in a rhythm and pick apart their secondary to open up the box.

When points are hard to come by special teams and turnovers make all the difference, so it's a real crapshoot to be honest. Oregon 23-20 1 TO 1 sack 168 yards passing

It definitely makes sense for Fisch to punch out and for JS to backfill him.

Great feedback everyone. I think we are all of a similar mindset here. Hopefully this is a great minds think a like situation and Dan the man has some answers with Will, Dante and the rest of the Offense.

I think it's no turnovers on downs. Giving Iowa a short field is playing into their hands. Our punter is a stud. Let's give them a taste of their own medicine of a long field by punting on every fourth down outside of field goal range. Make them fight our defense the length of the field. We can't afford to hand the ball off to Whittington straight ahead on the first few drives for 2 yards a carry. Give him a wheel route, or other outlet routes if we think we can pass early. If we want to run straight ahead, it has to be Davidson or Harris. And don't keep doing it into a loaded box. If we find something that works early run it again and again until they stop it. I don't care if we are just getting 4 yards per bubble screen, keep doing it. Get them chasing our scheme instead of us running away from theirs. I'm so sick of us trying to challenge every blade of grass and seeing a defender beat us to it. I really want to see Stein and Moore evolve beyond their predictable weaknesses that defenses keep attacking. WRs need to learn how to maximize open space in zones and show their numbers, raise their arm to Dante so he is comfortable with making the throws then they truly are open. We're young and our weaknesses have been obvious. Let's hope we really took advantage of the bye week and come out with some answers to these tough defenses.

I think it has to be making them beat us through the air. Corners man up playing slight soft, with single high safety at most, and load the freaking box. Nothing wrong with 4 down linemen 3 LBs a nickel and Thienman peaking over the LBs shoulder attacking the run or spying Gronowski. Seriously, if B1G teams want to play low brow I'm gonna run it and your going to have to stop me then let's trust that is what they will do, and commit to stopping it. Death by 1000 cuts of 3.5 yards and a pile of mud is no way to die.

If Dante was dominating every game and bored out of his mind, MAYBE he goes. The reality is Dante is playing the long game. He sat for a year to get better already, and sees Uber experienced Bo and Dylan starting in the NFL while Shadeur rides the pine. The only thing that could make him think twice at this point is if Will leaves and he can't stand his replacement.

Yeah. It's not exactly the most probable outcome, but there is definitely a world where Dan and Will discuss this contingency during game prep. I'm shocked that people here still think Brock is some kind of charity case and not our actual #2 QB, at least in bad weather. Does anyone actually think Moore played better than Brock against Wisconsin? I think it was close. We scored twice as many points with Brock in the same amount of game time. Does Dante handle those bad snaps that Brock handled? Dante's advantage over Brock is only the arm talent. But if it's pouring buckets and windy and the arm talent is neutralized, and if Dante is rattled, then he isn't making efficient split second decisions.

Scenario this Saturday: Cold and rainy again. Dante Moore has been Mr Happy Feet unable to see open receivers, and has taken 4 sacks on the first 4 possessions. Does Brock come in?

That's alright. Will is really good, but there will always be others.

Our OLine has to come out road grading. I think they are the biggest offender of slow starts on the entire team and it hurts when we can't run the ball early. At the same time Will can't wait until almost halftime to figure out Iowa is loading the box. That's why you run scripted plays for the first 2 series to see their game plan for a variety of our looks. First team to 27 wins.

Maybe Miami has a real epiphany that it is an improvement to go from "I lose games I shouldn't" Mario to "I lose the games I should" Franklin. Nah, they think they should be winning Natty's.

Yeah the odds of getting shut down 3 or 4 plays in a row is really high against great defenses, and Moore can't be expected to be as efficient as Nix and Gabriel were. The only alternative is to air it out more. I get it he hasn't had time at times, but a lot of times he has time, he just doesn't like what he sees and gets happy feet into scramble mode and goes down. If you get a one on one, don't stare them down, but do look off the safety, then huck the ball with some air under it and have our WRs go get it.

It wasn't being classy, it was the risk free move to make: two kneel downs to win vs giving the ball back to Florida to let stupid things happen to you with a minute 30 left to play, something Mario would love.

Mario isn't going anywhere for a few more seasons. He'll continue to tease them with greatness just enough to stick around.

I'm always surprised and the jubilation and consternation when a 40-50 yard bomb is picked off on 2nd or 3rd down. I mean, it's effectively just a high quality punt you made a down or two early assuming your WR is able to tackle the intercepting DB. What's the big deal? So, the downside is minimal if you're launching bombs from near midfield. And with our defense that has allowed the fewest trips in the red zone in the country, we can usually survive giving teams a long field, who cares if it harms time of possession. And the upside is anywhere from automatic field goal range to a touchdown. If you can get a 50/50 opportunity (i.e. 1 on 1, no safety) and you have a player like Dakorien Moore where it's more like 75/25 I think you should be taking that shot basically every time that opportunity presents itself. 3rd and short is when the opportunity would most likely present itself with single high safety. And if the defenses start to pick up on it as a tendency, and adapt to it, it would only make getting a more modest conversion that much easier pulling a defender out of the box. And last but not least, the most frequent outcome of an under thrown lofted bomb to a covered WR is pass interference. I think Moore has this option available, but he doesn't want to thrown a 50/50 ball, he wants the receiver to have an advantage and throw a pinpoint pass rather than putting some extra air under it if the receiver isn't open. He doesn't have it in him to throw to a covered receiver, he'd rather take an 80% chance of getting sacked vs. a 20% chance of getting intercepted every time. He's got too much Shadeur Sanders in him since Will Stein got ahold of him. I said before the season we simply wouldn't be as efficient on a per down basis with Moore vs. Nix, or Gabriel, the only way Moore would be able to replicate their success is if he threw an extra explosive play for every pass play he wastes or takes a sack. I wonder if it's been the wrong approach to try to turn Moore into Gabriel. Maybe it's the right approach if you're playing the long game, and I'm thinking it's about a 99% chance Moore is back next year.

There is a fair chance our lackluster performance vs Indiana was partially due to two weeks of the young team absorbing the hype we got after beating Penn State. So, yeah definitely less risk with us being undervalued vs.the alternative glowing adulation.

Dunning Kruger effect.. it's a measure of wisdom in it's own way. It's idiotic how the media keeps thinking Lanning is this coaching option for other teams. I mean DeBoer is more likely to leave Bama for something better than Lanning, why don't they throw his name out there instead. On a more realistic note, any Jedd Fisch rumors? That guy has always sounded like a short termer, so maybe this will be the test.if he's interested in a better college HC gig or if he's only really interested in moving on to the NFL. The irony for UW is any strong success whether this season or next, probably means Jedd gets an offer he can't refuse and they start over again with a new coach.

I agree. It isn't enough to have a complete roster, you have to use it. For every counter by the opposing defense you have to be able to recognize it and have a counter of your own. I'll go back to my prior pondering, is why is Stein not up in the box? Has he been under undervaluing the importance of seeing how the defense is attacking his play calling in real time. It's great we adjusted just before halftime, but we'd already thrown away 5 possessions at that point. Someone else mentioned more play-action pass which adds the RB as another blocker up front and creates more space across the middle behind the linebackers. I agree we should do more of that too.

It's a thing in the NFL that you are only as good as your biggest weakness. That applies to players (especially QB's) and schemes. The reason being that opposing coaches are good enough to scout your strengths and take those options away, forcing you to play to your weaknesses. I think this has happened to Stein and Moore this year. Penn State, Indiana, and Wisconsin all doing similar things defensively to take away our strengths. Dante Moore does great with a clean pocket and man coverage? Then bring pressure and play complex zone coverages. Stein likes to use up every blade of grass within 10 yards of the LOS? Run a 4-3 multiple defense that crowds the LOS across the width of the field. The next evolution of our offense is for Stein and Moore to get better at executing to their weaknesses. Moore needs to learn how to deal with real time zone schemes with simulated pressure options and learn how to move in the pocket to buy every last millisecond of time. Stein needs to learn how to create openings up the middle of the field and revise the route trees to create opportunities that materialize quicker for Moore. We've had the luxury of being tested to our weaknesses early in the season. I really hope theses 2 weeks are used to strengthen our weaknesses. If we can have just enough success with our weaknesses (which I believe we have enough talent potential to do) that opponents have start defending them, then that will reopen our strengths.