I'm not an Xs and Os guy, so I don't know how they did it, but Indy found a way to take away
our chunk play vertical passing game, and did so with their best CB on the sideline holding a
clipboard. Apparently they did not load the box, as other opponents have,
and relied upon LB McFadden to keep our ground game limited. It worked pretty well for
them in limiting us to 24 points. Our rush yard statistics were certainly better than what we
did versus Wiscy/Auburn/Nova, but other than a couple of good runs by KL and some scrambling
yardage by Cliff, it pretty much felt like those other three games where our running game
was stymied. I'm pretty sure if at 7:30pm you had told the Indy Coaching Staff they would
contain us to 24 points, they would have thought they had no less than a 50/50 chance to win.
I was not at the game. On TV, when close-ups of Penix were shown, he had a deer-in-the-headlights
very tentative look about him. I'm sure our D had much to do with that, but he was clearly not the
same player who had led them to victory over us in crunch time last year. We absolutely benefited from
that on Saturday evening
Coming back to my previous point, what disturbed me the most about last night, was how Indy neutralized
our hereto for most potent offensive weapon... the chunk pass play. I did not believe that could be done,
but Indy did it. It does not bode well for Iowa. If Coach reads this I would appreciate his analysis of just how
Indy succeeded in limiting our passing game.
our chunk play vertical passing game, and did so with their best CB on the sideline holding a
clipboard. Apparently they did not load the box, as other opponents have,
and relied upon LB McFadden to keep our ground game limited. It worked pretty well for
them in limiting us to 24 points. Our rush yard statistics were certainly better than what we
did versus Wiscy/Auburn/Nova, but other than a couple of good runs by KL and some scrambling
yardage by Cliff, it pretty much felt like those other three games where our running game
was stymied. I'm pretty sure if at 7:30pm you had told the Indy Coaching Staff they would
contain us to 24 points, they would have thought they had no less than a 50/50 chance to win.
I was not at the game. On TV, when close-ups of Penix were shown, he had a deer-in-the-headlights
very tentative look about him. I'm sure our D had much to do with that, but he was clearly not the
same player who had led them to victory over us in crunch time last year. We absolutely benefited from
that on Saturday evening
Coming back to my previous point, what disturbed me the most about last night, was how Indy neutralized
our hereto for most potent offensive weapon... the chunk pass play. I did not believe that could be done,
but Indy did it. It does not bode well for Iowa. If Coach reads this I would appreciate his analysis of just how
Indy succeeded in limiting our passing game.
