NU vs. Iowa Prediction Thread
- Thread starter DaCat
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Still smarting from last week's debacle in Ann Arbor, with last year's beatdown at the hands of the Hawkeyes in mind and inspired by the presence of the '95 team, I'm anticipating a strong bounce-back performance this week.
NU 23
Iowa 13
NU 23
Iowa 13
I'm way too confident this week, which is extremely rare. Probably is a bad sign, but I'm going with the feeling.
NU 27
Iowa 17
NU 27
Iowa 17
I know I poked fun at you guys a bit after the Michigan game, but my God, do I hope you crush the living hell out of Iowa.
Kill their dreams of a B1G West title this Saturday. After the way they treated/continue to treat Ruddock/Higdon, I hope their season goes down in flames. Not to mention that I have a great deal of respect for Fitz (I like how he and Coach Kill from Minnesota get things done the RIGHT way.)
Im predicting a 24-10 victory for the Wildcats. Iowa is hanging their hats on a 10-6 victory over a TERRIBLE Wisconsin team and a 29-20 win over an Illinois team that is.... well, still Illinois.
Kill their dreams of a B1G West title this Saturday. After the way they treated/continue to treat Ruddock/Higdon, I hope their season goes down in flames. Not to mention that I have a great deal of respect for Fitz (I like how he and Coach Kill from Minnesota get things done the RIGHT way.)
Im predicting a 24-10 victory for the Wildcats. Iowa is hanging their hats on a 10-6 victory over a TERRIBLE Wisconsin team and a 29-20 win over an Illinois team that is.... well, still Illinois.
LOL. Very sound and reasonable post..........wait. no. That was an iNSANE POST.
Very few people have been critical at all of Rudock. In fact almost everybody says hi'm transferring to meat chicken worked out best for all involved. And I haven't heard but one or two comments about Higdon since this summer. But please do carry on with your insane ranting.
Always liked Rudock. Great game manager. Not a game changer like Beathard. I remember before the season all of hd Michigan fans wanting Shane Morris to start. Especially after the 3 int game vs BYU by Rudock. Bummer about Higdon but I don't see anybody crying about it now.
Saturday will be another war but gotta go with my Hawks. They will find a way to win. Good teams do!
Saturday will be another war but gotta go with my Hawks. They will find a way to win. Good teams do!
Don't have a good feeling until after the Bye, Then I see us winning out.
Hopefully the guys will shake the UM game faster than I am.
Hopefully the guys will shake the UM game faster than I am.
Haha. I recall very few fans Hawk fans throwing much shite at Jake for transferring. I think the overwhelming majority felt it was in all parties' best interest. There are plenty of fans that hope Jake does well. I do remember a MI troll coming to IA's board crowing about how Harbaugh would turn him into an All American....and it did get tiresome listening to that moron. As far as Higdon is concerned, sure he didn't gain any IA fans when he flipped in the 11th hour. What would you expect? Now it's pretty much meh, and admittedly nobody really cares much that he's getting recruited over.
Cats come out motivated and on fire and go into halftime up 17-7. The key being the offensive line being able to seal the corner which opens up running plays and short over-the-middle passing plays with the Iowa linebackers having to play close for run support. The second half is a slugfest and the Cats end up winning 24-14.
The Cats end up with one long scoring touchdown due to the linebackers playing close and the safeties being drawn in by a play action.
The Cats end up with one long scoring touchdown due to the linebackers playing close and the safeties being drawn in by a play action.
I've already said something similar in another thread, but I think Northwestern jumps out to a 10-0 lead in the first half, but Iowa closes to within 10-7 by halftime via a special teams/defensive score or a big D/ST play setting up a short field. Iowa's defense is able to stifle Northwestern in the 2nd half, and the Iowa ground game begins to wear down the Northwestern front seven. Iowa tacks on a late field goal and gets a stop on the final possession to hang on, 20-13.
Our poor ST play will likely give you that short field. Poor punting, lack of punt returns, 3 and outs on offense - that's what I fear from our team. It was the story of the last two seasons, and it happened again last Saturday.
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Not saying that we will win (I predicted a close win), but look at our second half stats vs our first half stats against teams not named Michigan. Does that make your rethink the way this game will play out a bit?
Gamblers Alert: Alvious nailed it last week with his 38 - 0 prediction in favor of Michigan.
When Alvious speaks, you can take it to the bank!
Continuously running that speed option has been really moronic. I'm assuming McCall calls it in practice, so not sure why the execution is just gosh awful for the entire year. I mean, we must have ran it about 25 times this year and unless McCall teaches Thorson how to run it, it's been about 24 times too many. It was so brutal and embarrassing last week that I'm afraid that Thorson is just going to guess and run it once or twice himself just to break tendencies. He has clear and serious problems reading it, never mind the poor angles, etc.
You mean the play where we get their entire team to run to the short side of the field, pitch it backwards 5 yards and then run into a crowd where we are vastly out numbered?
I close my eyes when I see that coming.
The play is doomed by the setup. I have never seen the Superback in that veer backfield look UNLESS it is an option that way. Go to BTN2go and watch everytime we run the option. Michigan knows its coming, by virtue of where Vitale is in the backfield, in relation to the RB. It isn't that hard to figure out and it's quite glaring on the replay at BTN2go.
#5, the Michigan DB cheats up immediately when he sees the formation, evry time, then his first step isn't back, but a beeline forward. It's impossible to even block a DB who knows the play. On the other hand, on other run plays, everytime we pulled a guard, we had fairly decent success. Not sure why we don't do play action or pull guards more than 5 times a game.
Not really. Iowa has been able to run the ball down teams' throats in the 2nd half of most games this year. I know Northwestern has a good defense, but Iowa has faced a couple defenses this year already that are just as good or better (Wisconsin, Pitt). Iowa's interior O-Line is performing at a very high level.
On the other side of the ball, I just don't think Northwestern is going to be able to move the ball on Iowa's defense or put up any points.
I think you are underestimating the NU defense. Other than two drives against Michigan, as a result of us playing our base defense without aggression, we shut down everyone, including Michigan over the last 48 minutes. I may be wrong, but I think Doc learned that we have to stay aggressive, and that includes against Iowa. Otherwise, you may be right as I see Iowa being successful if we are in our base defense. I'm just saying that we won't be and that, if that is true, Iowa will not taste the endzone.
On offense, it is functionable, if the game plan is correct. Our QB is very good at passing, not so good at option. Our wide outs are awful. If I'm Iowa, I force the wide outs to beat us. If I'm Iowa on offense, I go deep because the run simply isn't going to be there for Iowa. It's going to be a lower scoring game than you and others may realize.
Good Luck!
I think NW needs some turnovers and or big special teams plays to get to 21+
This Iowa defense is absolutely stoning the run and you guys don't have much of a pass game. Unless you're doing something very different in the run that Iowa isn't ready for, I just don't see a big game running the ball for you. You'll need to pass.
To me it all comes down to whether or not Iowa can protect Beathard and how healthy Beathard actually is. If Iowa can get a pass game going I think they've got a clear advantage and win it. If Iowa can pass well, 24-10 Iowa. If not... something really low like 14-10.
(Unless Iowa actually diversifies their run game and gets other backs rolling, I don't think we can ride Canzeri alone for a very good offensive performance)
Both teams will be sky high for this one.
This Iowa defense is absolutely stoning the run and you guys don't have much of a pass game. Unless you're doing something very different in the run that Iowa isn't ready for, I just don't see a big game running the ball for you. You'll need to pass.
To me it all comes down to whether or not Iowa can protect Beathard and how healthy Beathard actually is. If Iowa can get a pass game going I think they've got a clear advantage and win it. If Iowa can pass well, 24-10 Iowa. If not... something really low like 14-10.
(Unless Iowa actually diversifies their run game and gets other backs rolling, I don't think we can ride Canzeri alone for a very good offensive performance)
Both teams will be sky high for this one.
Disagree with you on Iowa not being able to run the ball; Northwestern's run defense statistically is not great (giving up almost 4 ypc). Iowa has shown in previous games the ability to adapt their running game to attack the defense's weakness (against Pitt it was draws and misdirections; against Wisconsin it was inside zone). If Northwestern does sell out to stop the run, Iowa has potential to move the ball through the air. Iowa's offense is not consistent, and NW does have a very good defense. But Iowa will move the ball well in spurts and put up enough points to win, IMO. Agree with you that string D/ST TD's, this will be a low scoring game.
Doesn't base defense basically imply "most used defense?" Unless you've got some really balanced variance, I don't get it. I'd assume your base has to be doing decent for you. (or else it hasn't been properly tested by the opposition or something)
If NW is getting aggressive with blitzing (non base?) I'd watch out for screen plays. Iowa has had a variety of them this year, and they've worked much better in the past.
I agree we should challenge your WRs. It'll be interesting if we go predominantly man. We mix in quite a bit of zone usually. I'd go man, maybe keep a safety back part of the time. Let the other safety roam the box. (traditionally we don't cheat on defense, though)
Iowa had success running on Wisconsin (Canzeri went over 100) but it wasn't a huge day. Point is, even against a very good defense like theirs we've had some success. Our interior line is really strong and we're able to get good push on inside runs. So I expect at least some success running.. but am skeptical that we'll have the level of success needed to put up many points on that alone.
With Beathard and the pass game I'd love for some short screens/slants and then some max protect situations where we take shots downfield. We'll be rather calculated in the pass game. Don't know how that turns out.
I agree that a low scoring game seems like a good bet.
(x factors being Beathard/Iowa pass and the usual special teams/turnover strangeness that can't be predicted)
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