By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
PAT FITZGERALD was asked Monday if he thought the game Saturday against Duke would mirror the defensive tussle the two teams had last September in Durham.
"I'm really excited about tomorrow's practice," he said, and then he laughed loudly. "Where we're at right now, I think predicting and projecting is a waste of my time. Obviously, I wouldn't have predicted our O line would play like they did on Saturday. If I would have, I would have played some of the twos the whole day. Tomorrow's a really important practice for this year's team. The attitude that they demonstrate and the way we go out and execute fundamentally. That was the biggest thing. You look at some things that we drill and we work, then you get out in the moment and it doesn't happen. You just sit there and scratch your head as a coach. You look at the guys and you ask them why and you go out and keep grinding at it and influx competition. That's where we're at."
FITZGERALD staunchly believes competition breeds improvement and so, after his defensive line's tepid showing in the season opener against Western Michigan, he introduced it to that unit in the practices that followed. Then, last Saturday against Illinois State, the 'Cats used a 10-man rotation on that line, and it responded with a performance far better than the one it had given against the Broncos. It is no surprise, then, that this week there will be an open competition on the O line, which was so ineffective in its team loss to the Redbirds.
"We got our butts kicked up front," even guard Connor Mahoney admitted right after that game.
"Our offensive line play was as inconsistent as I've seen," Fitzgerald said Monday. "So we're going to influx competition. We're not just going to stand pat. We did that a week ago. The D line was not good enough and we made some changes, and we saw a return on those changes. We obviously have got to see a drastic improvement up front for us to be able to run the ball more consistently."
THERE WAS NO CONSISTENCY AT ALL to the offense against the Redbirds, which limited it to 86 net rushing yards on 31 carries (2.8 ypc) and limited quarterback Clayton Thorson to just 17 completions on his 41 attempts.
"That isn't going to win you a whole lot of football games," Fitzgerald would say of that last stat. "It's part on Clayton, it's part on getting hit, it's part on getting drops. It's not one thing. I wish it was. If it was, we'd go practice it today and be good to go. We've just got to get much more consistent."
"We've got to be more consistent, especially down the stretch," Thorson himself later echoed. "There were a few key plays where I didn't play as well as I should have. Those last two possessions, if I make a throw here, a throw there, maybe Illinois State doesn't get the ball back. That's on me. We've got to get more consistent."
ON THEIR FIRST FOURTH-QUARTER POSSESSION last Saturday, the 'Cats smartly marched 55 yards in a dozen plays for the touchdown that gave it a 7-6 lead over the Redbirds. But on their next two possessions, their final possessions of the afternoon, Thorson went 0-for-3, Auston Anderson netted just four yards on three carries and their offense had a pair of three-and-outs. That was the stretch Thorson referred to.
THAT IS ALSO ONE EXAMPLE of what ails the offense. Here is another: Thirty of its 72 plays went off in Redbird territory and, said Fitzgerald, "We had 16 or 17 self-inflicted wounds across the 50. That's holding calls. That's mental mistakes. That's drops. That's not putting the ball in the right spot as a quarterback. There were two calls that I didn't like play-wise because we didn't execute either one even though we executed them all week in practice. We go out in the game on Saturday, we don't execute those two throws. You get half your plays over the 50 inconsistent, it's really hard to get a rhythm, it's really hard to score touchdowns that way. We've got to get that fixed and we need to get it fixed in a hurry."
QUICKLY NOTED: Justin Jackson sat out last Saturday's fourth quarter and so, Fitzgerald recalled Monday, "When we were doing walk-through today, I told him the first question I'm going to get (at his noon presser) is about Justin Jackson. He smiled and laughed. And I said, 'Are you going to play?' He said, 'Yeah, I'm going to play.'" But Jackson himself demurred a bit minutes after his coach related that anecdote, saying here, "I'll be doing everything I can to be playing on Saturday." . . . Cornerback Matthew Harris, injured against the Redbirds, has been ruled out of the Duke game. Scheduled to take his place is redshirt freshman Trae Williams . . . Longtime defensive tackle C.J. Robbins started last Saturday at defensive end and is scheduled to do that again against the Blue Devils . . . In case you were wondering why Matt Alviti replaced Thorson for a couple snaps against the Redbirds: Thorson was having trouble with his contact lenses . . . Here's what Fitzgerald said when asked about the four holding calls made on the offensive line last Saturday: "We didn't move our feet. Coaching 101 is feet before hands. When your show your hands and you don't move your feet and the guy gets outside of your framework, you're going to get called for holding. I think they were all good calls. I don't think our tackles moved their feet very well. I don't have an answer for you on that because we drill the heck out of outside moves. It's nothing that we haven't practiced and it's nothing we haven't seen. I just don't think the guys went out and did it fundamentally very well. If I had more depth, I probably would have made more changes in-game. But that is what it is right now." . . . And here is what he said when asked if his offense had gotten too predictable: "I think you have to have an identity. And I think you have to get the guys to go out and execute it cleanly. If you'd like me to tell you what Iowa's going to do, I can tell you exactly what they're going to do. Most teams who are pretty good have an identity, and you're able to stick to your identity and build complements off it and go from there. I think the really, really good teams have an identity and they're able to execute that really well. That's obviously not where we're at right now. That's something that's got to be fixed."
AND FINALLY: Jackson, when asked how the 'Cats can stay positive at 0-2: "This week we have an opportunity to beat Duke and that's what we're going to focus on. It's simple. It's as simple as that."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
PAT FITZGERALD was asked Monday if he thought the game Saturday against Duke would mirror the defensive tussle the two teams had last September in Durham.
"I'm really excited about tomorrow's practice," he said, and then he laughed loudly. "Where we're at right now, I think predicting and projecting is a waste of my time. Obviously, I wouldn't have predicted our O line would play like they did on Saturday. If I would have, I would have played some of the twos the whole day. Tomorrow's a really important practice for this year's team. The attitude that they demonstrate and the way we go out and execute fundamentally. That was the biggest thing. You look at some things that we drill and we work, then you get out in the moment and it doesn't happen. You just sit there and scratch your head as a coach. You look at the guys and you ask them why and you go out and keep grinding at it and influx competition. That's where we're at."
FITZGERALD staunchly believes competition breeds improvement and so, after his defensive line's tepid showing in the season opener against Western Michigan, he introduced it to that unit in the practices that followed. Then, last Saturday against Illinois State, the 'Cats used a 10-man rotation on that line, and it responded with a performance far better than the one it had given against the Broncos. It is no surprise, then, that this week there will be an open competition on the O line, which was so ineffective in its team loss to the Redbirds.
"We got our butts kicked up front," even guard Connor Mahoney admitted right after that game.
"Our offensive line play was as inconsistent as I've seen," Fitzgerald said Monday. "So we're going to influx competition. We're not just going to stand pat. We did that a week ago. The D line was not good enough and we made some changes, and we saw a return on those changes. We obviously have got to see a drastic improvement up front for us to be able to run the ball more consistently."
THERE WAS NO CONSISTENCY AT ALL to the offense against the Redbirds, which limited it to 86 net rushing yards on 31 carries (2.8 ypc) and limited quarterback Clayton Thorson to just 17 completions on his 41 attempts.
"That isn't going to win you a whole lot of football games," Fitzgerald would say of that last stat. "It's part on Clayton, it's part on getting hit, it's part on getting drops. It's not one thing. I wish it was. If it was, we'd go practice it today and be good to go. We've just got to get much more consistent."
"We've got to be more consistent, especially down the stretch," Thorson himself later echoed. "There were a few key plays where I didn't play as well as I should have. Those last two possessions, if I make a throw here, a throw there, maybe Illinois State doesn't get the ball back. That's on me. We've got to get more consistent."
ON THEIR FIRST FOURTH-QUARTER POSSESSION last Saturday, the 'Cats smartly marched 55 yards in a dozen plays for the touchdown that gave it a 7-6 lead over the Redbirds. But on their next two possessions, their final possessions of the afternoon, Thorson went 0-for-3, Auston Anderson netted just four yards on three carries and their offense had a pair of three-and-outs. That was the stretch Thorson referred to.
THAT IS ALSO ONE EXAMPLE of what ails the offense. Here is another: Thirty of its 72 plays went off in Redbird territory and, said Fitzgerald, "We had 16 or 17 self-inflicted wounds across the 50. That's holding calls. That's mental mistakes. That's drops. That's not putting the ball in the right spot as a quarterback. There were two calls that I didn't like play-wise because we didn't execute either one even though we executed them all week in practice. We go out in the game on Saturday, we don't execute those two throws. You get half your plays over the 50 inconsistent, it's really hard to get a rhythm, it's really hard to score touchdowns that way. We've got to get that fixed and we need to get it fixed in a hurry."
QUICKLY NOTED: Justin Jackson sat out last Saturday's fourth quarter and so, Fitzgerald recalled Monday, "When we were doing walk-through today, I told him the first question I'm going to get (at his noon presser) is about Justin Jackson. He smiled and laughed. And I said, 'Are you going to play?' He said, 'Yeah, I'm going to play.'" But Jackson himself demurred a bit minutes after his coach related that anecdote, saying here, "I'll be doing everything I can to be playing on Saturday." . . . Cornerback Matthew Harris, injured against the Redbirds, has been ruled out of the Duke game. Scheduled to take his place is redshirt freshman Trae Williams . . . Longtime defensive tackle C.J. Robbins started last Saturday at defensive end and is scheduled to do that again against the Blue Devils . . . In case you were wondering why Matt Alviti replaced Thorson for a couple snaps against the Redbirds: Thorson was having trouble with his contact lenses . . . Here's what Fitzgerald said when asked about the four holding calls made on the offensive line last Saturday: "We didn't move our feet. Coaching 101 is feet before hands. When your show your hands and you don't move your feet and the guy gets outside of your framework, you're going to get called for holding. I think they were all good calls. I don't think our tackles moved their feet very well. I don't have an answer for you on that because we drill the heck out of outside moves. It's nothing that we haven't practiced and it's nothing we haven't seen. I just don't think the guys went out and did it fundamentally very well. If I had more depth, I probably would have made more changes in-game. But that is what it is right now." . . . And here is what he said when asked if his offense had gotten too predictable: "I think you have to have an identity. And I think you have to get the guys to go out and execute it cleanly. If you'd like me to tell you what Iowa's going to do, I can tell you exactly what they're going to do. Most teams who are pretty good have an identity, and you're able to stick to your identity and build complements off it and go from there. I think the really, really good teams have an identity and they're able to execute that really well. That's obviously not where we're at right now. That's something that's got to be fixed."
AND FINALLY: Jackson, when asked how the 'Cats can stay positive at 0-2: "This week we have an opportunity to beat Duke and that's what we're going to focus on. It's simple. It's as simple as that."