Thoughts on Ohio State Game

Oh so close. As I left Ohio Stadium on Saturday, I had nothing but feelings of pride for the way Iowa competed. No, I do not believe in moral victories, but there were several good things to come out of the game against the Buckeyes. Here are my thoughts.

Signal Caller. James Vandenberg’s performance on Saturday was nothing short of remarkable. While I think we had an idea that Vandenberg has a strong arm, what he showed on the field simply reinforced that notion, maybe even more than anyone outside of the Iowa football complex thought. The other quality that impressed me about Vandenberg was his poise on the field. As I have been saying all year with respect to Ricky Stanzi, the most important characteristic of a quarterback is an ability to show poise by not getting too high after great plays or getting too low after poor plays. Vandenberg seemed to mirror Stanzi in this regard and it showed, especially in the fourth quarter when Vandenberg led the Hawkeyes on an eight play, seventy yard scoring drive that ended with a ten yard touchdown pass to Marvin McNutt. While I am curious to see how Vandenberg performs this upcoming week, Iowa fans can be thankful that it appears as though the quarterback situation for the next three years will be set. If anything, Vandenberg’s performance is going to push Stanzi harder in practice this spring and into next year, which will do nothing but help Stanzi improve.

Gutsy Performance. In addition to Vandenberg, I thought Adam Robinson’s performance was illustrative of the heart that this team has shown the entire year. To think that he severely sprained his ankle just three weeks ago against Michigan State and was able to carry the ball twenty times for seventy-four yards was incredible. No, Robinson does not have great breakaway speed, but what he lacks in speed he makes up with his ability to gain that extra one or two yards, which makes a big difference between facing a third and seven situation versus third and five. I hope that Brandon Wegher will be able to move out to the slot position next year, as I think that Iowa will have two pretty special running backs in Robinson and Jewel Hampton.

Special Teams. We saw both the good and the bad with special teams. I will not go so far to say that I called the return by Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, but I did feel some sense of satisfaction when he returned the kick 99 yards to get Iowa back in the game. On the opposite side, we saw two poor kicks from Daniel Murray with the miss from 22 yards and the kickoff that went out of bounds. With the slim margin of error that Iowa had to work with in the first place, mistakes and missed opportunities like that make the margin of error paper thin, especially on the road at the Shoe. Although I think Murray will get back on track, it will interesting to see how the battle between him and Trent Mossbrucker will work out next season.

Coaching Decision. Much has been made about Kirk Ferentz’s decision to sit on the ball in Iowa’s final possession of regulation. When Iowa decided to run out the clock following the first play from the line of scrimmage, I was happy with the decision and I am still fine with the decision. Even though Iowa had some success moving the ball in the fourth quarter, the possible outcomes that could have resulted had Iowa tried to get in field goal range outweighed taking the game into overtime. In addition to the possibility of a turnover, if Iowa had tried to throw the ball with no success, the clock would have stopped and with all of their timeouts left, Ohio State might have had the opportunity to not only block a punt but also come up with their own drive, even if it would have only been with 30 seconds or so. Kirk Ferentz plays the percentages with his decisionmaking process. As I told many people after the game, if you asked the best coaches in the game what they would have done in a similar circumstance with a redshirt freshmen at the helm, I would venture to guess that 90% of them would say that they would do exactly what Kirk Ferentz did. To those calling out Kirk Ferentz and his staff for their decision, keep in mind that very coaching staff came up with an incredible game plan and have made several other crucial decisions that have allowed this team to be at 9-2.

The loss was hard to take because of the opportunities that Iowa had to win the game. As I mentioned in my last installment before the game, I noted that Iowa would have to force at least three turnovers against Ohio State to have a chance to win. Instead, they turned the ball over to the Buckeyes three times. Speaking of interceptions, while Iowa is second in the country in interceptions, they are also ranked second in the country for interceptions thrown, chew on that statistic for a bit. As we head to the final game of the season, there is still so much on the line for Iowa to accomplish. I share the same opinion as much of the media who believe that if Iowa wins against Minnesota, they will likely play in the Fiesta Bowl. If I told you that Iowa had the opportunity to go to a BCS bowl game after leaving Kinnick Stadium on September 5 when Iowa narrowly escaped with a victory against UNI, I think I would be able to guess your answer.