Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football Rewatch: Can the Offensive woes improve? New Depth Chart addition & PFF Grades

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Trent Condon is back for another look back at Iowa Football's 20-13 win over Iowa State and a look forward to Week 3 against Western Michigan.First some notes on the rewatch about the offense and trying to find some hope that this offensive team can move forward and improve starting at the quarterback position in Cade McNamara and what he showed in terms of mobility and possible improvement on the quad injury that has limited him throughout the season.Pro Football Focus numbers are also out from the game and we see if those numbers match up with what we saw on the field.And a quick look foward to this week against a bad Western Michigan team and what Iowa needs to do as they prepare for the monster game at Penn State in Week 4.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com. Athletic BrewingGo to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.eBay MotorsKeep your ride-or-die alive at ebay.com/motors. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hope for the Hawkeye offense. Well, we take a look at it after the rewatch and a couple of nuggets that maybe has us having a chance. Plus, the new depth chart is out today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network.

Your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On. Make every moment more. And right now, new customers, you can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit fanduel.com slash Locked On to get started. Well, it was time for a rewatch after the late night recap episode on Saturday evening. If you caught that one, you can go back always in the archives every day as you were with us. And you know, we went back and looked at it, some raw emotional feelings. And normally when you watch the game a second time through a few other things start to bounce up now. Also, to be completely honest during the game, it was just so dang boring there in the third quarter. I was just

playing that boa constrictor right there up 17, three, then 20 to-3 you think they're going to cruise into the victory and it's going to be easy sailing from there that's not the case as it turned out 2013 the final in this one but during the third quarter Coco Gauff I'm not a big tennis fan but she was playing for the U.S. Open title and I was just excited for the game to go to commercial so I could flip over there and watch it a little bit that's just how boring it was we know this song and dance we know exactly the way that it's going to go, what Kirk Barrett's teams want to do and the way that they're going to play this one.

But ultimately, Iowa gets it done. And the rewatch, I think, added a little thing. So a couple of nuggets that I needed to mention and some things that popped out. And the biggest question is this offense. Can this Iowa offense, how much better can it be? We saw the good things. Of course, the big run on the counter play on third and short leading to the Jazzy on Patterson,

big run for 59 yards. That was great. I'll play action. Another short yardage situation where Luke Lachey got behind Bo Fraylor, who's a really good safety for Iowa state, got by him for the first down. Those were a couple of big moments in the football game. And Iowa has had so many issues on those third and fourth and shorts outside of when they sneak the football. It has been just such a difficult thing and a couple of big spots to be able to hit on those. I mean, I think we all can remember going back to a play call very similar to that.

It was a fourth and one play out of State College, but back in 2019, Nate Stanley just overshot TJ Hawkinson, which would have been a short touchdown and overthrew him. Cade McNamara didn't do that. So a couple of things that jumped out in the rewatch. First, watching Cade McNamara, and you can tell he is looking better. If you were with us on the Friday episode when I finally relented and went back and picked the Hawkeyes to win this football game against Iowa State, one of the things that I mentioned was listening and went back and picked the Hawkeyes to win this football game against Iowa State. One of the things that I mentioned was listening and talking with Tom Kakert on Friday from Hawkeye Report. He had mentioned, and he has a good relationship with Cade McNamara,

that McNamara was feeling a whole lot better going in to the Iowa State game than he was the week previous against Utah State. At this point, the quad injury is going to be a problem. I don't know if this is going to be something that is going to be a conversation piece throughout the whole course of the year, but it is good news. After looking like he tweaked that quad against Utah State, yet he went through all the rehab, all the rest,

everything that he does leading into the Iowa State game, and he was feeling better going into that. You hope that this is something that we can see the full compliment because Iowa's still very limited in what they do offensively with the inability not just to do the quarterback sneak. And we can joke about it. And there's been great moments of quarterback sneaks. Yeah, it's Iowa football. And that's what we have to get excited about offensively at times. But another huge part of the Iowa playbook is what they do in the play action game. And when we talk about the pro football focus numbers, and we'll get into those here in

just a little bit, what are the numbers that popped out is they break things down, facing pressure, clean pocket, but off of play action. Well, off of play action, Cade McNamara was four of six for 65 yards, not a ton of it. And I think also a piece, I mean, you think of working under center and pushing off with that quad injury, it's just something I'm sure he's not still completely comfortable with because of the health. But if that's something where suddenly you're able to do play action instead of six times in a game, double that up, you know, 10 to 12, something in that range and the running game is going, you can really open this offense up. Another portion

of the offense that isn't there is their ability to move the pocket and move out. A year ago, Iowa in fact, move the pocket with one of the most unathletic quarterbacks in college football history in Spencer Petras. And they moved the foot, the pocket around a ton.

Now a huge part of that also was the ineptitude of the offensive line. And they had to do that to give them any kind of shot. Well, now you have a guy that can move around at least a little bit. And came back to mirror is not a great runner. That's not a part of his game, but he has mobility. But watching the game and watching his play, what he was able to do, just moving a little bit, moving that pocket.

If you saw the play where Jazzy on Patterson made one of the most ridiculous blocks you'll see for a running back is he slowed down two different guys coming off the edge. What his blitz pickup was going to be. was it just a single guy coming from the outside, whatever it is, there were two guys that were chugging after McNamara and two guys that were going to get to McNamara. And Patterson knocked them both off stride. I mean, that's ridiculous for any running back to do, and certainly for a redshirt freshman. We talk about the big gain, we talk about the touchdown for Patterson. That Blitz pickup said a ton. But not only that, but also on that play,

you saw Cade McNamara, his ability to backpedal when the pressure was coming to still be comfortable enough and then to deliver a strike and get that one. That was absolutely huge for Iowa to get that done. Patterson, credit for him slowing down two guys. Credit to Cade McNamara, too. His ability to backpedal and then still deliver a throw as he was backpedaling back towards the left hash, threw it back all the way to the other side of the right hash, found a tight

end for a first down. Just a huge play, and it gives you hope that this thing can get better. Mention how much better can the running game get? We're concerned. Two games in. Iowa State, though, that's a great defensive team. And it's something I talked about a lot last week. John Haycock, the dude, is really good. We got our own great one in Phil Parker, and John Haycock is right there with the who's who of defensive coordinators in college football.

The guy's elite. And Iowa still was able to find a little bit. Those counterplays that we saw that were effective against Iowa State. Can this be a bigger part now of the offense going forward? I think that's going to be a huge piece of what it is. Look, you look at the overall numbers, they're not pretty, right? I mean, you're again under 300 yards of total offense. You add everything up, but it's also gameplay, the way this game played out.

Look, if Iowa doesn't get the pick six, and it's a 10-0 game or 10-3 game going into the second half, I think you're going to see more out of the team, but this is just what Iowa does. You can't just look at them raw numbers-wise and say, well, the offense is still broken. Go back and watch the first

two games from a year ago. Do it. Buy the BTN in 60 of the South Dakota State game and the game against Iowa State a year ago. And it. Buy the BTN and 60 of the South Dakota State game and the game against Iowa State a year ago. And if you think that this offense is as bad as that offense last year, I want something to what you're smoking because you are dead wrong. This offense is markably better. Yes, the numbers do not show up, but they're competent in pass blocking.

They weren't a year ago. They're below average in run blocking. Last year, they were enough. They're below average in run blocking. Last year, they were enough. They were absolutely terrible in run blocking. It's not great, and that's not what I'm trying to tell you here, that it's great. But I think there's hope. There's still more upside that needs to happen. Where the upside comes from, yes, a full complement of the playbook, the ability to roll out,

bootlegs, waggles, those kind of things are a big part of the Iowa offense, and they need to come back. And another thing that we need to see if this Iowa offense is going to get better is we're going to see them have to get the wide receivers involved. You have to find a way to get Seth Anderson, who just missed on a big play. Got to get Deontay Vines going. Caleb Brown, find those guys. Nicaragua Edie, as he should be. He's been out there a whole lot more as he works his way back from injury. This is a six-year guy. This is a guy that's made a whole bunch of big plays in his career. You need him out there.

But the other guys, you need to get them more involved. They cannot just be time in and time out. The tight ends, the tight ends, the tight ends. As good and talented as the tight ends are, we need more out of the wide receivers. If this team is going to go out and have a chance against Penn State, if they're going to go on the road and beat a Wisconsin team, if they're going to go on the road and beat a Wisconsin team, if they're going to beat even the Illinois and the Purdue and the Minnesotas of the world and do it by a couple of scores,

the wide receivers are going to have to be a part of this. We're going to take a look at the numbers back. One final look back at the Iowa State matchup. The numbers from Pro Football Focus. How good were they? Did it match up with our eyes? We'll do that as we continue here. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

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These are from Pro Football Focus. What Pro Football Focus does, if you're a first time viewer here of Locked On Hawkeyes, every dayers, you know what this is. This is a measure, every single play that is graded, every single position on the field. All 22 players are graded in each and every snap throughout the course of the game. We start on the offensive side of the football.

Cade McNamara goes 12-22 for 123 yards, and the interception should have been an NIT. It was a blatant pass interference, but they let him play on both ways, and we're not going to complain about that. He overall grades out with a 65.1 on some numbers. I mentioned earlier the play action number, four or six for 65 yards. Without play action, eight of 17 for 58 yards.

When he was blitzed, two of six for 38 yards. Not blitzed, 10 of 17. Easy for me to say, for 85 yards. So those are the numbers for McNamara. Mention those play action numbers, though. They're going to be a big one. Jazzy on Patterson. He was the top rated running back. He grades out with a 68.6. Caleb Johnson at the bottom, 1.9 yards per carry, and he was a 56.9 on their grading scale. That is

not very good. Patterson only graded out as a 64.2 pass blocker in the game, but of course had the big one that we mentioned a little bit earlier. We get into the receivers, the tight ends and the wide receivers. It was Luke Lachey that grades out at the top. No surprise after his big performance, three catches for 58 yards from the tight ends overall, six receptions from the tight ends and just four receptions out of the wide receiver. Deontay Vines and Seth Anderson both grade out with a 61 grading. Caden Wedgen and his limited reps at a 58. Eric Hall, a 57.6. And we move down the list. At the bottom of the list was Caleb Brown with a 54.6 in his limited. And then we get to the offensive line. Not a great day. And in fact, according to Pro Football Focus, pretty poor one.

Jennings Dunker was the only player on the offensive line that graded out at a 60 or above and he was right at a 60 and that's considered average Connor Colby who I thought had a really good game had a couple of key blocks including on both the big runs from Jazzy on Patterson he was a 58.7 Nick Young right behind him at 58.4 Rusty fifth that's a 56.3 saw some struggles out of him low Low grade for Mason Richmond, the left tackle at a 56 and a 52 for Logan Jones, the center. A step back from both of those guys from what we saw a week previous along the offensive line. Overall, not great, and that's what you'd anticipate when you don't put a whole lot on the board. Over on the defensive side of

the football, though, we got some good numbers over here, including four defensive linemen to grade out over a 70. That is all considered certainly above average. At the top, Ethan Hurkett, who made the big play, the Xavier product that clinched the football game on the stop on fourth down and a yard, a loss on the play as he was able to get Katavius Norton for a loss on that one. He grades out with a 75. Joe Evans is 74. Logan Lee, 73.8. And Aaron Graves at a 72. A little bit lower.

Deontay Craig, of course, has the only sack of the season for this defensive line in game one. Need to get more there. Y.A. Black, he's an average 61.8. And a rough day for Jeremiah Pittman. A little bit interesting. We didn't see Brian Allen out there after his good performance in week one. Your linebackers, the three that played, the three starters, Jay Higgins,

he is your top-ranked guy. Once again, a 76 and a half. Nick Jackson, he was rough early on. Seemed a step slow. Remember, he's also moving positions, playing in a new scheme. Has not exactly delivered what we hoped Nick Jackson was going to be

after he transferred in for Virginia. He's at a 60.5, and then Kyler Fisher right behind him at a 59.2. Your defensive backs, Cooper DeGene, no surprise. He's the top-rated cornerback at 77.5, and Sebastian Castro right behind him at a 76. Quinn Schulte is the third-ranked defensive back with a 73 grade. Xavier Wampa, a 65 and a half, a little bit lower number because of his tackling grade

in the football game. And then TJ Hall and Deshaun Lee at the bottom there. Both guys though, above average, TJ Hall is 64.3 and Deshaun Lee with a 61 and a half. I thought Lee showed up well. And that leads us to what we have coming up this week. That is the return of Jamari Harris. In fact, the depth chart came out on Monday,

and on that depth chart, we found out that Jamari Harris has his job back, at least on paper. Now, that should come as no surprise. We talked all offseason about Iowa was looking for more depth at the cornerback spot. They went out there in the transfer portal, tried to find some candidates,

eventually could not land anybody that they were looking at there because they weren't sure about Lee and about Hall. I think both those guys, Lee a lot more as he's played a lot more snaps, and teams have continued to attack Deshaun Lee. Had a nice play in the game early in the game in the end zone. Of course, gave up the touchdown late on the all-out blitz from Iowa. Even on that play, he was in the right position. I think Deshaun Lee is going to be just fine.

And TJ Hall, he's been out there doing some good things also as he's been in that number three role. He'll probably swing down to the number four, Lee at number three, and we'll see Jamari Harris, who we haven't seen, well, in what, a year and a half? You got to go back to the 2021 Citrus Bowl from the last time that we saw him. Outside of that, not a whole lot of change. I'll mention these numbers, too. We went through the offense and the offensive line.

Just six offensive linemen saw snaps for Iowa in the football game as they tightened up that rotation a little bit more. It was basically just DeYoung and Fett that were rotating at one of the guard spots and the other four stayed in the game throughout that one. We'll see this week. This will be an opportunity certainly to get things righted and to get a little bit more. What do we want to see this week from the Hawkeyes as they take on a Western Michigan team? How bad is Western Michigan? We'll talk about that and what the Hawks have a chance to do in this one.

We'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. We got Monday Night Football tonight and another opportunity for you. You new customers, you can bet just five bucks, you're going to get 200 in bonus bets guaranteed.

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I'm on the bill side of things. Whatever you like. Already looking forward to the Iowa game against Western Michigan. There are over a four touchdown favorite against the Mustangs. What you want to do right now, visit Fananduul.com slash Locked On, and you're going to kick off the NFL season with that great offer you don't want to miss. Vanduul, official partner of the NFL. Trent Conant back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Remember, coming up on Fridays, college football season continues each and every week with Locked On College Football Kickoff Live. Each Friday, Locked On's going to go live from 10 to noon Central Time on every Locked On College YouTube channel, including right here with Locked On Hawkeyes. College Football Kickoff Live will cover everything going on. The big rivalry games,

a week's slate of games here in week three. Playoff implications and go in-depth like only Lockdown can, including insight and analysis from our stable of Lockdown College hosts covering their team every day. Find Lockdown College Football Kickoff Live every Friday from 10 a.m. until noon on any Lockdown College YouTube channel. You won't want to miss this. Rolling through here and talking about what's up next.

This is a chance to be a laugher. This is going to be the time. If we truly believe Iowa's going to be ready for Penn State. Look, I drank a lot of Kool-Aid, black and gold Kool-Aid, throughout the course of the summer. And I truly believe that Iowa was going to have a shot against this Penn State team coming up in week four. Well, this is the week now all the kinks need to be ironed out. And we need to see, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, the wide receivers get involved. We need to see that

lockdown defense get to the quarterback a little bit more. We need to have everything clicking and grooving and ready to go because Penn State, they're ready. Drew Aller is a stud at the quarterback position. They're going to put points up. This might be the most talented defense that I was going to face the rest of the season. Their ability off the edge. Pass blocking's got to be ready. Have to be able to run block a little bit better. I mean, everything's going to have to go right for I to even have a chance in this game. And to be honest, the first two weeks of the season has not shown me enough to believe that they can go out there and with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, have an opportunity to win this football game.

I have not seen enough. And it shouldn't be enough against a Western Michigan team that gave up, what, 45 points in the first half against Syracuse. That's who they played last week. This is a bad football team. Western Michigan's bad. And I continue to wonder what you do with McNamara. Jump out to an early lead.

You're up 17-0 in the second quarter. And pull him? Or do you just give him rest? It's the great unknown, and we're going to find out certainly more on that front coming up tomorrow with the media availability. And we'll hear from the players. We'll hear from coach Ferentz.

I'm going to anticipate that's not going to be the case. McNamara wants to play. He's been able to play. And I don't know if an extra week off is going to be enough in the middle portion of a season to get him closer to a hundred percent. We mentioned it last week, felt a lot more comfortable going into the Iowa state game physically than he did against Utah state and week.

Number one, does he continue that progression path? If that happens, going into the Iowa State game physically than he did against Utah State in week number one. Does he continue that progression path? If that happens, you just keep the course, right? You just keep going. But something to keep an eye on, how quick the hook is going to be, what can Iowa do against this bad defense and this bad team overall in Western Michigan?

Get out there, stop the hoopla, get over 25 points, get back on pace, maybe do something like that and all will be right in the world of hawkeyes coming up this week on lockdown hawkeyes throughout the course of the week coming up tomorrow that's right biz returns lisi says his work schedule is going to happen if you're with us last season jace became one of the fan favorites out there he's going to be back with us and you can catch that on tomorrow's podcast and later in the week leshawn daniels the former hawkeye running back is going to be there with us, and you can catch that on tomorrow's podcast and later in the week. LaShawn Daniels, the former Hawkeye running back, is going to be there. We talked a ton last season and throughout the offseason about Caleb Johnson.

What did the former Hawkeye running back see from Jayzeon Patterson and what he has a chance to be for this Hawkeye offense? We'll talk about that here all throughout the week. It's a busy one. Your team every day. That's what we do on the Lockdown Network. We got you covered on the Hawkeye side of things.

Your team in the NFL with week one coming to a close tonight with the Bills and the Jets. Doesn't matter your team. You could be a Bills fan right here in Iowa. We have you covered.

NBA, MLB, NHL. Your team every day on the Lockdown Network. We will talk to you again tomorrow and fingers crossed, Jace will be with us. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. And fingers crossed, Jace will be with us. We'll talk to you then. Go Hawks.