Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeyes take home the bacon in win over Gophers recap with LeShun Daniels Jr

Episode Date: November 14, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes took down the Minnesota Gophers in quite a non-traditional way. With Iowa's rushing defense getting gashed by Minnesota's large offensive line and steady rushing attack, the Iowa offense needed multiple explosive plays to get the win at Kinnick vs PJ Fleck's squad. First-time starting quarterback Alex Padilla connected with true freshman Keagan Johnson and former walk-on Charlie Jones to lead Iowa to victory. We break it all down with former Iowa running back LeShun Daniels Jr.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy!NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. And as we do every single game, we talk about the game with former Iowa running back LaShawn Daniels. LaShawn, my man, it feels good to get a W. How are you doing today on this beautiful Sunday morning?

I'm doing great. It's always great to get a W, and it's always even better to get it against Minnesota and keep Floyd home. So we're feeling pretty good today. I love it, man. Last week we talked about Iowa versus Northwestern, and then towards the end I kind of got us a little bit sidetracked. We started talking about Minnesota, and I guess what I did not realize was truly how much Iowa football players hate Minnesota. Your hatred for Minnesota came out. You're a pretty even-keeled guy,

but you could tell you did not like Minnesota. It gave me even more passion going into this game. I'd even told you before we started the show, after the game, I texted everyone I knew from Minnesota just saying, expletive your boat and, uh, expletive your coach. And, uh, yeah, it was, uh, I felt even more invested after knowing how much you all cared about it. And if you didn't get a chance to check out that episode, you absolutely have to check

us out every single Sunday. We are recapping every single game. And for those of you who are listening to us, I want to thank you for all making us the first listen every single day. You can find the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcast app. And also on YouTube by searching Lockdown Hawkeyes. We are here every single weekday, Monday through Friday for free. Again, wherever you get podcast app and also on YouTube.

All right, LaShawn. First game starting quarterback Alex Padilla. Spencer Petras out again. We were excited to see what he could do. We saw against Northwestern. He did a good job of sticking in the pocket. Now going up against Minnesota's pass rush of a significantly better pass rush than what we had against Northwestern. I thought all things considered, Alex played a pretty good game. There were mistakes. There were two potentially huge interceptions that were dropped but overall

um I was pretty happy with the the first start for him going up against a rival um your first game in Kinnick Stadium as the starter I mean what what were your initial thoughts on Alex Padilla's performance uh yeah I mean he thought he did a really good job um you know just have to obviously have to get that out there i think the biggest thing was you know he wasn't really playing scared at all like literally like like in the first drive they're already taking shots down the field and just letting him uh you know just let it rip and you know get it get out there and you know just let his arm do this thing and i think that was the biggest thing um you know, that we saw from Alex

yesterday was, you know, really, he wasn't playing scared. Obviously, you know, mistakes are going to come, right? I mean, he's his first start. And, and on top of that, on top of his own mistakes, right, there's also some plays where, you know, receivers weren't helping him out with a few drops here and there. But, you know, all in all, I felt like Alex, you know, made great decisions. The really thing that I love, though, was just, you know, his willingness to take a shot and basically give the receivers a chance to go make a play, which I think is something that we haven't really done a lot.

And, you know, you have those skill guys out there on the outsides, right? You want to, you know, utilize their skills as much as possible. And think alex was trying to do that and obviously it's going to come there's going to be more consistency consistency that will come um you know from it but yeah because we obviously didn't have as much success you know throwing down the field necessarily as the amount of shots that we took but what i did love was that he was giving his receivers a chance out there and i think that was really the biggest thing that i saw from alex couldn't agree more you mentioned drops there were three officially recorded drops uh felt like more than that he also threw the ball away four times but that was good but overall taking several shots deep couldn't agree more i mean

it felt like every time they got a decent chance he would just sit in the pocket just waiting just for the guy to get open and and yeah it was nice to see and every time i felt a decent chance, he would just sit in the pocket and just waiting just for the guy to get open. And yeah, it was nice to see. And every time I felt like we had a chance, obviously when you're watching it on TV, you don't know who he's throwing the ball to or where they are at. But there was a sense of excitement, at least for me and the people I was watching with whenever he sat back and

just reared up to throw the ball. I was like, who's open. Where's Keegan at? Where's Charlie at? It's someone like, I mean, so that, that kind of site, but I haven't felt in quite some time,

coming from a fan perspective, have not felt that kind of excitement from the passing attack. I also wanted to call out, you know, we had talked about this. We love mobile quarterbacks, right? And nothing against Spencer, but mobile quarterbacks do allow you to do some different things. It also allows you to help out your offensive line. And I wanted to call that out because Minnesota's pass rush is a very strong pass rush.

They've done a very good job throughout the season. They have two fantastic defensive ends. And we were missing our starting left tackle. This was only the third game since the start of 2020 where Iowa has not allowed a single sack. And I would argue that if it was not Alex Padilla in there at quarterback, there would have been at least three sacks, maybe four or five, where Alex was able to get out of the pocket, throw it away. I mean, he had four throwaways because he was able to get out of the pocket.

He was able to make plays with his feet. Sometimes when he threw the ball, when he was running, it wasn't always the prettiest ball, but he either got to the right spot or he got the heck out of a dangerous. That was also really impressive for me as well. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. He was doing a great job using his, using his legs without really using his legs. Right. He wasn't taking off and running like he's Lamar Jackson. Right. He is just kind of sliding through the pocket, you know, finding open space. And, you know, if he had an opportunity to get the ball down the field, right, he was going to take it. But he also knew that, again, the ball, ball security is very important, especially in a game like that. So, you know, be smart, throw the football away

and not take a sack and then, you know, live to play another down, which I thought, again, has another thing that I is doing a great job of. And yeah, I mean, it's really just because, you know, he's a mobile guy, right? It's different, you know, having him back there than having Spencer back there, right? Because, again, Spencer is not a guy who's going to be running all that much, right? He's going to use his arm and let his arm talent, you know, really take the cake. But Alex, you know, was able to use his legs, use his mobility more, slide around the pocket, which was huge in helping the offensive line. And it's something that we've mentioned

really before. And it's, you know, obviously good, great to be able to see that, you know, come true on Saturday. So. Yeah. I also want to mention, cause I, I have been, you know, I've been talking about Spencer for two years. There are times where I've been critical. There are times where I've been trying to be empathetic and understanding of the situation. I did want to call out a couple of things. Cause I feel like if people heard me talk about Spencer last year, I might not be hard enough on the two throws that Alex Padilla had that really should have been picked off. I think you mentioned it, that we took a lot of shots. And for me, I will take the good with the bad.

But when we're playing ultra conservative and we're not taking any shots, we're not taking any shots past 10 yards, I will not live with those interceptions. I do not do well when we make turnovers or throw interceptions, when we're also not taking any shots to improve the offensive production. Now, that being said, when we are taking those shots, when we are getting points on the board, when we are taking a 72-yard pass to Charlie Jones

or throwing it up to Keegan Johnson a couple times, I'm willing to have a few more mistakes because we are having a little bit more wiggle room in that regard. And I wanted to bring up two quarterbacks that people very commonly love to talk about as some of the greatest quarterbacks in the Kirk Barron's era. Ricky Stanzi, in the year he led them to the Orange Bowl. I think this is really important to know. People forget about this. 17 touchdowns, 15 interceptions.

Several of those were pick sixes, if we're being completely honest. I mean, he put Iowa in some binds there. Drew Tate, for his career, started three years, really, 34 interceptions. That almost comes out to an interception per game. Most people look at Drew Tate and say, that guy was a gunslinger. That guy led this Iowa offense. Again, I want to go back to that and say, I think when you have a guy like Alex Padilla, you're willing to have a few more mistakes, especially in those mistakes he made. Those are, those are things that weren't necessarily him being risky or a gunslinger. Those were just bad throws. But again, you're willing to have some of those mistakes when you have a guy who's also

able to put your offense in a good spot. And one of the interesting things, time of possession. I mean, I felt like Iowa was always on defense part of that was minnesota just dominating us in the rushing attack part of it though was our offense being explosive i mean that's i haven't said in a while so anyways any thoughts on all that before we go into our first break uh no i mean i thought the offense um did good with the opportunities that they had right i mean there's a couple drives here and there where i was just like but but you know obviously the two big plays that stand out was the 72 yarder to charlie right where charlie runs the double move out and up um basically makes the defender look silly alex puts it right on the money right easy touchdown and then obviously keegan johnson just creating something out johnson just creating

something out of nothing just creating an explosive um which again that stuff's rare i mean it's it feel like feel like we haven't really had you know explosive plays too often outside of the really in in the past game at all right a lot of times they'll come in the run game and you know we'll create an explosive but i feel like it really comes from the passing game so it was really really encouraging to see so absolutely i want to talk a little bit more about keegan i also want to talk about you mentioned the explosive passing game i thought tyler goodson had some really nice runs early on in the game and i wanted to get your feel for kind of what happened to happen to our rushing attack that felt like kind of the bottom dropped off towards the end uh we're gonna talk about all that though coming up

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You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. That's how you can make sure you get every single postgame recap episode with me and LaShawn. LaShawn, we talked a little bit about Keegan. I put this tweet out. I was really excited.

I think I was a little bit overzealous here. But is Keegan Johnson the best yak receiver Iowa has had in the Kirk Ferentz era? I mean, I know I'm being a little bit biased here because I'm seeing what he's doing on the field, but every time he touches the ball, it's like he could take it in for a touchdown. Amir was good with the ball in his hands.

You know, DJK, Maurice Brown. I mean, those were good guys. Kevin – I mean, there's a lot – we've had some good wide receivers. Marvin McNutt, I'm just starting to list off random receivers now that are very good in Iowa's history history but keegan johnson's a freshman and what i mean i just every time he touches the ball i just like get real excited like oh my gosh something could happen i mean that play was dead in the water he shouldn't have gotten a touchdown there and not only to evade evade both tacklers and have the body control to stay up but then the the mind to turn around and just

go up and sprint i mean that was just oh my gosh one of the most amazing plays i've seen in quite some time yeah um yeah he's he's you know as a freshman i mean really as a receiver in general i think he's doing one of the better um you, after catch receivers I think we've had in really, I feel like in a long time. Obviously, Amir did a great job with the ball in his hands, you know, after he got it. You know, obviously, DJK, again, before I was really an Iowa fan, I always knew about DJK. Because granted, he's from Ohio. So guys that know when the ball was in their hands, right, they're able to create explosive plays. And I feel like Keegan's kind of putting himself in that same category, but doing it as a freshman. Right. It's really impressive because, again, you can get we can get anybody from anywhere. Right. And, you know, tell them, go run this route and go catch this ball. Right. And, you know, leave it at that. this route and go catch this ball right and you know leave it at that um but you know what really makes guys special is what they do after they catch the football right and that's really what

you know separates you know um a good receiver from a great receiver and i feel like keegan it's really impressive that he's doing this you know as a freshman and as a young guy because i mean it's it's already hard enough to make an impact and when you're um you and as a young guy, because, I mean, it's already hard enough to make an impact. And when you're, you know, as a young guy, just in general, when you're doing it, you know, on the big stage and Big Ten football games, creating explosive plays and turning them into touchdowns, really, truly, truly a game changer and really just shows, obviously, the type of work ethic that he's put in and the type of talent that he's had to this point. And, you know, it's really encouraging to see. And, you know, I'm excited to continue to see his development, you know, as a football player, you know, over these last few weeks.

And then, you know, as his career carries on. Yeah, couldn't agree more. I think it'd be wrong of us to not mention the fact that he did have two drops. I mean, he is a young guy. He is improving. But you know what? I'll take, again, we talked about it. I'll take some mistakes when you're also putting points in the board, like he does. Two drops definitely should have caught both those balls, but you can tell the connection between him and Alex Padilla and that

Alex does trust him. And I think we're going to see Keegan continue to grow if we see Alex continue to be in that starting lineup. So we're really're going to see Keegan continue to grow if we see Alex continue to be in that starting lineup. So really excited to see how Keegan continues to develop. Arlen Bruce was actually second, I believe, on the team in snaps at the wider seer position. He did have one target late in the game. Not the best delivered pass and bounced off the Minnesota defender, but could have been an awesome

play i think where i was at right now i mean we have a redshirt sophomore quarterback who doesn't seem to that the pressure is not too much for him we have two true freshman wide receivers who led the team in snaps this past game and we have tyler goodson who i want to get your thoughts on this i think he might be coming back next year i mean mean, I don't, I don't know how you look at this season and say, am I, am I going to the NFL? Um, the future is bright in Iowa city is what I got to say. Um, and the fact that we are already at eight wins, I think a lot of Iowa fans would have went into the season saying, you know what? I'm good with eight and four, nine and three would have been great. I think I actually predicted Iowa nine and three or 10 and two. Um, and the fact that we still have that on the table with Illinois and Nebraska

coming up, I mean, that's, Iowa's in a good spot. I went a little bit off the rails there. Just wanted to get that point out there. Tyler Goodson, though, I'll try to get us back in there. Tyler Goodson, I felt like early in the game, there were some really big rushing lanes. And then it kind of dried up a little bit. Wanted to get your thoughts on Tyler Goodson and the rushing attack for Iowa.

Yeah. And I really think a lot of it's been, it's been an issue all year. I think we get into trouble a lot when we start running, you know, outside zone or slant plays. And they feel like it's really apparent every single time, you know, we go in and run the football, they're whether they are um whether it's coming from an audible or it's coming from you know from the huddle and we're running it um it seems like whenever we're running those plays like there's no movement whatsoever guys are in the backfield basically by the time you know the backs get the

football and we're not creating any um you know, positive plays from that. I feel like a lot of our positive runs early on came from inside zone type plays where, you know, the guys, first off, they don't have to hold the blocks as long. Right. And, you know, you're able to just get downhill pretty quickly, make one quick read, make one cut and, you know, get explosive yards from that. And I felt like that's what we were doing early on. And I felt like, I don't know what changed. Maybe they made some adjustments again. I don't know. I was on the sideline.

I was in a locker room during halftime. Um, and maybe they made some adjustments, uh, to the inside zones plays and maybe the looks weren't there, but you know, I feel like whenever we go to any slant plays any outside zone plays i feel like we haven't had very much success on it at all besides the very first touchdown of the year against indiana where you know we just jogged around the edge so you know obviously like a lot of that comes from uh you know the offensive line again being young and you know having guys who haven't played a lot of football in there um and then you know just a lot of it obviously you got to give the defensive defenses credit for obviously knowing what we're gonna do right i mean it's been the same stuff um you know for

over 20 years now at this point uh so um you know that's really kind of my take on the running game i feel like tyler again he's doing i feel like there's times where obviously he's doing a great job reading it and doing a great job putting his foot in the ground and, you know, lowering those shoulders. And then there's obviously other times where, you know, he's dancing around. And that's just part of it because, again, this guy's in the backfield. He's trying to make a play. But, and again, you know, sometimes you just got to take it with what defense gives you and just, hey,

maybe you just stick your head in there and maybe you don't get a gain of any yardage and, you know, you at least get back to the line of scrimmage instead of taking a four-yard loss. But a lot of it, again, I think we're just not very good on outside zones and slant plays right now, you know, especially with the offensive line group that's in there. So I feel like, you know like you know we just gotta we really should kind of move away

from that at least you know maybe for these last two weeks trying to stick to inside zones maybe stick to power plays um and gap schemes things that you know doesn't put our offensive line in the spot where they have to hold the blocks as well so yeah i mean it's calling plays that fit well with your current position i mean your current players i mean it's being smart about what players you have on the field and what they're capable of doing um when you start like i started going back i'm like that is what i mean every time the tire gets out of the hole he was running he was running right behind on the left side of the right side of linderbaum either behind kyler Schott or Connor Colby.

Whenever we tried going outside, it didn't work. It hasn't worked. And I realize that that is a staple of the Iowa offense, but sometimes things aren't going to work and you need to move away from. Just like Iowa didn't really do a lot of bootlegs or any sort of real play-action rollouts with Spencer Petras because that is not his skill set uh a similar concept here need to put your players in the best position to make the best plays um

definitely appreciate that insight there I want to talk a little bit about Minnesota's rushing attack and how they just obliterated Phil Parker's defense thankfully our Ben Badone break defense held on and save for a ridiculous that that touchdown just pisses me off, a ridiculous touchdown pass. Minnesota didn't really have, didn't put a ton of points on the board and Iowa did do a good job of ultimately buckling down. So we want to talk about that. Before we get into that though, I want to remind you all the Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today. If you haven't tried a Bilt Bar by now, I want you to ask yourself, why not? Is it the taste? Because the taste is phenomenal. Is it the health benefits?

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Use the promo code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, LaShawn. So Minnesota's rushing attack. Just school me on what the heck they were doing and how we could not stop it. Missed tackles were definitely an issue. We had 10 officially recorded missed tackles,

but it felt like every single play, we did have a guy in the backfield and they just couldn't bring down Minnesota's fifth and sixth-throwing running backs at this point, which is just ridiculous to even think about. But can you kind of walk through what Minnesota was doing from a rushing attack perspective and and how we were not defending it? Well, I think a big thing of it end up just being, you know, first off, obviously give Minnesota plenty of credit. first off, obviously give Minnesota plenty of credit. You know, their offensive line was doing a great job. The running backs, again, breaking tackles, doing, you know, what,

doing good things running backs are supposed to do. Right. You know, never let the first guy bring you down, you know, get positive yards, yada, yada, yada. Right. And a lot of that, a lot of their positive plays I'm coming from that. And, you know, obviously coupled that with poor tackling, you know, from the defensive end, which is something that we hit on last week. And it's really continued on for this week. But also, I think a lot of it was just, you know, Minnesota getting numbers in the running game. I mean, you know, a lot of the times, you know, to have success in the running game, it's really just out leveraging, you know, your opponent and, um, you know, winning that numbers game and, you know, having more positive numbers

on your side than they do on theirs. And, you know, that can happen more, even more so is when, you know, you have, say you have even numbers on both sides and then you have the defense on the other side, um, and they start running around blocks and not taking on blocks and not, you know, holding their right gaps. So then, you know, the person at the next gap over can come in and make the tackle. That just frankly just wasn't happening yesterday. Really pretty much all game. And, you know, when they did have it happen, right,

then they were breaking tackles. So it was like um it looked like that minnesota was like hey we're just gonna go with what we got we know that we can we have this you know offensive line i think they have the most starts their offense has most starts over 200 and also they're like they're freaking behemoths they're like 330 pounds across the board exactly exactly so obviously it's an experienced group, and offensive lines are like, hey, this is what we do best, so let's go ahead and let's just run the football, right? And that's what they're doing.

They're getting numbers. They're creating movement on the defensive line, moving the line of scrimmage, linebackers running around blocks, and then, you know, the safeties and the other DBs, you know, not filling the right alleys and spots. So, I mean, you combine all that together, right, and then that's what's going to give you, you know, poor rushing defense and allow Minnesota to really rush for really over 200 yards. You take out the sacks, really rush for over 200 yards, you know, on the Iowa defense. Yeah, it's tough.

And they were doing that all out of 11 personnel. I mean, they were putting three wide receivers on 11 personnel. I mean, they, they were, they were putting three wide receivers on the field, which for those of you out there, 11 personnel is one tight end, one running back. What it does to our defense is it typically means we're putting our defense in a four to five where we do have that cast position.

You, and what we saw from this, people were like, why, why can't we stop this, this rushing attack? I was, I was annoyed.

I was pissed off. Cause you know, at the beginning they were running around us. Then we started kind of over-pursuing, and they started cutting back and still getting eight to nine yards. The offensive line was getting five yards of push almost every single time regardless. So the running back wasn't even getting touched

until he got five yards down the field. But then Minnesota, very well-timed play call, pump fakes on Matt Hankins, Chris Ottman-Bell, 70 yards for a touchdown. Part of that, when we're in a 4-2-5 and we're trying to stop a rushing attack, we're trying to load the box. We're going to have guys committed to the run. You're literally, as a defensive back, you're trying to watch the running.

You have to get off that block and get to the running back as quickly as you can. And it looked like Matt Hankins fell for the double move. They haven't done that at all. He's in man coverage. Maybe thought he had safety help over top. Maybe not. No safety was there. So someone, either Matt Hankins shouldn't have been burnt

or the safety should have been there. But that's what happens when you run that ball so well and you try to make adjustments. It does leave your defensive backs a little bit vulnerable in coverage. And that's where Chris Alvin Bell has a huge touchdown reception. So that was definitely unfortunate. Tackling-wise, we've got to get better. We mentioned this against Northwestern.

It's a thing against Minnesota. Illinois is going to do the same thing. Illinois, if they have their way with us, their goal is to run it just as many times as Minnesota. If they could run the ball every single play, they would. So we have to get better in that aspect of the game going into the Illinois game. Yeah, yeah, without a a doubt without a doubt there i mean obviously again you know minnesota uh you know exploited iowa's defense right getting some guys out of the box right knowing that our defensive line isn't as

strong as it's been in previous years right you know spread us out and you know force guys to beat box blocks and make tackles and frankly we just haven't been able to do that um this week we weren't able to do it last week um and it's kind of been it's been an issue i feel like for a big part of the year um i guess at this point because i mean you know when we weren't uh because i know we've talked about this earlier in the year right where you know where we were playing teams where it might seem like, you know, they had superstar players, guys that were really game changers with the ball in their hands. But we're still, you know, creating explosive plays, right? But we just happen to be creating a lot of turnovers.

We haven't been creating a lot of turnovers lately. And so then, you know, it makes it an issue because now offenses can just continue to run their normal offense. They're not forced to put the ball in the air now. And, you know, now we just get gashed because we can't. We're not playing the blocks correctly. We're not making the tackles like we should be. And, yeah, it's been an ongoing issue, right? And as you mentioned, right, they got Illinois has Brett Lima over there, and obviously he's going to run the football as many times as he can,

especially knowing that obviously he's an Iowa guy with an Iowa tattoo on his cap. So it's what they're going to do. We're going to see it. We're going to continue to see it. We're going to see it in Illinois. We're going to see it in Nebraska. So, like, we got to figure it out.

Obviously there's only two more guaranteed games that we have left, right? And we got to make changes as far as tackling goes yeah um it's interesting as you're kind of talking about that i started thinking to our first six games we were playing teams that are predominantly past first teams which does give us an advantage because we are we have a very good secondary we can sit back there we want people to throw the ball against us because we have a very good secondary. We can sit back there. We want people to throw the ball against us because we have such a good secondary, because we don't allow those explosive plays. And after that exercise game, Mark,

we started facing teams outside of Purdue, which I don't want to get into that game anymore than just mentioning them right now. We are going up against teams that predominantly run the ball. That's all they do. Wisconsin would prefer to never throw the ball again with Graham Mertz. Northwestern does not have a good passing attack. Their main staple on offense usually and this year is the rushing attack

with Evan Holt. Obviously, this game, Minnesota, that's all they like to do is run the ball. Illinois, they are a poor man's version of Minnesota, honestly, at this point. They like to run the ball. They want to play sound defense. They have big guys up front. They have a very solid offensive line. And Nebraska, for as much as I love making fun of Nebraska, that's a dang good three-win team over in

Lincoln. They love to run the ball as well. It'll be really interesting to see how Iowa adjusts because it isn't getting easier by any means. We are going up against the same type of offenses, but it also makes it difficult for us to force turnovers because the ball isn't being thrown up as much. We don't have our secondary out there. So we're kind of getting banged in two ways. Our defensive line is weaker than it has been in past years. And we're going up against teams who aren't putting the ball in the air, giving us an opportunity to force those big turnovers. So it'll be interesting to see how all that plays out over the next two weeks. I wanted to talk a little bit about play calling.

I felt like Iowa did a good job for the most part. I thought the play calling was aggressive. I thought offensively we did a lot of great things. Again, the fact that we had only 19 minutes of time on offense and put up 27 points, I love it. I'll take it any day. However, very interesting decisions late in the game. We go for it on fourth down in our own territory.

I honestly thought, I was like, are we actually doing this? We're clearly going to try to just draw them off sides and call a timeout. And then we went for it. But then we get the ball at the three-yard line and we basically take two knees. And the quote that came out was that we wanted to force them to take their timeouts, and we felt like there were really two options.

We could run the time down, kick a field goal, make them score one touchdown, or we could have scored and make them score twice. I realize that in Kirk's mind that that seems like the equal thing to do there, but what? like the the equal thing to do there but um what like i i personally i'm like i would much rather make them score twice against our defense than score once uh but wanted to get your thoughts on all that play calling late in the fourth quarter um well first off that going for it inside their own territory at the fourth and inches first off love the call i was all for it i was like you better go for this because like we're gonna get this right um like that i was cool with all right then

yeah we get the ball the three yard line and like i understand it right i under i understand it but i definitely don't condone the decisions whatsoever right because i mean like i mean Clever, right? Because, I mean, like, I mean, like, I feel like I kind of, like, I understood, like, right? The defense was struggling. You know, we couldn't really, like, obviously, like, we were preventing them from getting the end zone a good amount of times. And, you know, Kirk probably didn't want to put the defense, you know, out there, you know, longer than what they need to be, right? And give Minnesota any advantages whatsoever, right? You know, they would have had, say we score on that first play, right? They would have had timeouts and time on their side.

But I mean, at least we would have been up two scores, right? I think, you know, I want to rewind a little bit, right? We come back like last time where a game was really you know close like this and it was a very similar situation right when we played them in 2015 right and you know we had the ball we were running out the clock right i don't think they had any timeouts right and we score with uh two minutes left in the ball game right and then you know they go right down the field in like a minute score a touchdown and next thing you know right they have an onside kick opportunity um to you know win the ball game and i think that's kind of what might have been in

their mind at the time um you know as far as the decision making right you don't want to have you know that type of situation come up again but i mean we're right there it's three you're on the three yard line right the the offense hasn't shown you know as far as in the passing game if it's not you know almost like a trick play in a sense right you know they they you're expecting a run play on the fourth and inches right and you throw up a little pop pass and then you get it hankins on a double move right they're not gonna be able to do that in a two-minute situation right so i didn't i'm not a fan of the qb sneaks at all right i'd much rather us just hey you can still force these guys to use the timeouts by still running our offense right

you know not putting the ball in the air right telling the guys don't run out of bounds um anything like that right but i feel like you you gotta go out there you gotta try to score man i mean you gotta try to score i mean at least you're up two scores at that point. Right. And forces Minnesota to drive all the way down the field again. Right. And really have to do that twice. Right. So, yeah, I, I don't get it. I don't get it. I wouldn't gain it again again i'm not being paid millions of dollars to make these decisions but i wouldn't do that i would just say like hey guys let's go win this football game let's just pound it um down the throat just run our offense right and try to get in the end zone and you know if they have timeouts right they just have them right our defense has to step up and make a place right because they're still gonna have to they still have to step up and make plays anyway so like you know i didn't really i didn't really get it so i i feel like we've had this

conversation like three times in the last couple weeks uh regarding decision making late in the fourth quarter and i was like i was ready for this because like this is exactly you didn't like this last week like there's no way you're gonna like it this week um i would agree i would agree i just i don't understand why we don't try to do something a little bit different. You know what? I'm even okay. I think I would have been more okay if we did the two QB sneaks to wear the clock down.

And then on third down, where everyone and their brother knew where we were going to run the ball, just play action. Just do a rollout with Alex Padilla. And worst case scenario, fall down. Like, just fall down. I mean, if you don't have anything, if a defensive end closes, if we don't get them out, just fall down. Caleb Shudock, he can kick it from eight yards out.

I mean, like, a field goal is no different. I mean, he already kicked a 50-yard earlier. The difference between a 13-yarder or a 20-yarder, I guess I'd say, and a 25-yarder is not makinger i guess i say in a 25 yarder is not is not making caleb shudock shaking his boots just maybe give our team a little bit more opportunity there or maybe do some sort of jet sweep uh or jet sweep fake i don't care just do something slightly non-traditional there um if you want to if you really want to make them run the clock down at least try to get the touchdown on that third play uh i just i just

don't understand and then the third play we run again we i'll talk about this earlier we run a slant play we haven't had a success in the same play at all we just get tackled five yards in the backfield like it's like like what was that like yeah they literally could have done they could have done quite literally anything else than what they called right and i probably would have been okay with it yeah but that sequence of three plays was just no bueno at all yeah it was frustrating and and the good thing is we can laugh about it because we won the game and um the unfortunately kurt does learn from from mistakes he he will often make decisions based off of things that happened 10 years ago, 12 years ago,

15 years ago, about this one time I got burned doing this one thing. Kirk is going to be in the College Bowl Hall of Famer someday. He is one of the best coaches in the history of college football. So, you know, he's doing something right. And they've won these games. But I'm really sick of sitting there thinking oh god please don't please don't break my heart please hold up defense please stop him like please just don't let this happen we could have just put that game away so it's frustrating to see uh nevertheless not not what i would like to see at all um anything else you would like to kind of call out about this game anything else that you noticed that you wanted to bring up?

I know I want to talk about Matt for a second. I know he hasn't had the past month that he's probably really wanted. I think really after that Purdue game, whatever happened to him in that Purdue game, I don't know what's going on there, but he just hasn't been the same. I feel like he's losing, first off, a lot of his technique and fundamentals. I know for a fact, on the first touchdown, the long touchdown that they had on the fourth down or whatever, obviously you've got to pay attention to the run,

but you still have to read your keys. and his guy just slip right down the field. First off credit to him for still staying with the play and basically stripping them, which first off we got to get pylon cams and all that garbage. Right? Yeah. We got to get pylon cams and all that because it was a great play. And unfortunately you know, he does, he's not going to get the credit for that. But, I mean, tremendous effort play. But, again, it shouldn't even have been in that position

because he should have been right there on that man because, again, that's his guy, right? And then, again, on the double move, right, he's just not really not bringing his keys, you know, kind of getting lazy in the fundamentals a little bit. And, you know, again, it created an explosive play that they were able to score off of. So, like, he's just got to figure it out, do whatever he can, right? Just hone in back on, you know, fundamentals, just get back to what you're doing, you know,

earlier in the season, because obviously you're still a really good player. You can be playing on Sundays, right? So figuring out, you know know what you got to do to you know not have those mistakes that create explosive plays will be will be um very important because i mean again like you know there's still plenty to play for right i mean obviously you still have an outside chance to the big 10 championship game right and you know if you get in that game you're gonna be playing against you know an if you get in that game, you're going to be playing against, you know, an Ohio State team that can basically score 100 points on pretty much any team that they play. So like fundamentals and all that stuff is going to be very important. Right.

And even if you don't write, you're still going to be playing a really good team in a bowl game. So, you know, obviously he's a good player. That's just kind of going through some things right now that we want to see him, you know, get better at and get back to the play that he was earlier in the year. And then obviously in the run game and Tyler, I think Tyler probably isn't having, you know, the rushing type season that he's probably hoping for this year. And granted, a lot of it's coming from the offensive line and, you know, just the offense just not having success in general.

And, you know, I know that you mentioned earlier you have a feeling that he'll probably come back and i kind of agree with you um granted there's probably not much more right nfl teams need to see from him but i think you know we probably want to come back to at least you know come back with a better season and leave on a leave on the right note but that's really kind of where I'm at. I feel like with the team right now, I mean, I feel like we're doing obviously good things on offense, which I'm loving to see. Defense again has to get that swag back because I feel like we were just really beat down after that Purdue game.

And I don't know why, but I feel like it's just still lingering, you know, all around. But, you know, that's really kind of where I'm at right now. Yeah. It didn't feel like it felt like late in the game, Iowa's defense started to get a little bit of their swagger back and we were starting to make some plays in the backfield. We're starting to get excited.

It felt like it wasn't until late in the third quarter where our defense was like, yeah, we can play confidently now. I mean, it just – yeah, you're right. It just doesn't seem like we're really doing – we're not playing the way we have played the first six games of the season. It'll be interesting to see how we come out against illinois in that regard the one good thing i have to say matt hankins definitely up that was a struggle but um you i'm so i played baseball growing up and i remember one or two times where a ball would go between i played outfield a ball go between my legs you know it's a lot of people in the stands a lot of my

peers in high school and whatnot. And the worst thing you can do is jog back for that ball. You have to get rid of your humiliation that you feel instantaneously and just sprint as hard as you can get that ball and not make a bad play. Matt Hankins burned and just takes off sprinting. I mean, that's a testament to the character

and the work ethic and the fact that he does care and he wants to be there. And, yes, it was a mental mistake, but he did everything he possibly could to make up for it. And the place stands typically means that they couldn't confirm either direction, which means – I don't know how the hell we don't have a pylon cam, but that big old tight end with the rat tail on the back of his head, his body was not crossed the line and his arm did not look like it was across either i will stand by that for a while but yeah i i

appreciate that about matt hankins back that he was still there um we're not going to see a receiver like chris ottman bell against illinois and we're not going to see it against nebraska so there's some um some hope there that our secondary can get a little bit of that back um it'll be interesting but you're right, Ohio State, we do still have an outside chance. We now become Minnesota and Nebraska fans the next two weeks. Nebraska, let's go Nebraska next week. Let's row that boat, PJ, against the Giants

and let's get that W. Should be an interesting, exciting next couple weeks. Well, LaShawn, I appreciate you coming on as always. It's always a blast talking Iowa football. Hopefully next week we are talking about an Iowa W versus Illinois. I want to preemptively let you know and all of our listeners know that my voice will be shot. I will be a little hungover.

I'm going to be in Kinnick next weekend for Iowa-Illinois, and I am so jazzed about it. I am pumped. So next weekend's show, LaShawn, I need youed about it. I am pumped. So next weekend show, LaShawn, I need you to carry my weight even more than you normally do. But as always, Hawkeye Nation, appreciate you tuning in. Have a phenomenal Sunday, a great end to your weekend. Have a great week. And as always, let's go Hawks.