Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Reactions to Iowa's second straight loss | What went wrong offensively | What's the deal with Brian Ferentz

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

Iowa dropped their second straight game and we're joined by Nick Kendell to break down our thoughts and feelings on the game including how poorly the interior o-line played, what's going on with Nate Stanley, and how great the defense was.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network.

As always, I'm one of your hosts, Andrew Wade. Zach Cohen is not here today. He's returning back from Iowa City. He went to the game last night and is on his way back to Chicago. But I am happy to be joined here by my buddy, Nicholas Kendall. Nick, you are a very avid Iowa Hawkeye fan, also a big draft guru, and you cover the Denver Broncos. We really appreciate having you on the show today, man. Yeah, no problem. Just got home from watching the Broncos get another win, and that hopefully made up a little bit for the Hawks letting us both down on Saturday. Yeah, man, that was an absolutely – that was a rough game to watch, man.

It just felt like I was really hoping that, you know, they came out and kind of corrected some of the things that we saw during the Michigan game, and I felt like there was some – there was definitely some improvements, but overall just a lot of disappointment from that game. Defense played really well. Offense has a lot of work to do. But we going to cover all that on today's show before we jump into the meat of the show though make sure to like review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this episode at whether that is google podcast apple podcast spotify or the brand new himalaya podcast app

and also make sure to follow us on twitter facebook and instagram zach is going to be doing an announcement of who won the Jordan Canzari autograph memorabilia here in the next couple days. I know it's been a little bit delayed, but make sure to follow us on there, and he'll reach out to you letting you know who is the winner. All right, man. We're going to start with the offense first. I think that's probably the thing that pissed off the most people

in yesterday's matchup. You know, just took seven or eight quarters to score a touchdown, which is just absolutely pathetic. I think overall Nate Stanley is just kind of showing us that he is not the guy to bring us to that next level, right? You've seen it from Ricky Stanzi, not necessarily the most talented guy, but a guy who had it in the big moments, had that impact, were able to do it. What are your thoughts on Nate Stanley after these last two games?

Well, I was pretty upset yesterday after watching the game. Obviously, I thought he did not do enough to get them the win, obviously, but went back and watched the game today, and obviously there was some plays that he did not make. The slant to Brandon Smith, I mean, stuff like that really stands out. That's a touchdown that we just lost right there. Right there, yep. And that's a point in general is just the, the red zone offense.

I mean, I guess you hope that a guy like Brandon Smith, you know, taken and Amir Smith, Marcella taking the next step as well as Stanley can make up for those tight ends. But I was missed those tight ends in the red zone this year. And that's been a huge difference maker because when they get down there, you know, having to do those methodical drives, they haven't been able to finish. And, you know, if you want to put that on Sanji, that's definitely a part of it.

But also the interior of the offensive line is getting absolutely blown up. It's been rough, man. It's a lot of factors. Exactly. I mean, yesterday, you know, they benched Landon Paulson after he allowed a sack. Robert Wincer, coming into this game, had zero sacks. He left this game with two and a half sacks and two quarterback hurries. He was in Nate Stanley's grill the entire day. What did you see

from the guard play that really was telling? Was it, you know, one side in particular was, you know, did it improve at all throughout the game? I know you do a better job of kind of evaluating some of that in the trench stuff. From my perspective, just the guard play in general was just atrocious. I mean, the tackles did a relatively good job considering Penn State's defensive ends are pretty darn good. But the interior was just, it was gross, man, watching. Yeah, no, the entire interior for Iowa had a struggling day. I mean, we've been excited about some of those flashes from Tyler Linderbaum coming into this game.

You know, registered freshman center, was playing defensive line last year and flipped over during bowl prep. So a guy who's still pretty new to the position had some flashes but struggled there but really it comes down to the guard play I mean you saw Landon Paulson in there struggling like you mentioned benched I believe Cody Ince was in there up and down and then they also put in Mark Kallenberger at first start at right guard but more of a a tackle body you know tackle ability so those guys were getting beat up front you you know, consistent consistently.

And like you said, the tackles held up pretty solid. I mean, you turn gross Matos for Penn state is a, I mean, some people think he's a first round pick. They also have a red shirt junior on the other side is a shock of Tony. Who's been really good, but it was a punch him in the mouth game and Iowa, you know, can't finish in the red zone and also losing the turnover battle two to zero that's the difference maker those are the things that you can't have going against you and winning against a team as talented as Penn State is definitely man and

before I get to the turnover piece I wanted to call out the fact that Cole Banwert was lost just you know the day before the game it sounds like he might be out for the season so we're gonna get yeah oh he's an I didn't even see as anl issue but yeah so it sounds like you know this is going to be a recurring theme um obviously kyler shot has you know not been out or not been in the game either he's been injured for the last couple weeks um so we're really struggling from a guard depth perspective um turnovers as well you mentioned that and i think not only just the turnovers but the the position or where we're turning the ball over um tyler goodson had his first career fumble i wouldn't even necessarily blame it on tyler goodson uh he was getting hit in the backfield before he even secured the ball

but putting the ball on the ground on the 15 yard line is just you literally you can't do that and expect to win games yep i mean it's really you know we've kind of iowa fans kind of joke about punting is winning but to be completely honest they had a few bad punts michael saved dalton but if if the iowa is instead ending some of a few bad punts michael saved dalton but if if the iowa is instead ending some of those drives and punts instead of turnovers we might be talking about a different game so not only and obviously you can't blame the defense the defense played in incredible games back-to-back weeks but with how how limited iowa's offense is and it's unfair to put this on them but the game if iowa offense cannot, our defense cannot create any turnovers and, you know, flip the,

flip the script, whether it be give the Iowa offense a short field, or even create a defensive turnover. That's something that, you know, the offense isn't explosive enough to overcome right now. They need the defense to make a huge splash play. And it just, it didn't come in this game, even though there was a couple of chances where it was close. Yeah, man. I mean,

consider the fact that Iowa has allowed 27 points in the last two games to two top 25 teams, and 14 of those points came off turnovers on Iowa's side of the ball. I mean, you can't ask for much more from that. The offense needs to actually score. Like you said, the red zone offense not getting the ball in there, missing the tight ends, that was huge. But obviously Nate Stanley just missing Brandon Smith in general on that slant route he had him open if he just gets the ball in a better position besides

behind brandon smith um the running game's also been struggling man and that's been horrible been just real real frustrating to watch um they can't figure out who can get really going tyler goodson had a few runs but um overall just a quiet day from the running game and it's you know in general and one of the things i saw was you know there's oftentimes Penn State was looked like they're going to blitz and Nate Stanley would audible into a run right into the blitz it felt like is that something you also saw yeah I saw that a bit as well I don't know what the the call was but maybe it's you know playing it safe especially when your defense is playing as good as it is sometimes you know if they can break that and get to the second level you know that can be a big play but those holes were closing too fast and

the only one who were seem to seemingly was able to hit some of those holes was good since so i mean when they're struggling up struggling up the gut as well so negative plays for the offense whether it be sacks or tackles for for loss so i don't know what he was seeing there but you can't when you're as limited as they are you know, from the interior offensive line to the escapability of Stanley, then you're going to have some issues there. Yeah, I mean, it honestly feels a lot like last year. People were wondering what was going on with the run game. Our interior offensive line was not very good at run blocking last year either.

This year it just seems even more exposed, especially the last two games. And it's not even – and the one thing I noticed, too, against Michigan, Michigan was bringing a lot of pressure. Penn State didn't always bring pressure. They were getting pressure with just four guys. They didn't need to bring pressure. They were able to drop back the other remaining guys and bring four guys up, and they were still somehow getting to the quarterback,

whether that be a stunts and the offensive line just not communicating well. I saw guards trying to double-team one guy and letting another guy go scot-free. So just overall kind of a pretty terrible performance, one that I hope and I would expect Iowa to continue to work on going forward. Coming up though, we're going to cover the defense, maybe touch a little bit more on Brandon Smith. I want to talk about his insane catch he had to score Iowa's first touchdown in seven quarters. So I want to touch on that after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, man. Let's touch on Brandon Smith.

That catch was absolutely insane. Something that I've been very vocal about wanting to see more often. Nate Stanley, one of the things, you know, he's not really a risk taker, which is kind of ironic because he throws a decent amount of interceptions in Big 10 play. But Brandon Smith is a guy who can go up and grab the ball anytime he can outwin, or he can, you know, win contested, you know, Kestridge pretty much the majority of the time.

Would you like to see more Brandon Smith, just throwing the ball up, chucking it up, seeing if he can come down with a play. I mean, it's definitely got its opportunities, but you still need the quarterback to hit those plays. I mean, he's not just a jump ball guy anymore, and you've seen him getting better and better separations on, whether it be the outs or that slant. I mean, he had the separation.

So you do want to go to it, but, I mean, that's kind of a thing where it is a higher risk play. We saw him go for – Stanley in general go for some of those kind of throws in the Michigan game, and it led to some – one of them at least was an interception. So you want to see that. But really in general, it comes back to the offensive line. I mean, you saw good plays.

Amir Smith-Marset had a great catch. Nico Reguini was consistent. You know, he made a couple really clutch plays over the middle. But, you know, when the interior offensive line is struggling like they are and you can't run, I mean, what was Iowa's yardage per run? It was like 2.2 on the game. You can't do that and be successful at Iowa. So the defense played great, but, you know, it all comes back to that.

It seems simple, and I don't know if it's something they can correct in one game. It might be it is what it is. But, you know, when you're going up against like Penn State and Michigan, it's going to be an issue. But luckily they do have a team like Purdue coming into town next week so won't be as big of an issue but you know it's just the talent level they're at yeah absolutely I mean I will say that it is nice that we get Purdue next but Purdue is just you know in the last couple years has been a team that somehow has Iowa's number and it's typically in these situations where Iowa's coming

off a one or two game losing streak and they get Purdue and they just can't seem to put it together against Purdue. Purdue is in a great spot to play the spoiler role coming back into Kinnick. But we're going to get into that later in the week. I wanted to touch on the defense because, like we talked about, the defense had an outstanding game. I did think there was, you know, there's some room for improvement. One of the things I saw in particular was the fact that they kept putting Nick Neiman out in coverage on K.J. Hamler.

And K.J. Hamler is probably one of the top five wide receivers in the Big Ten, maybe. I mean, from an athletic and explosive standpoint, he's, you know, poor man's Rondell Moore, in my opinion. I mean, he's a guy who you can't put Nick Neiman on. And I thought Penn State did a really good job of exposing that early on in the game and, and forcing Phil Parker's hand to move to that four to five. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a, that's an NFL player right there. It might be going, you know, day he's a registered sophomore, so maybe he won't come out, but if he came out, he'd be probably a fourth, fifth round pick in kind of a gadgety role.

And you saw it. I mean, the shirt tackled Gino stones. He put them in a blender a few times and force the Hawkeyes hand to go more to four to five. And that's when you started to see him gashing forced the the Hawkeyes hand to go more to 425 and that's when you started to see him gashing with the running running game a little bit more so it's numbers game and that's a guy you know I obviously know Greeny was solid Amir Smith Mercer set has good tools but they don't have a guy that they can go to the well with like Penn State does with KJ Hamler you know that guy, as well as a really good number of running backs as well. So, you know, a team like Penn state, they typically have better athletes.

They recruited a higher level Iowa and it does develop at a pretty high rate, but I mean, that's, that's what you kind of get in this game. And that's, there's a reason that the ESPN models had Penn state winning 60% of the simulations. So it's going to happen. I thought the defense played well. The biggest thing I will say is the defense, typical Phil Parker, very, very disciplined in the back end, and Penn State has been an explosive offense all season,

putting up just crazy yards per play. And Iowa didn't let them do that. In the end, though, it wasn't enough for the Iowa offense to overcome it. Yeah, I mean, if you would have told me coming into this game, Penn State ranked fifth in the nation in scoring, Sean Clifford having an explosive year, 12 touchdowns, two interceptions prior to this game. We were going to hold Sean Clifford to 117 yards on 50% completion percentage.

I would think we'd be walking away with a win here. I thought that was kind of the big deal, stopping the passing game, even the running game. Like you said, they had a little bit more success later on in the game, but overall averaging 3.3 yards per carry. I thought Iowa did a pretty solid job. The one area I thought they kind of struggled with was containing Sean Clifford once he got out of the pocket and allowing him to scramble. And we've seen that with some mobile quarterbacks before.

Trace McSorley was a guy prior to Clifford who really burnt Iowa a few times when, you know, the play had break down and he was able to break contain. and then there was no one back there to stop him allowing him to get some key third downs yeah that's typically that hasn't been as much of an issue under Phil Parker but when the back shell defense you know in zone does their assignment and there's nobody within seven yards that's a especially a young quarterback will pull that down and take the positive yards you know as they say you can't go broke taking a profit so that's what they did and in a defensive slugfest like that just controlling the ball moving it for a first down and playing field position if you can protect the football and not do any turnovers which tip your hat to

the young Penn State quarterback Clifford he almost lost that one when Golston came up behind him but and you know, that's, that happens if they protected the football and they came out with the W. Yeah, man, it's tough. We're going to take a quick break though. And then when we come back, I want to talk about special teams a little bit. You mentioned Michael sleep Dalton and, you know, his performance last couple of weeks has been a little bit infuriating and

kind of Colton Rassiter esque. And I want to talk about that. So we're going to touch on that in a few moments. kind of Colton Rassiter-esque, and I want to talk about that. So we're going to touch on that in a few moments. All right, man. Let's talk about Michael Sleep Dalton and just the special teams in general. This is a game Iowa lost by five points, and there was a key – I mean, you know, so far Keith Duncan's been pretty good this year. We're going to get to Sleep Dalton in a second.

Keith Duncan's been pretty good this year. He's only missed one field goal. Happened to miss another field goal, you know, in Saturday's game, and that could have theoretically been a big-time play. That would have put them down by two. They went for that two-point conversion, which they obviously did not convert on, but that could have put them in a position to even, you know, tie the game up with that touchdown that Brandon Smith had. Duncan overall, I thought he's been playing pretty well, but that missed field goal was hurt.

What are your thoughts on him? You know, at this point, do you feel like it's become a trend? He's missed a couple now, or he's missed two in the last two weeks. So I want to get your thoughts on that. Well, obviously you got to look out for it, but probably don't have much other options to go with. If he starts missing, you know, you can obviously see Caleb Shudick come in there,

but you hope he turns it around and maybe that'll force the offense's hand as well you know if he's missing some of those things from farther out maybe get a little bit more aggressive yeah i mean you got the numbers so you know you gotta sometimes take some shots there maybe even some quarterback fourth down you know fourth and four do some quarterback power options do something different to get it working out there obviously last year we saw a bit more trick plays from the offense and the special teams than we've seen so far this year. So, if you can't rely on the kicker, got to be aggressive. Absolutely, man.

I mean, I've loved the Nate Stanley sneak. At this point, run it until they stop it. They stopped it last night – or on Saturday, excuse me. But there was a penalty as well, so kind of negated the whole fact. But Nate Stanley's been pretty effective just bulldozing right behind Tyler Linderbaum with his six foot four 240 pound frame so just pretty solid you know third fourth and short situation with Nate Stanley as far as the punting game I thought Sleep Dalton had a average performance at best he had a couple good kicks later on, but that first kick, 11 yards, giving Penn State the ball at the Iowa 41. I don't know what he was honestly doing. He

was kind of running away or, you know, running up towards the line. I know they were, I looked like they were trying to do some, you know, some interesting things to kind of mess with KJ Hamler in the back. You know, maybe, you know, let the punter team or punt turn or punt coverage team get down there to cover the ball um but i just i know it felt really gimmicky and i thought sleep dalton's put together now his third straight kind of so so performance yeah i know that one where it was i think maybe a penn state player may have touched that one when he was way backed up but either way he was backed up pretty far but you know only what was it three punts on the day no no no five punts on the day yep 35 yard

average yeah not the not the best but still punt position game it he didn't have an absolute horrible punt like we've seen with radstetter that i can recall at least and had that good one of 53 as well but you still want to be better than that if you're not moving the ball like iowa's offense was struggling to move the ball. Then you need that third phase to come into play, and it didn't happen. And before we move on, we were talking about the defense. I didn't really get a standout, but I thought the Iowa defensive line played a pretty good game.

I mean, obviously, Golston played well, but I really want to highlight Cedric Latimore and Davion Nixon. Those two guys have been getting better and better as the season went on. And, I mean, at the talent level that Penn State has on that offensive line, those guys are really earning their keep with how they're playing in the last couple weeks, despite the offense not stepping up for them. Yeah, Nixon's been a guy who's really come along, especially considering the fact that he was looking at transferring at the end of last year to come back and really solidify

a spot in the rotation. With Brady Reif being a senior, this is an opportunity for him to kind of step up. And he's going to be a key contributor next year, especially if we lose AJ Epineza. So he's going to be a guy we're going to need to rely on over the next couple of years. And it's nice to see him really grow in that position and be kind of a force to reckon with in the interior. Yeah, no, he looks really good. And I mean, it's too bad that it's Cedric Latimer.

I believe he is a redshirt senior, but he's been playing really, or just a senior, but he's been playing really well also. So, you know, Iowa losing to teams like Penn State and Michigan, that's not great. You hate to see it, but you got to feel pretty good about, you know, these two teams are good. Iowa could have walked out. They can get better still.

They're not executing as much as you want on offense. Now you've got some easier teams coming up. I mean, Northwestern has not looked good on offense. They do have a solid defense, but Iowa could win that. Purdue, I mean, they seem to have Iowa's number recently, but on paper, Iowa has a really good chance to win. So things are still in play for Iowa this year, despite dropping two close games to two of the traditional Big Ten powers.

Yeah, it's just so tough. I mean, I get it from a fan perspective, and then from an analysis perspective, you look at it, and these were tough games regardless. These were toss-up games. Michigan was – I mean, I expected that to be a loss, but I think it's just how they're losing is the most frustrating aspect of it. But you're absolutely right.

Going forward, Iowa, in theory, should be favored in every game besides Wisconsin. Maybe the Nebraska game just because they're going on the road. But I think Nebraska looks garbage. I mean, watching them against Minnesota, it was downright embarrassing. But if you look at it, Iowa has a really good chance of going 9-3. If you pull out a good game against Wisconsin, that's 10-2. That's still the big bowl type of, you know, play, you can still be a top 10 ranked team at 10 and two and still kind of be in

play outside of the college world playoffs to be into one of those, you know, new year's six bowls. Yeah, absolutely. But if they're going to have a chance to do that, maybe even, you know, with a great defense, you can go in and maybe do something in Wisconsin, you know, any given Saturday in this instance, but until they figure out that interior offensive line and hopefully can get a little bit more running ability,

protect Stanley a little bit more, they're not going to be able to do much offensively, and it really comes down to that. So hopefully with time, reps, and film study, they can get a little bit better. Blame it on Stanley. If not, I guess it comes on Stanley's shoulders, and as he's shown, he can be good,

but I don't know if he is the guy to do that. Yeah, I mean, I feel for the guy because no matter what happens, he's always going to get blamed just because his history doesn't really bode well for him, right? He hasn't played well in big games historically. So when he doesn't play the best,

regardless of who is to blame for the situation, he's going to get some of that blame. Before we wrap up, though, I have one last thing I wanted to touch on with you. There's a lot of talk about Brian Ferenc being fired. I know I posted a pretty hasty tweet and then ended up deleting it because it probably wasn't in good taste. But what are your thoughts on Brian Ferenc and what he's doing with his offense? The first four games, I thought, wow, we are in a good spot with Brian Ferenc as a guy who might be groomed to be the head coach after Kirk. After those last two games, I thought, wow, we are in a good spot with Brian Ferencz as a guy who might be groomed to be

the head coach after Kirk. After those last two games, though, it's just been, you know, such, such a, you know, terrible performance reminds me of some of the bad Greg Davis years. Wanted to get your thoughts on Brian Ferencz. Well, obviously I think the, the Michigan game, I blame a little bit more on the play calling in this Penn state game. I mean, like you talked about the rushing four, that was just being out personneled. as they say you know it's a

classic moniker it's not about the X's and O's but the Jimmy's and Joe's so those players beat them you tip your cap so I think it is a little bit hasty to pilot all on Brian Ferentz you know we still have a long season to go what is this his second third season as the offensive coordinator so he's still learning but I it's really hard to do anything when your quarterback is getting pressure like they are up the gut right now and he can't run the football. I mean, bringing it back to Stanley, you know, people are always going to be like, oh man,

what if he was just a little better despite his numbers? But Iowa's last three years, the statistics on how they've run have been as bad as I can, I think probably almost ever in a Kirk Ferentz era. I mean, if not ever, then right there with the Mark Weissman era, which, I mean, that shouldn't be the case with the running backs that they have. I mean, no defense to Mark Weissman, but it could send Sergeant Young. I mean, that's a far cry from running a fullback back there constantly. So I don't get it, but I mean, I'm not a Stanley apologist by any means, but you give him even an average Kirk Ferensera running game.

And this offense is much more efficient. It's just, it's not happening right now with that interior offensive line. Yeah. It's, it's, it's tough for him. Like I said, I mean, I've never, I've never been a huge Nate Stanley supporter, but I also understand where there's some faults that are not necessarily his. I would love to see him, you know, put the team on his back, like other great quarterbacks can do. You can see great quarterbacks who can make, you know, teams win games, you know, in spite of some of their inadequacies.

But, yeah, it's tough when you don't have that run game to rely on, especially considering Iowa football loves to rely on that run game to set up everything else. So, Nick, though, it's been a blast having you on the show talking about Iowa Hawkeye football. I'm glad it's been, you know, it's been 24 hours since the loss. Had some time to cool down. I was a little bit upset about it. Obviously we're recording Sunday night,

but I appreciate you jumping on any last words about the Iowa Hawkeyes before we close out the show today. Long season yet, you know, a lot of things can bounce their way. Looks bad right now for the Hawks, but you know, things young players can show out. Maybe Stanley takes a step and if they can get a run together, who knows, you know, that's, that's football. You got to take it one at a time. So Purdue next and hopefully Iowa can stop their skid there and stop their

own skid this season, but also against Purdue and get a W. Absolutely, man. I just want to, you know, what you talked about, I just have to have to say one thing last year, everyone looks pretty fondly back on last year's team going nine and four winning the Outback bowl against Mississippi state. There a three-game stretch there had people pretty pissed off losing to you know Penn State losing to Purdue and I believe losing to Northwestern in a three-game stretch and people look pretty fondly back on last year there's still an opportunity for that this year want to see some of those things get cleaned up but again appreciate you jumping on the show

and talking to me about Iowa Hawkeye football today I know know the listeners of the show are going to absolutely love this episode. Thank you all for tuning into this episode, Hawkeye Nation. I know it's been a rough couple of weeks, but we're going to get back on track, obviously covering all of this on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Monday morning, Hawkeye Nation. Go Hawks! We'll see you next time.