Giving up 28 fourth quarter points, that I can understand. Donnell Jones, not really a shutdown corner at the best of times, was doing a solid job playing one-armed for most of the game, but he was going to get burned on tackling eventually.
Colin Taylor took over Nick Polk's safety spot for good with two INTs, but it was still his first start. Against the fourth-ranked team in the nation, a banged-up and unseasoned secondary is a recipe for disaster. Also, Austin Thomas (20) is a liability in coverage over the top, as Iowa's Marvin McNutt so eloquently displays here. (AP Photo)
But how do you not give the ball to Darius Willis deep in the red zone with a big lead and let him try three times to pound it in? Worst case, you end up with a field goal. And a 17 point lead. And the momentum. And he already had a 4-yard TD in the game.
The Hoosiers are trapped between Big Ten officials who seem to absolutely hate the Cream and Crimson (see: IU vs. Michigan) and a coaching staff that is bound and determined to choke away any sort of lead that their very talented team gift-wraps for them.
29-28 at Northwestern. 29-26 at Michigan. And now 42-24 at Iowa.
This sucks for Willis, Doss, Belcher, Kirlew, Middleton, Ray Fisher, Justin Pagan (pictured - gotta love that 'fro - it's helmet-proof!), the Replogle Bros, and every other talented player on this team that deserves much better.
Tuberville in 2010. Anybody in 2010. I'm hearing it all over town; Bill Lynch is a coordinator at best. He's a nice guy, and we're trying really hard not to bash him here, but come on. Fred Glass has to do something, because it's not getting any better, despite the player's best efforts.
I got a ton of texts yesterday while Indiana was up. "Can you pull it off??" "Oh my god! Indiana's going to win?" And the whole time I was responding "No. This game is over. There is no way Indiana wins."
For a while I thought I might be wrong and end up eating my pessimism like a bitterness sandwich, and that would have been great if Indiana had actually pulled it off.
Instead, I just gotta say - I told you so. Now let's get a coach who can hold his team together when things get tough.
For those of you who think that going 7-6 and getting to a bowl after Hep's death counts as holding a team together, I would argue that A) The players and Mrs. Hep had more to do with that than Lynch did and B) that team underachieved anyway.
They had the talent and the chances to go at least 9-4. Maybe if they had a coach with the stones to keep the reins tight on his blue-chip, drug-loving QB, they could have.
Similarly, IU had a golden opportunity to beat Iowa yesterday and save this season. Instead it's just another might have been in a season full of 'em.
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iowa sould be embarassed by that game. I am still bitter about this game and i am not going to blame anything on the refs or bad breaks, but IU has no luck. The mometum and everything would have been different, and even though IU lost by 18, the game was their's and they lost it
ReplyDeleteJamie! hooray!
ReplyDeleteMy only objection to that is that Iowa did look bad for 3/4 of the game, but scoring 28 unanswered is a pretty convincing way to come back. More so than Florida getting help from the officials to squeak by weak opponents, at least.