Haven’t watched Iowa. How are they top 5 based on schedule?
- Thread starter PennSt8er
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The early win over Indiana pushed them up thanks to Indiana’s preseason ranking and they’ve stayed because unless you’re penn state in 94 you generally don’t move backwards when you keep winning.
Playing devils advocate you could make the same argument about us being helped by Wisconsin’s.
Playing devils advocate you could make the same argument about us being helped by Wisconsin’s.
Penix, Purdy and Taigoivaloia were all top 10 qbs heading into the season, and all got benched by the Hawkeyes after some 11 INTs and blowout victories.
You can say those teams sucked, but their will to win clearly declined after getting out muscled.
Agreed that Auburn is best win between the two. By far.
You can say those teams sucked, but their will to win clearly declined after getting out muscled.
Agreed that Auburn is best win between the two. By far.
But Paul Finebaum said that win wasn’t very good…
As long as we protect the ball I think we have more than a good chance of winning. Colorado State showed what Iowa looks like with an even turnover margin.
They had a Top 20 and Top 10 team right off the bat and dominated both. The defense looked really good, if not elite. Some other teams in the Top 10 didn't start off so hot (Oklahoma, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Clemson, for example). Iowa also had a strong end to the season last year.
All due respect but Ferentz teams have always played not to lose against two-bit teams like CSU.
Win and escape, play close to vest, don’t show too much. It’s why Iowa can beat OhioState 55-24 and play Ark St to the wire
Outside of last years debacle, Franklin has never lost to Kirk. a big part of it is Kirk relies on opponents making mistakes and capitalizing. Again throwing last year out because it was covid etc etc and this is our board so I’ll do what I want, the only other year Iowa has won the turnover margin against Franklin was in 2017 (it was only by one) and Saquon did Saquon things to offset it.
If PSU doesn’t turn the ball over next weekend (including failed 4th down conversions that give up good field position) I don’t see Iowa winning.
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That 55-24 game was great, but it was the fluke of flukes. Iowa playing its game of the year against an emotionally spent opponent that crumbled after its best player was ejected. This was not indicative of Ferentz somehow unleashing a big-play offense that he keeps under wraps until he needs it to take down Bama or something. They were faking punts up 3 TDs.
I think PSU will have its hands full at Iowa. They blew out Indiana early and manhandled Maryland. Iowa St. is a rivalry game (we didn't always win with style points vs Pitt). I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I have a bad feeling about this one.
That Maryland game was a gift. Iowa did nothing. If Maryland had intercepted a couple of those lollipops thrown by Petras that's a different game.
Their QB is like a clone of Mertz and Nix.
Yeah, this will be no cakewalk for us. I think it'll come down to the wire, maybe another game like 2017.
For all we know, Auburn is just another massively over-rated SEC team. Every year a lot of them come into the season highly ranked but they don't play anyone. They round robin each other while maintaining inflated rankings making the SEC look like they are the best conference in the country. This year, we are seeing enough SEC teams play decent games OOC opponents to shatter this myth. Those that play solid to good teams are losing (Auburn vs US, LSU vs UCLA, Miss St vs. Memphis, Tenn vs. Pitt), playing really tight games (UGA vs. Clemson) or almost losing to bad teams (A&M vs Colorado, Auburn vs Georgia State). While the transitive property doesn't exist in football, these games provide data points to fit long term trends.
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While I don’t put much into their big wins I agree. Iowa is fundamentally sound and balanced. And their d is built to follow the iu game plan v psu - make us sustain a drive. Our d is tremendous and I seriously doubt Iowa will hang any big numbers up. But this will be a very tough low scoring game and I don’t have a good feeling about it.
Going to need to run the ball better next week or not coming out of there with a "W"..
What Aardvark said, Iowa is always a well coached and disciplined team. It is unlikely they will beat themselves and I have little confidence the PSU O will be able to run much and be forced to try and out athlete them in space. This game will likely come down to turnovers and field possession. It's winnable, but will not be easy, especially in a fired up Kinnick.
Iowa is a very good team. They play excellent defense and this kid Goodson is a notch above their typical RBs. That said, are they the #3 or #4 team in the country? It's debatable. They're likely more a typical #10-#15 team. However, they will play us VERY tough, as they always do, and we will have to play our A game to win on the road in Iowa. I think the game will go down to the wire but we'll pull it out by 3-4 points.
Yep, Both teams are ranked too high, although other than. Bama and Georgia I’m not sure who should be ranked higher.
If we don’t go for every fourth down and play the field position game, Jordan Stout could be the MVP next week if Penn State wins.
I don’t care to look up when our crossover matchup ends, however, I think the Big is making a mistake in doing so.
I'm curious how a team that scores 51 points against a 4-0 BIG10 opponent, on a Friday night road game "did nothing". Can you please expand on your take?
Because many people on this board can't or won't give any respect to an opponent...it's so blatantly ridiculous. Like what is wrong with saying the other team also looks really good.
The same can be asked about us. If you watched the game last night, can you honestly say Penn State is one of the top 3 or 4 best teams in the country? Sure, we’re 5-0, but the third best team in the country? What I saw was a solid team with tremendous potential which, to me, will either result in a memorable year or big disappointment, depending on whether we can improve in the areas that have been discussed ad nauseam on this board.
I think this is the final year of the annual crossover. Penn State gets Illinois next and Iowa gets Rutgers. There shouldn't be any permanent crossovers, Purdue and IU aside. It's not as though Penn State and Iowa have a long history together which needs to be preserved for eternity.
Actually, it was the win over Iowa State (who was ranked 7th at the time - I think Iowa was 11th at time) that pushed Iowa into top 5. Iowa State is now 3-2 and unranked. Meanwhile, PSU's win over a 4-1 ranked Auburn team.
Iowa looks good and they are getting better. The turnovers they get are not a fluke. They play hard fundamental sound defense. They read keys and react. It will be a difficult road game.
However, the same could be said about our defense. In fact we are probably faster overall on defense. Neither offense is elite by any means, we have a more explosive passing game, they have the better running game. I suspect they will sit back in their two high zone and see if Clifford can be disciplined and accurate throwing short and intermediate passes. Bet the under.
In terms of schedule/results, Michigan has been more impressive than Iowa so far this season. But, that’s not Iowa’s fault of course. Indiana and Iowa State were supposed to be good. Kind of like how Indiana’s Week 1 win last season against Penn State propelled Indiana higher than it should have been … and Penn State ended up being sub-.500, as opposed to its preseason top-10 rankings.
Excellent analysis...and u are right...Cliff has to be patient and willing to throw underneath which he sometimes doesn't like to. We also need YAC to help move the ball...no easy task vs Iowa
In a “normal” year, no we wouldn’t be top 3 or 4 right now, but this year…..who deserves to be ranked higher than us right now outside of Bama and Georgia? Every team has their warts and nobody looks like a top 3 team. If someone wanted to, they could even bring up Georgia’s lackluster performance against a Clemson team that’s turning out to be not so good and Bama’s squeaker against a Florida team that just lost to KY. So based on the “eye test” maybe we don’t look like a top 3 team, but based on our resume, we do.
They’ve forced a lot of turnovers. They had two pick sixes against Indiana and got six TOS against Maryland
Exactly! Should we be ranked third? Yeah, probably. But are we the third best team in the country? We all know the polls, because they are so subjective, do not necessarily reflect how “good” a team is - or is playing - in any given week. Look at us winning the Big 10 with 2 losses and getting screwed because of those 2 losses. I think there are a handful of 1-loss teams that are just as good, or better, than we are right now. But I also see so much potential, which is encouraging.
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that's ok, there are just as many people on this board who can't or won't give any respect to their own team
I don’t think there are any one loss teams that are better than us, but I don’t see too many that are worse than us either. At this point, I see more parity than I’ve ever seen, so just keep winning. However, I also see that most teams have a way easier schedule than we do, so it’s not really a level playing field.
Agreed...though there is a fine line between being critical of certain areas and equating that with no respect
Iowa fan here.
First, I am not sure how much stock you can put into the top 5 or top 10 rankings only 5 weeks into the season. In fact, I'll say this-- outside of Alabama and Georgia, I doubt there's little difference between the next 10-15 teams if truth be known.
As for Iowa, what an earlier poster said, we manhandled Indiana in the opener and it helped that Indiana was ranked like #16 or whatever at the time to open the season (I think now both Iowa and PSU fans can agree Indiana was overrated to start the season). Then it was a road game at #9 ranked Iowa State and Iowa handled them easily. Then it was two sub-par opponents in Kent State and Colorado State at home and Iowa won both-- bot the win over Colorado State was a struggle while it shouldn't have been. Maryland got more hype than they deserved because they were 4-0, but Iowa destroyed them.
But as an Iowa fan, we ask what's given PSU their #4 ranking. Win at Wisconsin? Impressive at the time, but now doesn't look that way as much as the Badgers are definitely down. Home win vs. Auburn. Great win, but is Auburn any better than their #22 ranking? Probably not. Indiana win -- again, mentioned IU before.
So it's easy to say both Iowa and PSU "might" be overrated-- but then again, who that is below them in the standings right now deserves to be above either?
I think the PSU program is fabulous and said on this board many times my trips to Happy Valley are my favorite in the entire league. LOVE your campus, your fans, everything. I look forward to a great game on Saturday in Iowa City.
Huh? What? 4-1 Auburn is going to be ranked much higher than 22 after their win over LSU @LSU.
Iowa fan here again.
The Iowa defense is the strength of the team-- the backbone.
Iowa now has 26 consecutive games where the opponent has been held to 24 points or less.
Honestly, I do have worries that if an opponent puts 21 up on Iowa our offense may struggle to keep up.
Make no mistake, this Iowa team is completely built around it's defense.
The Iowa special teams are about as good as I've ever seen them here too. We easily have one of the top 3 or 4 Punters in America as he changes field position and uncanny with dropping the ball inside the opponents 5-yard line on punts.
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