Gray was missed.

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balds

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Hate to dwell on this, but in a game like today Gray was sorely missed. How differently would have Iowa's D have had to play? How many first downs would Gray have ran for? How many third and 3 QB draws would have resulted in Gray bull rushing for the marker? It seems like we have a QB conundrum where each week spits out a different answer, where hindsight seems to be the most wise.
 

Gray was one of the biggest reasons we beat Iowa the two previous times. Whether at WR or QB, Iowa simply didn't have an answer for him. Shortell in a read option offense relying on a running QB, hurts that threat. Today, we just simply didn't come to play, at all, somehow Iowa did. I don't think they're as good as some are giving them credit for today, but they came to play us today, we, as I feared all week, got a little too high on the 4-0 start and national exposure and blah blah blah, as Kill has stressed, we're still YEARS away. Probably have improved a lot faster than some expected, but we still have long strides to make and we're still a rebuilding program. Iowa has had Kirk 14 years. The experience won out today.
 

As I recall, we were losing to western Michigan when Shortell came in and gave us the lead. My belief is that Iowa is substantially better than western Michigan. I think Iowa would have been able to contain gray just fine. I really did not like the vanilla play calling that was very predictable. The play calling did not help our offense.
 

Not completely "vanilla". They went for the Home Run ball 5-6 times and missed all of them. Shortell missed all of them. Recall that too or only the UNLV game where badly thrown balls made it an overtime game.
 

Yeah, that was a little "snippy" sorry. So was assuming that Gray could have been as easily contained.
 


GO4INLALALAND said:
As I recall, we were losing to western Michigan when Shortell came in and gave us the lead. My belief is that Iowa is substantially better than western Michigan. I think Iowa would have been able to contain gray just fine. I really did not like the vanilla play calling that was very predictable. The play calling did not help our offense.
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Why do people keep saying that everytime Max struggles? It's simply NOT true.

We didn't have vanilla playcalling, our whole team just executed bad all game. Max missed a wide open Isaac Fruecthe on 2nd and 6 for a deep gain. He missed on it.

Max threw an INT on 1st and 10.
Max underthrew DCT for his 2nd INT.

As bad as we were at everything today, we were particularily terrible on deep plays. Our offensive playcalling was fine. We passed on 1st and 10 3 out of 5 possesions in the First Quarter. We were so god awful passing in the 1st quarter that we needed to help our defense out and run in the 2nd, that didn't work. The rest of the game was wide open.
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
As I recall, we were losing to western Michigan when Shortell came in and gave us the lead. My belief is that Iowa is substantially better than western Michigan. I think Iowa would have been able to contain gray just fine. I really did not like the vanilla play calling that was very predictable. The play calling did not help our offense.
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They didn't last year.
 

I did not like all the long ball pass plays. Do we have any intermediate pass plays? How about a screen play once in a while? It seemed like it was either run (which we could not do) or heave it down field. In light of the fact that Shortell could not throw the long ball accurately I do not know why they kept throwing it long. How about some slants, a 5 yard in route? The play calling had a lot to be desired, IMO.
 




If Gray would have had no turnovers and hit the open receivers early in the game, then yes, we would have won, I believe. But it's stupid to play what ifs. Heck, if max would have made those early throws this game would have been way different. The fact of the matter is, the offense was in trouble early and the defense couldn't bail them out enough to keep it close while they regained composure. The defense could have helped out by not opening up holes big enough to drive a truck through. That is it in a nutshell.

We've learned that there is no QB controversy and we can move on from there. Time for Northwestern.
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
I did not like all the long ball pass plays. Do we have any intermediate pass plays? How about a screen play once in a while? It seemed like it was either run (which we could not do) or heave it down field. In light of the fact that Shortell could not throw the long ball accurately I do not know why they kept throwing it long. How about some slants, a 5 yard in route? The play calling had a lot to be desired, IMO.
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I thought the playcalling was too vanilla? Now you're asking for more 5 yard routes? Ok. . .

We ran plenty of intermediate plays. In fact, almost every passing play has short, intermediate, and deep routes. . . Max threw all three, he just wasn't effective.
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
The way our o line was man handled, gray would have made little difference. We still lose the game with gray, IMO.
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You can blame everyone but Shortell all you want. He had a bad game. He is a talented guy, but he just had a bad game. To act like Gray, a guy who was dominant against Iowa last year with every bit as bad of an OL, would have easily been contained is nonsense.

It might have happened, who knows. However, with the same caliber OL, Gray was dominant last season.
 

If we would have ran a bunch of trick plays that didn't work, people would be saying we need to make things more simple. A play-caller probably gets too much credit when the team executes well, and probably gets too much blame when things don't go well.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
You can blame everyone but Shortell all you want. He had a bad game. He is a talented guy, but he just had a bad game. To act like Gray, a guy who was dominant against Iowa last year with every bit as bad of an OL, would have easily been contained is nonsense.

It might have happened, who knows. However, with the same caliber OL, Gray was dominant last season.
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I never said that Shortell played great. I am saying that I think we lose regardless of the qb. Shortell did not pass well, which is why limegrover should not have taken so many shots down the field. I do not like grey's passing ability, but after shortell's play today, I think gray should start when he is healthy.
 

Make plays, Leadership

GO4INLALALAND said:
I never said that Shortell played great. I am saying that I think we lose regardless of the qb. Shortell did not pass well, which is why limegrover should not have taken so many shots down the field. I do not like grey's passing ability, but after shortell's play today, I think gray should start when he is healthy.
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Winning and losing comes down to making plays. We won earlier games because Barker made plays. Is it a different game if Barker retains possession on the 50 yard pass he caught and lost to the defender? Is the game different if Wells hauls down Weisman after 4 yards? Nobody touched Weisman too often today until he had run 25 yards. Too often. Somebody has to make plays. Those two guys have in our wins. They did today too, but not game changing plays when we needed them. Nobody did.

I like Jerry Kill. We are making progress. But I will never understand why Gray was not on the road trip. He is THE leader of our team. It is SO doggone obvious he should be our quarterback that commenting it took you until today to realize it is quite telling. We needed Gray's presence in the locker room and on the sideline. Anybody who doesn't think he has something positive, helpful, inspirational, calming to say to Max on the sideline during the game just isn't thinking. It's a team game. Gray needs to be IN Iowa suffering with his teammates. Not discussing it with them in texts a couple hundred miles away. Wouldn't Gray have something inspirational, challenging to say in the locker room after the game? If not, somebody out of 15 coaches needs to be coaxing him to do so. But he can't do that if he isn't there. Especially, losing, Gray needed to be there today to point us forward.

The same mindset that missed that huge omission (Gray's absence), in my opinion, also missed the pulse of the team. How can you not be ready to play today is absolutely on the coaching staff. They are kids. We all knew Iowa was wounded and angry after the last two years of Floyd and after losing two games they should of won at home this year. We were not prepared to deal with adversity today. Life is 90% mental. Our mental preparation was lacking today.

We come from the school, that had a leader who said, "Great moments are born from great opportunity." My gosh, if somebody doesn't have the vision to see the opportunity we had today then they shouldn't be coaching. Today was huge for our program. Do we have injury excuses, game is on the road etc So what? Come to play! It was freaking embarrassing in the first half. That's preparation.

Shortell was the quarterback. He decides where he is throwing the ball. The problem was he missed a lot of throws whatever the distance. His decisions, his body language was not that of a guy calm, confident and in charge as a leader. Could Gray have aided him? They are together everyday for two years...now on game day he's not around when he could be? That makes no sense.

A healthy Gray makes this a completely different game. That should be obvious. An injured Gray needs to be in Iowa as THE team leader.
 

Every play is a good call if it works and a bad call if it doesn't work. Funny how that works.
 

60's Guy said:
Winning and losing comes down to making plays. We won earlier games because Barker made plays. Is it a different game if Barker retains possession on the 50 yard pass he caught and lost to the defender? Is the game different if Wells hauls down Weisman after 4 yards? Nobody touched Weisman too often today until he had run 25 yards. Too often. Somebody has to make plays. Those two guys have in our wins. They did today too, but not game changing plays when we needed them. Nobody did.

I like Jerry Kill. We are making progress. But I will never understand why Gray was not on the road trip. He is THE leader of our team. It is SO doggone obvious he should be our quarterback that commenting it took you until today to realize it is quite telling. We needed Gray's presence in the locker room and on the sideline. Anybody who doesn't think he has something positive, helpful, inspirational, calming to say to Max on the sideline during the game just isn't thinking. It's a team game. Gray needs to be IN Iowa suffering with his teammates. Not discussing it with them in texts a couple hundred miles away. Wouldn't Gray have something inspirational, challenging to say in the locker room after the game? If not, somebody out of 15 coaches needs to be coaxing him to do so. But he can't do that if he isn't there. Especially, losing, Gray needed to be there today to point us forward.

The same mindset that missed that huge omission (Gray's absence), in my opinion, also missed the pulse of the team. How can you not be ready to play today is absolutely on the coaching staff. They are kids. We all knew Iowa was wounded and angry after the last two years of Floyd and after losing two games they should of won at home this year. We were not prepared to deal with adversity today. Life is 90% mental. Our mental preparation was lacking today.

We come from the school, that had a leader who said, "Great moments are born from great opportunity." My gosh, if somebody doesn't have the vision to see the opportunity we had today then they shouldn't be coaching. Today was huge for our program. Do we have injury excuses, game is on the road etc So what? Come to play! It was freaking embarrassing in the first half. That's preparation.

Shortell was the quarterback. He decides where he is throwing the ball. The problem was he missed a lot of throws whatever the distance. His decisions, his body language was not that of a guy calm, confident and in charge as a leader. Could Gray have aided him? They are together everyday for two years...now on game day he's not around when he could be? That makes no sense.

A healthy Gray makes this a completely different game. That should be obvious. An injured Gray needs to be in Iowa as THE team leader.
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I'm guessing Gray didn't make the trip due to the traveling roster limit. This team is razor thin, and we can't afford to leave someone back home who may be needed.
 

John Galt said:
I'm guessing Gray didn't make the trip due to the traveling roster limit. This team is razor thin, and we can't afford to leave someone back home who may be needed.
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The travel roster is like 70 guys. There would have been room for Gray, and I was really surprised he was not on the Sideline. Will be interesting if that question gets asked during the bye week.

It is not all on Shortell but he certainly struggled. What is clear right now is we have 2 QBs with talent but they both have some obvious flaws as well. The defense that has played so great this year needs to take a lot of the blame for this one as well though. Weisman may or may not turn out to be the second coming of Mike Alstott or Ron Dayne but hell I could have run through some of those holes he had yesterday. And it would appear that suddenly we forgot how to tackle, on some of his big runs guys were throwing their shoulders at him instead of using their arms and wrapping up.

Really disappointing to not even be competitive against a team we should have been. Losing is forgivable, playing like crap and losing is not.
 

But as I last recall gray was throwing a lot better when got injured and was rushing incredibly and he had only one interception so far through the season and it was tipped while shortell had three all last game. If gray were to have more passing in his playbook we would of won that west mich also with him also. When the big ten season hit last year kill made gray pass way more and he wouldve this year also. There were some pass plays that shortell didnt make that even gray wouldve made correctly. I dont know if we wouldve won or not but the score would have atleast been beyond 20 points a little bit.
 

Take a deep breath people....only one game...season is not over for Shortell or the Gophers.
 

60's Guy said:
Winning and losing comes down to making plays. We won earlier games because Barker made plays. Is it a different game if Barker retains possession on the 50 yard pass he caught and lost to the defender? Is the game different if Wells hauls down Weisman after 4 yards? Nobody touched Weisman too often today until he had run 25 yards. Too often. Somebody has to make plays. Those two guys have in our wins. They did today too, but not game changing plays when we needed them. Nobody did.

I like Jerry Kill. We are making progress. But I will never understand why Gray was not on the road trip. He is THE leader of our team. It is SO doggone obvious he should be our quarterback that commenting it took you until today to realize it is quite telling. We needed Gray's presence in the locker room and on the sideline. Anybody who doesn't think he has something positive, helpful, inspirational, calming to say to Max on the sideline during the game just isn't thinking. It's a team game. Gray needs to be IN Iowa suffering with his teammates. Not discussing it with them in texts a couple hundred miles away. Wouldn't Gray have something inspirational, challenging to say in the locker room after the game? If not, somebody out of 15 coaches needs to be coaxing him to do so. But he can't do that if he isn't there. Especially, losing, Gray needed to be there today to point us forward.

The same mindset that missed that huge omission (Gray's absence), in my opinion, also missed the pulse of the team. How can you not be ready to play today is absolutely on the coaching staff. They are kids. We all knew Iowa was wounded and angry after the last two years of Floyd and after losing two games they should of won at home this year. We were not prepared to deal with adversity today. Life is 90% mental. Our mental preparation was lacking today.

We come from the school, that had a leader who said, "Great moments are born from great opportunity." My gosh, if somebody doesn't have the vision to see the opportunity we had today then they shouldn't be coaching. Today was huge for our program. Do we have injury excuses, game is on the road etc So what? Come to play! It was freaking embarrassing in the first half. That's preparation.

Shortell was the quarterback. He decides where he is throwing the ball. The problem was he missed a lot of throws whatever the distance. His decisions, his body language was not that of a guy calm, confident and in charge as a leader. Could Gray have aided him? They are together everyday for two years...now on game day he's not around when he could be? That makes no sense.

A healthy Gray makes this a completely different game. That should be obvious. An injured Gray needs to be in Iowa as THE team leader.
Click to expand...

Calm down. Could it just be that this is an extremely young team that got overwhelmed in a hostile road environment when things didn't start going their way? The coaching staff had them prepared just fine, the team just didn't respond and execute. Team loss and they will recover from it. Bring on Northwestern, their response to this loss is the real test of progress.
 

BHgrappler said:
Calm down. Could it just be that this is an extremely young team that got overwhelmed in a hostile road environment when things didn't start going their way? The coaching staff had them prepared just fine, the team just didn't respond and execute. Team loss and they will recover from it. Bring on Northwestern, their response to this loss is the real test of progress.
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Couldn't agree more. Ya, coaching matters, but it ultimately falls on the players. Do people really think this staff didn't do all it could to get the team ready? Most fans on the board could come up with the script: first conference game; you're playing to keep Floyd; they could be easily be undefeated; they're pissed about the last two years and are going to come after you; it's a hostile crowd; we really haven't beat anyone, etc. etc. If you've played and coached enough though, you know that sometimes teams don't actually believe a coach until the game starts. Then it sometimes is too late, especially if you're not that talented or that mature.

Iowa smacked the Gophers early and nobody smacked back. Coaches can plan, scream, cajole, motivate, inspire, whatever, but the player on the field has to respond. But nobody made a play that first half. It's like they went into shock. This is where the youth came out. We have very few seniors to calm people down; yet get the intensity up, and make the big play.

It also made very little difference whether or not Gray was with, IMO. You've got to be on the field playing if you're going to actually lead. Otherwise, it's all just cliched BS.

The Northwestern game will really show how far we have come. The Iowa game should get the player's attention. Two weeks to think about it, to listen to the coaches remind you how bad you were, and to prepare for it on the field. Already looking forward to it.
 


GO4INLALALAND said:
My belief is that Iowa is substantially better than western Michigan. I think Iowa would have been able to contain gray just fine.
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Proof positive you did not watch the Minnesota-Iowa football games in 2010 and 2011.
 

Gray gives us a better chance at winning.

I said that a year ago, two weeks ago, and today.

I like Max. He has the one secret, special ingredient of all good quarterbacks: he's naturally comfortable playing the position.

His accuracy will improve in time. I think he's getting closer. A running game would help.
 

Studwell55 said:
Gray gives us a better chance at winning.

I said that a year ago, two weeks ago, and today.

I like Max. He has the one secret, special ingredient of all good quarterbacks: he's naturally comfortable playing the position.

His accuracy will improve in time. I think he's getting closer. A running game would help.
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This. Iowa didn't need to respect the running game so the play-action fake was rendered useless.
 

Studwell55 said:
Gray gives us a better chance at winning.

I said that a year ago, two weeks ago, and today.

I like Max. He has the one secret, special ingredient of all good quarterbacks: he's naturally comfortable playing the position.

His accuracy will improve in time. I think he's getting closer. A running game would help.
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I agree with all of this. We especially need to get the running game going.

It could be why Max had success running the ball, because Iowa was cheating back. And perhaps why we decided to run Max a little at the end of the game. Iowa fared pretty well when they were able to run the ball.

Gray gives any defense we play one more dimension to account for when we get the running game going too.

It would have been a tough game even with our regular offensive line. Someone would have to tell me if we played Iowa the last two years with injuries like we faced this year on the O-line?
 


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