IUP Football 2021

[jrshooter]

Thanks Big Indians! Are you going up to the game on Saturday?

Famous last words!!

[IUPFOOTBALLALUM]

Monk and IUP Crimson Hawks.

No idea ... both vanished early summer.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'll be at the Hurst game Saturday, there will be no IUP tail gates!

The 2019 game up there was also their Homecoming. Nice crowd. Shut 'em up early.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Does anyone know where the IUPMONK is? Miss reading what he had to say each week.

Monk and IUP Crimson Hawks.

No idea ... both vanished early summer.

[IUPNation]

I'll be at the Hurst game Saturday, there will be no IUP tail gates!

[CrimsonHawkAlum]

I'll be at the Hurst game Saturday, there will be no IUP tail gates!

Does anyone know where the IUPMONK is? Miss reading what he had to say each week.

[IUPalum]

I'll be at the Hurst game Saturday, there will be no IUP tail gates!

[CrimsonHawkAlum]

Check back 2015-2017. Iup was putting up 300+ multiple times a season. Against Top opponents.

[IUPNation]

As I said in the post ahead of yours, oddly their offense gets better in the second half (while trying to play catch-up).

Makes me wonder if our first half offense is:

A. Too predictable and it is scouted out too well
B. Too conservative
C. Perhaps both

After two games I'm already done with seeing this team run on first down. It's just not working. Mix it up. We have all these WRs and a big TE ... get pass happy. Granted, running will probably work in these next three games much better against Mercyhurst, Clarion and GU.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I guess you'd need to do a time intensive deep dive to really figure out why Tortball is the way it is. Does the offense start slow, the defense, or both? Is it play calling or play making? Regardless, when you know you're coming from behind, you sometimes try to force things or take unnecessary risks that don't always pay off. Hard to diagnose the whole lot at the same time.

As I said in the post ahead of yours, oddly their offense gets better in the second half (while trying to play catch-up).

Makes me wonder if our first half offense is:

A. Too predictable and it is scouted out too well
B. Too conservative
C. Perhaps both

After two games I'm already done with seeing this team run on first down. It's just not working. Mix it up. We have all these WRs and a big TE ... get pass happy. Granted, running will probably work in these next three games much better against Mercyhurst, Clarion and GU.

[Fightingscot82]

I guess you'd need to do a time intensive deep dive to really figure out why Tortball is the way it is. Does the offense start slow, the defense, or both? Is it play calling or play making? Regardless, when you know you're coming from behind, you sometimes try to force things or take unnecessary risks that don't always pay off. Hard to diagnose the whole lot at the same time.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

lost.

I think you have answered your own question, in a sense: the slow starts.

In three of the five losses in your chart, IUP trailed at halftime and had to abandon the run game:

• 2018 vs. SRU, 5 rushes in the second half
• 2019 vs. SRU, 11
• 2021 vs. Shepherd, 9

The question that needs to be answered in those games is ... why did IUP fell behind by so many points so quickly?

The other two losses happened because of mistakes during crunch time: a pick-6 vs. Cal in 2018 and a lapse in defense against a great QB/WR vs. Shepherd in 2019.

Just trying to detect some patterns. The 'slow start' pattern isn't going to have a single answer.

I'm not going to dive deep enough in to it to see how many games they got the ball first, etc.

5 of the 8 games IUP scored 7 points or less in the first half. It's odd. It's no doubt killing them in these games. It's just hard to figure why it's happening. That's a big enough sample size to call it more than a fluke.

No means implying they should have won all of them ... but they are a tremendously better second half offensive team. There has to be something to it. Game-planning ... who knows.

I didn't even include the last game of 2017 when we got down huge against West Florida -- 0 points in first half and finished with 17.

No doubt playing from behind in these games takes its toll on everything. First and foremost, it changes the entire offense.

BUT, you could say once said offense gets changed in the second half ... they score more.

The 'slow start' comes up a lot (and obviously now again after last week). I think there's definitely some proof here it's not just a 'thought' anymore ... it's happening.

Are we too conservative in the first half? Last week they moved the ball well in the first half. But, got just two FGs. Kicking field goals against that offense ... well, we know what happens.

[Matt Burglund]

But, of the 8 games above, IUP has rushed for 96 yards or less in 5 of them. Not coincidentally, IUP's record in its past 8 'big games' is now 3-5.

lost.

I think you have answered your own question, in a sense: the slow starts.

In three of the five losses in your chart, IUP trailed at halftime and had to abandon the run game:

• 2018 vs. SRU, 5 rushes in the second half
• 2019 vs. SRU, 11
• 2021 vs. Shepherd, 9

The question that needs to be answered in those games is ... why did IUP fell behind by so many points so quickly?

The other two losses happened because of mistakes during crunch time: a pick-6 vs. Cal in 2018 and a lapse in defense against a great QB/WR vs. Shepherd in 2019.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Check back 2015-2017. Iup was putting up 300+ multiple times a season. Against Top opponents.

Great numbers in the 90s, too, but neither is helping the current problem.

[IUPFOOTBALLALUM]

I agree they've had (have) great backs. But the data above does not support them running at will against top opponents. Quite the opposite. Does that directly correlate to playing from behind in 75% of the above 8 games? My guess is, yes, it does.

Oddly, the game listed they ran the best (Cal / 2018), they lost. That dang Lenny Pick 6 in the end zone.


Again, these are factual numbers from these games. So, something certainly is going on.

Check back 2015-2017. Iup was putting up 300+ multiple times a season. Against Top opponents.