Blaming a loss on the officiating or the weather is usually weak sauce.
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THE IUP Football Thread
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ESU and last year's State Game are history. Can't change the results. I think IUP is about to explode (although some seem to expect them to implode). I think at this stage of the season there is a lot of development going on, a lot of new players. I think the talent will start to jell. Often, losing is a wake-up call and makes teams better. IUP can use last Saturday as motivation. I think the loss will make them more focused, from top to bottom.
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The IUP offense (mainly rushing attack) is struggling. The numbers don't lie.
In the past (5) games (dating back to last year), IUP has scored an average of 18.4 ppg.
Granted, this current stretch of (5) games has been against tough competition (Shephered twice, Ashland twice and East Stroudsburg). IUP's past (5) games have all been at Miller Stadium. In two of IUP's last three home games, the Crimson Hawks have been held to dismal 13- and 12-point performances.
IUP rushing yards past (5) games:In this year's Ashland game, 65 of the 144 yards came on two plays. Remove those two plays, and the average yards per carry in that game drops to 1.88.Opponent Carries Net Yards Average Shepherd (win) 35 184 5.25 Ashland (win) 45 172 3.82 Shepherd (loss) 36 39 1.08 Ashland (win) 44 144 3.27 East Stroudsburg (loss) 36 52 1.44
So, the question looming large is why is this once-vaunted rushing attack no longer able to run the ball?
I've heard a lot of theories this week.
- Most are blaming the OL getting next to no push
- Is Tort shuffling RBs too often and none of them are getting in to a rythem?
- Is Larry Wilson's run play-callling the problem?
- Are the RBs getting to (minimal) holes too slowly?
Again, the past (5) games have been against very strong defenses. But, IUP's offense isn't exactly a slouch, either. Something isn't adding up.
My theory is the rushing attack has become extremely predictable -- almost to a fault. When armchair QBs can sit in the stands and call every first down play, well, that certainly means the educated team across the field can do the same.
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Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostThe IUP offense (mainly rushing attack) is struggling. The numbers don't lie.
In the past (5) games (dating back to last year), IUP has scored an average of 18.4 ppg.
Granted, this current stretch of (5) games has been against tough competition (Shephered twice, Ashland twice and East Stroudsburg). IUP's past (5) games have all been at Miller Stadium. In two of IUP's last three home games, the Crimson Hawks have been held to dismal 13- and 12-point performances.
IUP rushing yards past (5) games:In this year's Ashland game, 65 of the 144 yards came on two plays. Remove those two plays, and the average yards per carry in that game drops to 1.88.Opponent Carries Net Yards Average Shepherd (win) 35 184 5.25 Ashland (win) 45 172 3.82 Shepherd (loss) 36 39 1.08 Ashland (win) 44 144 3.27 East Stroudsburg (loss) 36 52 1.44
So, the question looming large is why is this once-vaunted rushing attack no longer able to run the ball?
I've heard a lot of theories this week.
- Most are blaming the OL getting next to no push
- Is Tort shuffling RBs too often and none of them are getting in to a rythem?
- Is Larry Wilson's run play-callling the problem?
- Are the RBs getting to (minimal) holes too slowly?
Again, the past (5) games have been against very strong defenses. But, IUP's offense isn't exactly a slouch, either. Something isn't adding up.
My theory is the rushing attack has become extremely predictable -- almost to a fault. When armchair QBs can sit in the stands and call every first down play, well, that certainly means the educated team across the field can do the same.
Ship, which has had some decent backs in the past (John Kuhn, anyone?) hasn't been able to run the ball consistently for several seasons now. Inconsistent o-line play is probably the biggest factor there. The Rocky Rees wing-T is dead and gone.
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Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostThe IUP offense (mainly rushing attack) is struggling. The numbers don't lie.
In the past (5) games (dating back to last year), IUP has scored an average of 18.4 ppg.
Granted, this current stretch of (5) games has been against tough competition (Shephered twice, Ashland twice and East Stroudsburg). IUP's past (5) games have all been at Miller Stadium. In two of IUP's last three home games, the Crimson Hawks have been held to dismal 13- and 12-point performances.
IUP rushing yards past (5) games:In this year's Ashland game, 65 of the 144 yards came on two plays. Remove those two plays, and the average yards per carry in that game drops to 1.88.Opponent Carries Net Yards Average Shepherd (win) 35 184 5.25 Ashland (win) 45 172 3.82 Shepherd (loss) 36 39 1.08 Ashland (win) 44 144 3.27 East Stroudsburg (loss) 36 52 1.44
So, the question looming large is why is this once-vaunted rushing attack no longer able to run the ball?
I've heard a lot of theories this week.
- Most are blaming the OL getting next to no push
- Is Tort shuffling RBs too often and none of them are getting in to a rythem?
- Is Larry Wilson's run play-callling the problem?
- Are the RBs getting to (minimal) holes too slowly?
Again, the past (5) games have been against very strong defenses. But, IUP's offense isn't exactly a slouch, either. Something isn't adding up.
My theory is the rushing attack has become extremely predictable -- almost to a fault. When armchair QBs can sit in the stands and call every first down play, well, that certainly means the educated team across the field can do the same.
Teams don't usually hit their season averages in bigger games, that's just football.
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Originally posted by Ram040506 View Post
I think its a little bit of both. You played 5 good opponents in that stretch, and your offense is pretty vanilla. Most of the time, you are significantly better than the opponent and it doesn't matter. In these tougher match ups, you can be neutralized. But that is what happens in those types of games.
Teams don't usually hit their season averages in bigger games, that's just football.
For me, it starts with the O-line and this is a pretty bad one at the moment. The running stats for two of the three games last year are quite good regardless of how they got them. The last Shepherd game was a mess from the start and IUP had recently lost its feature back and the Rams had time to prepare, unlike when Stewart went down in the first meeting. What I’m saying is, last year’s O-line was quite a bit better than this one. I’m also not so sure that IUP has a true great back right now. I think Stewart was it when healthy, but he’s still recovering and surely not 100%. I think all of the backs are pretty good, but they’ll underachieve without more help upfront.
It’s nice that you can go back and watch the games these days and dissect things you don’t necessarily catch in person. This O-line is 1) missing assignments, 2) slow to recognize defensive rush schemes, and maybe most concerning, 3) getting beat physically. It’s likely that #3 is happening because of #1 and #2. They aren’t close to being a cohesive unit yet, but to be fair they’ve only had two games together and both were against stout defensive fronts. I still hold out hope that they can figure it out against Ship and Hurst in the coming weeks. If they can’t run the ball on those two defenses, it’s going to be a long fall.
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