First off, some analysis of what I noticed from Michigan State last week against Northwestern:
On the defensive side of the ball, they weren't very impressive against Northwestern. The one player that stood out was defensive tackle Jerel Worthy. He was the lineman that was really disrupting things in the passing game for them, but they didn't get much pressure from the outside during the game. With Iowa's offensive line looking better each game, Stanzi should have time to make plays in the passing game.
Even though he wasn't great last week, Greg Jones is a beast at middle linebacker. He was all over the field last year against the Hawkeyes and has been all over the field for most of his career at Michigan State. Brett Morse is a good blocking fullback, and he's going to have to be if A-Rob is going to have a good day.
Kirk Cousins isn't the greatest decision maker for a quarterback. He's not bad, but he will try forcing throws and he'll try to make something happen under pressure. Last year, this would have been a huge advantage for the Hawkeyes with how great Edds and Angerer were in coverage. This year, not so much, but Greenwood and Sash are both playmakers at safety, and I expect them to have their chances on Saturday.
I'm not sure how much of it was Northwestern's defense and how much of it was Michigan State's offense, but MSU's runs to the outside were not successful. Their stretch plays just seemed to take a long time to develop and they weren't able to seal off the outside at all.
As for their running backs, LeVeon Bell doesn’t look very explosive on his runs. It lmost looks like he’s jogging out there. I think Edwin Baker does a good job of keeping his legs driving, and is a much bigger threat in the ground game.
Now onto more random team thoughts:
Prince Amukamara has the same problem this year that he has last year. He takes chances early on, and he doesn’t have the pure speed to make up for mistakes when he does that. That's fine if you have safety help behind you, but he's taking chances when he's on an island. If he doesn’t play safer coverage, he’ll continually get beat deep. That being said, Justin Blackmon is a total stud, but he should probably stop driving drunk.
I only caught the end of the Florida State-NC State game last night, but Christian Ponder is at least a solid QB prospect. On that drive, he was able to scan the field while maintaining good pocket presence and mobility. He made a terrible fumble at the end, but he's a guy I'd like to watch against a good defense to see how he handles things. Unfortunately, he's in the ACC, so I'll have to wait for his bowl game to actually see that.
If you like football, you should definitely be reading the National Football Post. One of their main writers is former Iowa Safety, Matt Bowen. And if you don't like reading, they also have a podcast, where they discuss the pro game, the college game, and Bowen even discusses Buried Alive matches. It's awesome.
Speaking of NFP, here are some great tips for coverage techniques that should greatly help your next flag football team.
I think that's all I got for today. And I'm really hoping I don't have to write another impromptu post to explain why Iowa lost this week.
-Joe
P.S. Jersey Shore may be over, but you can still go through some great memories by checking this out which includes many stupid Situation faces like this one:
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