4 Takeaways from the Iowa / Wisconsin Game

Obviously, last night's game was not the outcome we were hoping for, but Iowa lost to a tough team. The season is far from over, and the Hawkeyes gave fans plenty to be excited for during the rest of the season. Here are my four big takeaways from the game.

The Defensive Line Is Good, Not Big
Wisconsin showed a major flaw in the defense in this game, and that is that the Iowa defensive line, although fantastic, is also undersized. There is probably no better team in the country to expose that weakness, and Wisconsin did by overpowering Iowa up front into a very effective run game. Even when Iowa was able to get Wisconsin to third downs, many were short enough distance that the defensive line couldn't totally pin their ears back and go hunting for a quarterback. Penn State is probably the only other team remaining on the schedule that could expose this weakness, and even they tend to run with more speed/misdirection rather than power.

Also, there is nothing more exciting than seeing AJ Epenesa on the field during a third down passing situation. I usually stand up despite being at my house watching the game by myself.

In other news, I really need friends.

Nate Stanley Was Incredible
This may have been the best game I have seen Nate Stanley play. Although his final stat line of 14-23 for 256 yards, two touchdowns and an interception isn't going to jump off the page, I saw so much to love from Stanley in this game. His movement when he felt a rush was much better as he actually looked downt he field after escaping trouble and was able to make some big plays because of it. When he was able to set his feet, he was able to deliver some beautiful throws down the field, and he showed good decision making throughout the game. His footwork still needs to improve on some throws, but I saw some major progress, and if he can start playing near this level on a consistent basis, Iowa is not scary, they are SCARY.

Playcalling Was Not The Issue
Every football fan also doubles as the world's greatest offensive coordinator. It's truly amazing how great Iowa would be if they would just hire a fan to call the plays. They would have never run (insert play that did not work). I think the biggest examples were the quarterback sneak on fourth and one, and the jet sweep on third and five in Wisconsin territory. For the former, I have no issue with hit. That quarterback sneak has been money for Iowa, and it's statistically one of the smartest plays to run in that situation. If it worked 100% of the time, every team would run it all the time. It didn't work that time, but that doesn't make it a bad call.

I will say that I did not like the jet sweep, but the call itself was fine. My big issue was the formation they ran it out of. Without a running back in the backfield, the linebacker was free to follow Sargent going across the formation. If there is a running back in the backfield, he can't completely abandon the middle of the field, and that would have given Sargent the lead he needed to hit the edge and make it upfield.

Also, let's give props to the second touchdown to Noah Fant. Fant going in motion and just running to the flat is impossible to stop in man coverage, so if you see the guy in coverage running across, it is a guaranteed six points. I love that play.

Iowa Has Legit Talent
Iowa did not lose this game, because Wisconsin was too talented for them. They lost because they made some big mistakes on punt returns, and failed to capitalize on opportunities at the end of drives. But Iowa looked like the better team. Mistakes happen, and Iowa's proved costly. Still, this team is good, and if Wisconsin stumbles, Iowa has the talent to be nipping at their heels for B1G West supremacy.

Even after a loss, I'm excited for the rest of the season. That's a pretty good spot to be for Hawkeye fans.

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #45 Rodney Myers

45.Rodney Myers
Every time somebody brings up Rodney Myers, I just assume that they are talking about Randy Myers, who was the Cubs closer in the mid-90s. Unfortunately for Rodney, he did have quite the career that Randy had, but they did both have runs in the bullpen for the Cubs.

1998 was Myers's third season with the team, but he spent the majority of the year in the minor leagues. In July, in an effort to shore up the bullpen (I might say that phrase 25 times throughout this series), they called up Myers. He immediately showed that he is the ultimate team player. With the Cubs up 9-3 against the Expos, Myers promptly gave up a single, followed by a home run. He managed to get an out, but not without two more runners reaching base. How is that being a team player? It set up Rod Beck to get his 28th save of the season when Myers was forced to exit the game. That's good lookin' out.

That put Myers ERA in a hole at a nice even 54.00. And that ERA would never dip below 6.17, and he would end the year at an even 7.00. Still, he managed to last the rest of the season, helped partially by rosters expanding in September. He pitched five games in September, and the Cubs would go on to lose all five of those contests, including a game where he gave up two runs in a one-run loss, and gave up four runs in a two-run loss. When absolutely every game mattered to the Cubs down the stretch, this man was black death.

But rewinding on his story makes it far more impressive. At the University of Wisconsin, he was a feared hitter who also pitched a little. Honestly, he may have been the worst college pitcher to ever get drafted. In three seasons, his best, and let me reiterate, BEST, ERA was 9.00. And it's not like he only pitched a couple innings. he pitched 16, 38, and 34 innings respectively in his three college seasons and just kept getting hammered. But he threw in the mid-90s, which was like throwing 100 these days, so he got drafted in the 12th round by the Royals. He defied all the odds by appearing in 167 games.

He would actually go on to have his best professional year the following season for the Cubs when he threw over 60 relief innings and had a respectable 4.38 ERA. The Cubs then used that good season by trading him to the Padres for Gary Matthews Jr. He pitched for the Padres and Dodgers after that before heading to Japan for a partial season and concluding his career in independent baseball. But considering he might be one of the worst college pitchers ever, it's an incredibly impressive career.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves

Scouting The 2014 NFL Draft: James White

Anybody with even a passing interest in the NFL Draft knows that this is not the year to look for an elite running back. There just isn't that one guy that stands out above the rest of the class. I agree with this assertion, but like all drafts, I think there are diamonds in the rough that will make a team happy late in the draft. A guy that I have liked for a long time that has not gotten much hype is James White (Also, I have no idea why I seem to like Wisconsin players during their Freshman year; I should probably go to a doctor). Despite there being a lot of evidence to the contrary, I was always a much bigger fan of James White than his former teammate, Montee Ball. And thanks to Aimal Arsalla, I was able to check out his game against Illinois from this year to remind me of all the reasons I see a future for James White in the NFL.

When James White started at Wisconsin, he was behind John Clay and Montee Ball. Clay was a slow bruiser, and Ball was a more balanced back, but White was the quick one who was very adept at finding the holes that the big hosses up front were able to create. That's one thing that consistently showed up when watching him. He makes one strong cut and goes for it. There is no dancing, no stutter steps, he just sticks his outside foot in the ground and cuts up field. He rarely makes a bad decision on these cuts and can do it behind the line of scrimmage or down the field. This screen pass does a nice job to show his ability to make strong cuts in the open field.

He makes the first Illinois defender look about as bad as any defender can ever look. Then he sprints down the field, slightly alters his route to go inside his blocker and goes through that seam where the defender is forced to tackle him forward which gains a few extra yards.

He's not a powerful back, but what he lacks in power, he makes up by being slippery. He rarely takes a square hit, and because of that, he is usually able to fall forward instead of getting driven backwards. This is a good example of his shiftiness.

There isn't a lot of room to work with, but he makes the linebacker look terrible and even with a safety right there, he managed to pick up a couple extra yards.

Some people may look at it as a concern that he has always shared time with another back, but there is a positive in that where he has not taken as much abuse as other college running backs, so there may be more miles on that engine. He's not a powerful back, but he makes up for it with his other skills, as he makes smart cuts and he manages to be slippery on contact where he can fall forward without having to plow forward. I see a lot of Warrick Dunn in his game (that is obviously absolute best case scenario), and I think a team will be very happy if they play to his strengths. I really haven't seen much talk about him outside of a late round/undrafted free agent, but if this guy is available in the fifth, he can provide some excellent value. This may not be a great year for running backs, but there are always good running backs available late, and James White is one of those guys.

Scouting The 2014 NFL Draft: Chris Borland

With my quarterback scouting series ending a couple months ago with Johnny Manziel, I took some time off since I had reviewed all of the quarterbacks that I was interested in (Sorry, Tommy Rees). But with the draft happening next week, I'm going to try to highlight players that I really like at different positions. These are not going to go nearly as in-depth as the quarterback reports, but they should still get you a good idea of what these guys bring to the table. I wanted to start off with a guy that I have liked since he played as a True Freshman. Even as an Iowa alum, there was no denying how much fun it was to watch Chris Borland play for Wisconsin. The guy was all over the field and made plays in every facet of the game.

The first thing you know you are getting with Chris Borland is a motor. This guy goes nonstop until the whistle blows. This is easy to see in his tackle numbers, but when you watch tape of him, you see that he is almost always close to making a play. That displays another quality that he has which are instincts. He knows how to always be around the ball by diagnosing plays, and he never gives up on anything.

One thing that people didn't see much of this season was his pass rushing ability, but it was something that really stood out for me a few years ago when he still played more outside linebacker. This is where he uses his small frame to his advantage. He does a great job of bending to avoid contact and makes it very hard on tackles without good mobility. During Watt's last year at Wisconsin, they did some nasty things with Watt at one end and Borland at the other on third down passing situations. Since he has played middle linebacker successfully these past couple years, I expect that to be his main position, but I would definitely give him opportunities to rush from the outside to take full advantage of his skills.

And even if he is permanently put in the middle, he still has pass rush skills, because even though he doesn't have great speed, he is extremely quick. There are not many players that can recover from a chop block and still almost get after the quarterback, but that's what makes Borland such a fun player to watch.

He's not known as a great athlete, but I do think that he knows how to best translate his physical skills to football better than 99% of players.

There are two concerns with Borland: Size and injuries. The former is only a slight concern for me. Many people worry about his size (especially with his shorter than ideal arms), because it will be tough for him to fight off blocks from offensive linemen. This would be more of a concern for me if he was a defensive lineman, but he's a linebacker, so he basically needs to avoid letting them get close to him anyway. It reminds me of Brian Urlacher who had fantastic seasons when his defensive linemen were occupying the offensive line's blocks and he was free to roam to make plays. When he lost that, he struggled, because it's really tough for a 250 pound guy to fight off a 320 pound guy, especially when the bigger guy knows where the play is going and the littler guy has to diagnose the play and react. That being said, he does get swallowed up on runs up the middle more than I would like to see, but he does a very good job of moving sideline-to-sideline on outside runs.

The latter is a much bigger concern for me. Injuries have cost him games here and there, as well as missing an entire season. His shoulder has caused a lot of issues, and that is something that should make teams hesitant to draft him. A possible move to an outside spot may help him take less of a grind, but at middle linebacker, although I think he'll be very good when he's on the field, I don't know how may full seasons you can get out of him.

I love watching Chris Borland play. He has been one of my favorite players to watch for five years now, and I am excited to see him at the next level. If he can keep his shoulder together, he'll make a great mid-round draft pick for a team. With in-depth medical reports, it would be easier to make a decision, but this is how I would handle things from what I know. In the second, the injury concerns are a little too much for me; in the third, I would strongly consider him; in the fourth, I'm taking him unless I'm stacked at linebacker, and if he makes it to the fifth, I'm jumping all over him no matter how much depth I already have.

7 Thoughts on Iowa vs. Wisconsin

Spoiler alert: Iowa lost to Wisconsin. Just like always, they hung around for three quarters before clearly not having enough in the tank to compete in the fourth. Even though there were a lot of negatives, there were still some positives mixed in there.

1. The biggest thing that stood out from the first quarter was Kirk Ferentz's decisions on fourth down. He went for one but punted on two occasions where they definitely should have gone for it. It's frustrating, but it's Iowa, and it's always been Iowa. He has shown more willingness to go for it as time has gone on, but it's still frustrating how often he punts, especially, because Iowa's plodding offense puts them in 4th and 4 or less more than most teams.

2. Iowa trusted their secondary a lot more than they have in past games. This is an area where I wish I had the All-22 tape, because everything with receiving and secondary work is near impossible to judge from what you see on television. I haven't watched enough of Wisconsin to know how their passing game operates, but Iowa felt comfortable trusting their secondary and sending blitzes, and it really paid off. 

3. With that being said, Stave is not a real dangerous quarterback, and the Hawkeyes were also able to do that due to the great job they did on first and second downs by stopping the run and forcing them into 3rd and long situations.

4. Wisconsin's first touchdown was on Tanner Miller. It looked like Cover-3 (Corners take deep outside thirds, with a safety taking the deep middle third of the field), and Desmond King plays the outside third, so his job is to filter him to the middle and let his safety take care of things. Miller got fooled by Stave's eyes and committed to one side of the field, Stave looked back and put a nice throw out to Pederson for the touchdown. 

5. Impressive thing about CJ Beathard is that he has excellent pocket presence. He can wait until the very last second to throw the ball. Bad things about CJ Beathard is he throws the ball too low which caused some issues. The bigger problem that I see is that he seemed to stare down his receivers before throwing the ball. Some deceptive eye movement could treat him very well down the line.

6. The big run by James White near the end was caused by John Lowdermilk just being late to close up that hole. That's the problem with Iowa's roster, they have to be perfect on technique, because they are not the most athletic guys in the world. 

7. It's the same old story with Iowa. Although I feel the offense is leaps and bounds better than last year. There is still the gigantic issue of them not involving their most talented group of players which is tight end. Why not just keep three tight ends, put them in a trips formation and mess people's worlds up. Not only would it be a dominant run formation, but you can vary their routes enough to confuse coverage and get the ball out to your best receivers. 

Iowa needs to understand that they can recruit/develop tight ends. The only great athletes that they get are going to come from the island of misfit toys. Damond Powell is a great athlete, but they got him from a JUCO, and he can apparently only run two routes. They're not getting game breaking tight ends, so Greg Davis needs to adjust his scheme to fit his personnel, because the personnel is clearly not going to fit his scheme.

West Coast Dance Has Spread To Jamaica

This video was posted on Grantland yesterday, and it is truly inspiring to see this level of West Coast Dance has spread into other countries to become an international dance craze. Here are some of my West Coast Dancing brothers in Jamaica showing you how to break it down:

There's a lot of great moves in this video, with some new moves mixed in with WCD classics.

They start off simple, just bouncing their body parts into a ladies caboose. Whether it be the hip, the dick, the ass, or even a sidekick, it's all in good WCD fun.

Another thing I love that is just briefly shown is playing the bongos on a girl's ass. Just tap-tap-tap that ass, and she'll absolutely love it. This is risky as you must make sure it's just a tap and not a grab. Also, try to limit your taps to groups of 2-4, so she only feels slightly demeaned by your actions. Any more, you may upset the girl, or even worse, get a mother hen involved.

My favorite moves are when they put their spin on some classic WCD moves. It's a staple for West Coast Dancers to get low instead of their lady dance partner. But to get low, then slowly spinning while tapping the girl's ass with different parts of your body is a very money maneuver. Shoulders are nice, but a headbutt to the rear end is a quality move that will have the ladies begging for more.

Finally, there is one thing that makes it evident that these guys aren't just high on drugs and are absolutely West Coast Dancers. They share these women, not as if they are some sort of sexual desire, but as if she's merely a prop to enhance their WCD moves. These women mean nothing to them, and all West Coast Dancers know what this does to the woman: It makes her want these guys more than she ever thought possible.

Let's face it. Ladies all around the world can't resist the raw sexuality of West Coast Dance.

-Joe

P.S. Want to see something else that is badass? Here's Shonn Greene running over Wisconsin: