hasn’t made me want to pull my hair out as much as in other years. My biggest complaint was sticking with the stretch run play on first down all year when it was clearly wasn’t there. Either Brandon Wegher was texting where he was running to the MLB or the OL just didn’t want to block for him, he was consistently stuffed at the line where Adam Robinson was not.

One thing i’m curious about how the two teams stack up is big pass plays.

And will be healthy before the OB. Vandenberg’s numbers are also a bit skewed due to being thrown into the jNW game without warning. During the weeks leading up to the game with Northwestern, Vandenberg was sharing 2nd team snaps with Weinke, which may have had an adverse effect on his preparedness. Obviously, he was much improved in Columbus.

That said, there is no question that GT’s offense is a godzillion times better than Iowa’s. Iowa will need a great game out of the defense to win this game. I think that’s an idea that most Iowa fans are comfortable with, however, as Norm Parker’s D is pretty much the reason that Iowa got to this point.

I must say I am excited Tech is playing against a team that utilizes punting as part of the game plan. I’m guessing you meant field position, but Tech goes for it a lot and doesn’t punt because our offense is the best part of the team. PJ wants to have them on the field for those game deciding plays. It’s hard to say the opposite. We want our defense on the field becuase it gives us the best chance to win? I doubt it. The most effective way to prevent the other team from scoring it to have the ball on offense.

Also, I don’t think much of the “it” argument. A lot of the statistical analysis in sports debunks the whole idea of a “clutch” player. Most of the percieved effect is related to small sample sizes. Can some players not handle the pressure? Maybe, but the idea that a player is better because he is in a pressure situation is fairly silly.

Stanzi looks like a “game manager” to me, which is basically saying, “He is not the worst player on the team”

Yet we still finished 10-2.

Yes, we’re aware our offense isn’t that great. Our starting RB is an undersized, shifty-but-slow RS freshman who started the season 3rd on the depth chart, and he splits carries with a true freshman (who is actually one of the faster players on the team but also gets knocked over by a stiff breeze). Our offensive line was on shuffle mode all season long due to injury and illness, as was to a certain extent our receiver corps. Not to mention the proclivity of our QB to throw at least one touchdown for the other team per game (he threw 5 INTs vs. Indiana)

We also led the nation in takeaways at one point, and are in the upper echelon in quite a few statistical categories. 4th in pass efficiency defense, 8th in pass defense, 11th in total defense, 10th in scoring defense (a statistic that for some reason includes points scored by the opposing defense), 33rd in rushing defense.

You’ll move the ball on us a bit less than you’re used to, and score a lot less than you’re used to. The question is if we can keep it less enough to be able to answer back with our own inept offense.

I stopped reading after this sentence.

You said:

Vandenberg is probably a nice guy…

1.) He’s got a strong and accurate arm. There were times that he threw the ball into a window that I think surprised many people.

2.) He’s a redshirt freshman. He wasn’t supposed to start this year. He’s not supposed to start next year. So he should have more time to get better and start throwing deep balls over the second-level coverage instead of through it.

3.) His Mom is hot.

shows that we’ve only scored 277 pts this year, to your 459. But we’ve only given up 186
to your 323.
While you say that you have confidence in your offense, it’s just as accurate to say that you have no confidence in your D to stop the opponent. We’re happy to punt it away, we don’t believe our opponent can drive the length of the field.