Here I am hoping Coach Bostad can simply touch Benson and Zen with his “Gandalf staff” and enable them to not play “high” on Bull rushers and kick step vs 9 technique rushers. Hopefully Nowakowski can help some when it counts.
I get the cause for concern, and as you've noted, it's not exactly what we'd have hoped to see; BUT there is a little bit of peace of mind that comes with knowing an injury shouldn't drastically impair what should be pretty serviceable O-line play. This staff has given us very few reason to doubt them, so there's no reason I'll start now.
Run blocking seemed excellent and pass protection was only compromised by zero coverage blitzing that brought the house. Around the goal line ODU seemed to play Bear defensive front covering all 3 interior blockers and blitz behind it.
I thought I was watching Iowa play. Few RPO’s and little in terms of pace or play from last season.
Great article again Taylor! The potential holes/concerns this year as opposed to this time last year appears to have reduced tremendously.
Any OL concerns terrify me and bring me back to the Hiller days…Gotta think that the Bostad/Shanahan/Cig trio has an elite gameplan for this flaw.
Great article. It’s bad news for the ceiling of this IU team.
But it’s better to know what’s coming
rather than be surprised, I guess?
Here I am hoping Coach Bostad can simply touch Benson and Zen with his “Gandalf staff” and enable them to not play “high” on Bull rushers and kick step vs 9 technique rushers. Hopefully Nowakowski can help some when it counts.
I get the cause for concern, and as you've noted, it's not exactly what we'd have hoped to see; BUT there is a little bit of peace of mind that comes with knowing an injury shouldn't drastically impair what should be pretty serviceable O-line play. This staff has given us very few reason to doubt them, so there's no reason I'll start now.
Game is over and two things were obvious:
1. ODU’s defense wasn’t terrible
2. IU’s OL was better than I expected.
Run blocking seemed excellent and pass protection was only compromised by zero coverage blitzing that brought the house. Around the goal line ODU seemed to play Bear defensive front covering all 3 interior blockers and blitz behind it.
I thought I was watching Iowa play. Few RPO’s and little in terms of pace or play from last season.