Look, it could have been a lot worse, ok?
I mean, for a guy that hadn't taken a single snap under center in an actual game, you have to admit Rudock looked solid. He did have a couple of INTs that would have been helpful to, you know, not to have but all in all, for his first start, pretty damn good. (Seemed to me- and granted, I was at work and therefore distracted with other things- P.S. beer and vodka do not count as hydrating agents, Hawkeye fans- that those INTs kind of through Rudock off his game a bit. He got a bit wobbly and then a couple of stalled drives and it just started to get away from us- which isn't something you can do when you have a QB like Lynch on the other side of the ball.)
The first half: 302 total offensive yards, 24 points and 47 plays. That's a good sign. If we can put together two halves that resemble that, we could go places.
I'm thinking that they're going to pick up the pace as they go- my gut instinct says that they held back a little to let Rudock get his feet under him some and get used to the whole actually playing in a game situation. They weren't the plodding, pedestrian Iowa of old that fans have been grizzling, pissing and moaning about for years now. There was tempo. There was something that could actual resemble a sense of urgency.
That flea flicker. I 'bout shipped my drawers when Weisman turned and chucked it back to Rudock- my first reaction was like 'WTF ARE YOU DOING' and then I was like 'OH SHIT SON, YOU BETTER CATCH THAT.' And he did and it was awesome. In your wildest of wild dreams, could you ever imagine Ricky Stanzi chucking a flea flicker down the field, circa 2009? It's nice to see plays like this. More please.
BGHP has a piece that everybody should read: here it is. And I agree with it, 100%. Last season was really the end of the old system and it's THIS season that's the fresh start. The cockamamie idea that Ferentz and Davis could somehow 'blend' their philosophies created a solid brown turd of a season and it was obvious Hidenburg ('OH THE HUMANITY!') wasn't all the comfortable in that system. The off season seems to have helped immensely- there was a house cleaning in the coaching staff and they've been (according to sources) running no huddle since spring. The results in the first half speak for themselves- what's worrying is that when things started to wobble on us, Ferentz got conservative again. He didn't tear up the book and go back to the old ways- but it seemed like he wanted to fall back to a safer place for the team.
It wasn't all sparkles and glorious optimism though. We still lost. (Albeit to a badass MAC team coming off of a 12-1 season and a BCS Bowl.) They still ran a fake punt on us and we looked like deers in headlights wondering what the fuck was going on. (Anybody still remember that Ohio State game when it was like 4th and a billion and they faked it and not a single Hawkeye could lay so much as a pinky on Pryor? Or that fucking Wisconsin game.)
But all in all, it could have been a lot worse. The night was marginally improved by the news that UNI had beaten ISU. I'm going to say, nil desperandum, Hawkeye fans. Do not despair... yet.
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