Nico's 'solid' performance?

#51
#51
EZE said:
Goodness, the kid wins his first start 35-0 against a Top-10 team, contributes 4 TDs and has 0 turnovers….

But, OP just didn’t “feel” like it passed the eye test.

Sheesh!
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Iowa was not top 10
 
#52
#52
tennesseekilt said:
First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.
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Now... I'm going to give Iowa their "due". A few weeks ago a certain QB totaled 147 yds, no TDs, and a 4.9 ypa stat line vs Iowa's D. Nico had 151, a TD, and a season high for Iowa's D of 7.6 ypa.

That first guy... just threw for 221 yds, 3 TDs, and an 8.2 ypa vs Bama to earn a spot in the national title game.

Pretty good first outing.

He did hold the ball too long which resulted in some of the sacks. He missed some open receivers. He did all the things you'd probably expect from a first time Fr starter... and STILL had the highest QBR allowed by Iowa all year. Yep. You're being "nitpicky". There's plenty to coach him up on but in context... it was definitely praiseworthy.
 
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#55
#55
Daniel_Lincolns_Foot said:
What Nico needs to learn is that he can't always wait for receivers to be wide open--there's going to be situations where he has to let it rip and try and thread the needle. He can't consistently get happy feet and try to escape the pocket for this offense to operate effectively.
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Of he'd stayed in the pocket, he would have been sacked more than the 6 times that he was yesterday.
 
#57
#57
sjt18 said:
Now... I'm going to give Iowa their "due". A few weeks ago a certain QB totaled 147 yds, no TDs, and a 4.9 ypa stat line vs Iowa's D. Nico had 151, a TD, and a season high for Iowa's D of 7.6 ypa.

That first guy... just threw for 221 yds, 3 TDs, and an 8.2 ypa vs Bama to earn a spot in the national title game.

Pretty good first outing.

He did hold the ball too long which resulted in some of the sacks. He missed some open receivers. He did all the things you'd probably expect from a first time Fr starter... and STILL had the highest QBR allowed by Iowa all year. Yep. You're being "nitpicky". There's plenty to coach him up on but in context... it was definitely praiseworthy.
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First, Iowa was kind enough to MI to fumble inside their own red zone twice. Iowa's offense is Iowa's defenses biggest nightmare.

Nico did fine. He's fun to watch. If someone doesn't break him, we'll hopefully have a more exciting offense. Maybe.

Second, the discussion SHOULD be centered on our receivers who Heupel apparently had little confidence in getting enough separation, as Hyatt and Tillman did for Hooker and Milton, so Heupel used a very bland offensive scheme.

Penix, for example, is a great QB who can drop dimes but he's throwing to some really talented receivers who get that step on the defense that he needs to drop that dime.

Without high quality receivers, a QB can only do so much.
 
#58
#58
Maybe he didn't pass OP's eye test but he passed mine with flying colors.

Big upgrade at the position for next fall. Now UT needs to get him some decent WR's.
 
#60
#60
Can you you (OP) point to a single bad, off target, WTF pass? I can't Not a SINGLE one. Nico had the same problems Milton had in that the WRs were not open but he handled it much better. Almost all of his sacks he managed to get back to close to the line of scrimmage and deftly evaded the rush multiple times. As others have mentioned, he should have had at least 75 yards and a TD added to his total. Today we had Keyton, Squirrel, Web and Nimrod. In the Spring/Fall we will have Squirrel, Thornton, Brazzell, Bru (hopefully). We will go to a weak WR room to one of the best in the nation and I believe they will get way more separation.
 
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#61
#61
tennesseekilt said:
First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run. I think the fact that we gave up a few sacks and made some mistakes, demonstrates how well the new players who played in the game preformed. Even with those conditions, we played the Hawkeyes in the ground and had fun doing it.
On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.
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I think the fact that we gave up a few sacks and made some mistakes, demonstrates how well the new players who played in the game preformed. Even with those conditions, we played the Hawkeyes in the ground and had fun doing it. It shows me have improved our talent level has improved and the coaching level remains high. Put on the seat belts because the ride is getting faster and better in the future.
 
#62
#62
Unfortunately we had our normal number of drops of he would have over 200 yards easy. The OL didn't hold up very well in passing situations (6 sacks) and that’s a credit to Iowa more than a slam on our guys - regardless of how bad their offense was their D was tough. So with our running game going there really wasn’t much need to throw the ball a lot. Once we were up by two scores the game was out of reach.

When Bama played Cincinnati in the semi finals a couple of years back, Bryce Young only had 180 yards passing. Bama was able to run for over 300 yards against the smaller beatcats so why throw the ball? The objective is to win the game.
 
#63
#63
tennesseekilt said:
First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.
Click to expand...
You can't be serious. Iowa pretty much lived in our backfield for a large part of the game. It was a freakin' jailbreak with a healthy dose of "lookout" blocks from some of our OL AND our all world RB, Sampson from time to time. Even if he did work a few miracles to escape, he kinda needs WRs getting open and some time for the routes to develop. Pedestrian is my best descriptor for our WRs. Not a game breaker among them...no offense to the Squirrel and his fan club. On top of that, Nico had what....50 plays all season long?

His first start is against a top 5 defense minus his front line RBs, WRs, and I think both OTs and he leads us to a win and not just a win, a blow out. What dream world are you living in? Did you see what Bamas more experienced QB did yesterday? Milroe had 179 total yards and no TDs. Nico was 178 yards and 4...FOUR TD's total. Under the circumstances, I think Nico did one helluva good job. Not the least bit "overblown". If anything, he's not getting enough credit for what he did and the circumstances surrounding his performance. Geez...sometimes I'm astounded by some of our fans. This isn't some Madden football game on cheat mode. No one man...even a talented QB like Nico can do it by himself.
 
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#65
#65
FBtime said:
Can you you (OP) point to a single bad, off target, WTF pass? I can't Not a SINGLE one. Nico had the same problems Milton had in that the WRs were not open but he handled it much better. Almost all of his sacks he managed to get back to close to the line of scrimmage and deftly evaded the rush multiple times. As others have mentioned, he should have had at least 75 yards and a TD added to his total. Today we had Keyton, Squirrel, Web and Nimrod. In the Spring/Fall we will have Squirrel, Thornton, Brazzell, Bru (hopefully). We will go to a weak WR room to one of the best in the nation and I believe they will get way more separation.
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There were a couple where Nico hit the receivers in the hands and clearly they weren’t use to that kind of accuracy…
 
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#66
#66
After watching Kelton last year, this year I keep thinking how much money is he making not to catch passes?
 
#67
#67
Sarms58 said:
There were a couple where Nico hit the receivers in the hands and clearly they weren’t use to that kind of accuracy…
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Didn't see those WTF passes you mentioned, but I did see some WTF drops and stops from some WRs. Add those to Nico's stats and his line looks exponentially better IMO.
 
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#68
#68
I swear, some people don't pay attention to football. The biggest thing I saw was going through the reads. The deep stuff is great and flashy but you live within 10yds from the line every play. Milton rarely looked at his 3rd option. When Nico had time he was reading through option 4. Iowa played pretty good coverage, Nico just found the spots. It was pretty impressive especially for a frosh. This kid is good and I had huge doubts, but after seeing his poise and presence along with the way he looks at the field, I'm fully on the Nico train.
 
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#69
#69
tennesseekilt said:
First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.
Click to expand...
I think I heard the commentators say that Iowa was 5th ranked (total) defense (of the 130 D1 teams). So, out of curiosity, I looked up some stats on the Iowa defense.
They average allowing 170 ypg, 5.6 ypa, 9.02 ypc. So, if my math is correct, Nico's 12 of 19 performance should have netted him 108 yards based on completions or 106 if based on attempts. He threw for 151 yards.
Iowa held Michigan's QB to 147 yards and was 22 of 30 passing. The lost 26-0.
Iowa held Penn State's QB to 166 yards and was 25 of 37 passing. They lost 31-0.
So, Nico at 12 of 19 for 151 yards is in good company and they lost 38-0 to the Vols.
My perception was that he looked sharp, considering the O-line is still not quite elite and he had receivers and backs not consistently doing their job of catching the ball and providing at least a little PP help when required.
 
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#70
#70
Iowa had zero passes defended. Meaning that they never got close to one of his passes. I am pretty sure we went into this game knowing that Iowas offense was not going to win the game, and the only way we lose is if we turn the ball over. Nico was told to protect the ball, and that is exactly what he did.
 
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#72
#72
McDad said:
I asked about the yardage threshold for showing out because I know Keyton had 3 drops, and Sampson dropped 2 including a shuttle pass. Those certainly would've added to the yardage. I think the important thing about those plays is Nico's pitches were where they needed to be.
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Keyton is concerning.
 
#73
#73
Daniel_Lincolns_Foot said:
What Nico needs to learn is that he can't always wait for receivers to be wide open--there's going to be situations where he has to let it rip and try and thread the needle. He can't consistently get happy feet and try to escape the pocket for this offense to operate effectively.
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Uh huh... and get crucified for throwing a pick. He'll find his sweet spot.
 
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