Passing UFR: Rudock vs Maryland

bizarro iowa is still just iowa

THING NOTES: This was a much different outing for Iowa, as they ran out to a decent lead but then blew it. Rudock ended up throwing or running 64(!) times against just 23 plays on which he handed off. The vast majority of these plays were from shotgun empty formations, for some reason. Iowa omitted even the tiniest threat of a run for the bulk of the second half.

DISCLAIMER NOTES: I'm not intimately familiar with the Iowa roster so there may be the occasional personnel errors.

This one is behind a jump because it's almost a whole UFR.

[After THE JUMP: almost a whole UFR.]

Checkdown, checkdown, checkdown, checkdown. This guy is the only human who, if named somebody's new defensive coordinator, would proclaim his defense would get less aggressive.

Is bolded alter ego secretly an Iowa fan?

Bolded alter ego is just a man who likes staying awake in the middle of the damn afternoon.

Ah so.

This was a vintage Greg Davis performance in result if not formation. The game was played in two phases: Normal Boring Iowa and Spread Empty But Still Boring Iowa. Normal Boring Iowa got out to a 14 point lead with Rudock barely involved except as a gentleman who dumps it to the flats. Spread Empty Iowa started becoming more prominent as Maryland adjusted to the Iowa run game, and then at halftime Normal Boring Iowa was thrown in a dumpster. It was deeply weird.

It was still deeply Iowa. Rudock threw a million passes and ended up with a paltry 5.7 yards an attempt. Wide receivers could have taken the first half off; tight ends and running backs combined for 19 receptions to the WRs' 13. The big play was a 52-yard wheel route Maryland elected not to cover on which Bullock had 42 of his yards after the catch. I count just four completions that were longer than ten yards in the air.

It reminded me of a Michigan game in so many ways.

Not least the terrible QB play?

I would say a deep confusion about whether the QB play was a cause or an effect. This gameplan was so bad it would rank up there with Al Borges's greatest disasters of the Denard era. Well after Iowa's offensive line had proven they could not block the Maryland defensive line, Iowa insisted on maintaining the shotgun empty look that 1) told Maryland a pass was 100% likely, 2) exposed Rudock to constant pressure, and 3) all but invited him to check down as fast as possible.

Here's one of a dozen different examples.

Second and fifteen drag checkdown as Maryland's entire back seven lines up and executes zone drops without even checking run. Meanwhile, a stunt wrecks the left guard—who was terrible in this game—and Rudock gets pressure right up the gut. He has little choice but to take the short route for a bleah gain.

This was a constant refrain. Completely unchecked blitz up the middle? Quick out for four yards. Or incomplete. Left guard executes his sixth ole(!) block of the game?  Quick out for two yards. Stunt sees both left guard and Scherff run by or through? Back-foot attempted checkdown is incomplete. Left guard oh for pants sake? Hitch. Play action on second and ten sees Scherff whipped? Likely first down wiped out because Rudock is hit on the throw. Center with an ole(!) block for a change? Attempted dumpoff left short. Scherff blown by again… actually this is a first down.

When Rudock did have time it was often in difficult situations, like third and fifteen. The result was often a much less defensible checkdown drag. But I don't know what it looks like downfield and that's eleven yards that could have been the foundation for a fourth-and-reasonable conversion attempt. So is that on Rudock, his offensive coordinator, his receivers, or the fact that it's third and fifteen?

Probably a combination of all of them.

Their last drive looked like Alex Malzone's last drive in the spring game, though.

Yes. The above is not to say that I don't feel Iowa fans who were frustrated by Rudock in the aftermath. They got the ball back on their 20 with no timeouts and 59 seconds on the clock, whereupon their offense went:

• checkdown drag
• checkdown drag
• checkdown drag
• Rudock hit while throwing slightly inaccurate 15-yard curl that Powell drops
• three yard hitch in-bounds
• either a five yard hitch or five yard out that sees two Iowa receivers run into each other

For large parts of this game I could not tell whether Rudock was missing opportunities downfield or none existed; with a minute left and eighty yards to go that is horrendous.

I mean… I don't care who or what has told you to throw the following pass in this situation. I don't care if Greg Davis and Kirk Ferentz have your family held hostage. I don't care if God himself descends from the clouds on a horse made of lightning and woe. You do not listen to these people.

I think it is highly likely that Rudock suffered because he's being coached by maroons, but by God man throw it downfield.

Then that last hitch came on fourth and four with ten seconds left. A five yard first down is as good as game over. And yet.

As a result of all this we have a very eventful

zzzzz chrt zzzzz

chart.

Jake Rudock

A blizzard of five yard drags will artificially inflate your downfield success rate but look at that PR number. That is huge, and it doesn't include several other throws that could have landed there had things gone slightly differently. There are four or five CA throws that may have been PR, an IN (the intentional grounding), and an MA or two. Rudock was under siege, which greatly contributed to all the dink dink dink.

Checkdown checkdown checkdown chec

We get it.

Yes. Rudock did not seem confident in his reads at all. Even when he did get time the checkdowns were rampant; on this third and nine he takes three hitch steps and pumps once before throwing it to his tight end. The delay allows Maryland to close and get a PBU.

Occasionally he had the drag in situations in which it's not a terrible idea (like first and ten) and just chucked the ball away. Or he held the ball forever on third and nine and then had to get rid of it.

But… again, I go back to the unbelievably stupid gameplan. When Rudock was put in a situation where a run was vaguely plausible, he got some protection and found receivers.

There Maryland has to fire six guys at the QB; the two guys left in help pick it up and Rudock steps into a confident throw. The previous play saw another blitz picked up and Rudock finding a wide open Martin-Manley. (Martin-Manley dropped it.)

These instances were few and far between. I can't be sure because this broadcast included zero replays of downfield coverage, but I would not be surprised if Rudock was looking at tiny, risky windows as his pedestrian wide receivers attempted to get separation from seven-man coverages that did not have to even think about the possibility of a run. (Iowa did not call one QB draw; the only time Rudock crossed the LOS was on a scramble or two.) When we did see what might be going downfield it didn't look like he had much to throw at.

I mean, here's a checkdown drag against a three man rush on third and eighteen. It gained nine yards that were certainly useful in field position. Is that bad? Or is that a guy making the best of a bad situation? That's in the eye of the beholder.

You seem angry about all this.

I got a glimpse into life as an Iowa fan, which is a lot like life as a Michigan fan if the light at the end of the tunnel was a Ferentz contract extension instead of HARBAUGH. I'm mad for the same reason Stephen White was mad when he tried to evaluate Taylor Lewan: this dumbass gameplan means I don't know how much of use I got out of it.

That was no more apparent than on the pick six that put Iowa deep in the hole. It is a very, very dumb play. You go five wide. You have Will Likely, Maryland's best corner, on a tailback. Just inside of him you have a WR/LB matchup. Instead of running some sort of smash route with your advantage you run a basic hitch right to the sticks on the opposite side of the field from the QB. You have not run a double move all day, or even threatened to go deep on the diminutive Likely. Result:

Rudock should not have thrown that ball. I cannot help but feel his coaching staff set him up for that one all the same.

And the thing is: when I've seen Rudock load up and fire downfield he looks terrific. He was spectacular against Northwestern and the few opportunities he had in this game were on par with those. He is very accurate… if he can just find a target.

I don't know if his inability to in this game is a problem with him or just Iowa's coaching staff getting whipped.