I don't think this could have waited till the next week in review blog. This loss is historic in the fact that anybody suggesting that Iowa had a legitimate chance to be a force in the Big Ten West should be laughed at. Fox Sports spudboy Colin Cowpie Cowherd is going to rub it in your face. Iowa you're simply not good enough to even be considered in the top 25 ever again.
For a FCB school North Dakota State is a force to be reckon with. They win and win and wind and then sometimes they go play a Power 5 college and beat them. They have done that six straight times now. They were picked to win this game. It wasn't the shot heard around the world as ESPN Butchie Beth Mowens wold exclaim time and time again after NDSU won on the last second field goal 23-21. The Bison did exactly what Michigan State did to Iowa in the championship game last year, they simply played power run football and shoved it down the Hawkeyes throat. And the defense failed. And the offense failed. For a high powered bunch of running backs and all American pretty boy C J Bethard at quarterback and WRs, the offense managed to have negative nine yards in the forth quarter. Not exactly the stuff that winning teams are made of.
The 2016 Iowa Hawkeyes wanted to prove that last year was not a fluke, they went undefeated all season till they trip up against Michigan State and then got blown out of the Rose Bowl by Stanford. Critics like Cowpie Cowerd scoffed all along the way, saying Iowa played nobody, they got lucky at Wisconsin and they got lucky against Nebraska. There was no North Dakota State last year and good thing too, Iowa would have lost that game as well. But in order for Iowa to be taken seriously, they had to pony up a tough team before the Big Ten, why not drop a half a million to North Dakota State and have them show up and lay down and take the money home, why not? Only problem is NDS was on a mission to come to Iowa City and kick ass and win the game, not just win it but dominate it and that they did in the final quarter against a tired Iowa defense that ran out of gas once again due to piss poor offense plays.
There was no line on the game, but I figured North Dakota State would win it. Of course around the state, hardly anybody noticed and predicted that since the Big Ten had better players they would win regardless. The Bisons didn't see it that way as they shredded Iowa's defense for big yards rushing. One of the greatest upsets in college football history? Bullshit. North Dakota State could have beaten anybody from the Big Ten West and give Ohio State a good run for the money. But ESPN, the anti Hawkeye channel and FOX SPORTS with Colin Kocksuck will blow their horn and give this game the top story. But even you, me and Colin Clueless will tell you this game is not a upset. But this game has branded The Iowa Hawkeyes to be forever pretenders to the NCAA championship this season. They are going to have to win ALL of the games, plus the bowl game against the other team and thank their lucky stars North Dakota State will not be that team. But I have a better chance at winning the lottery then the Hawks winning the championship this season.
Whatever shred of credibility Iowa had left went out the door. It doesn't matter if they blow out their foes 100-0 from here on out, nobody is going to give them any credit, Iowa will be, like Colin Clitherd will remind you, pretenders and shouldn't be there. In fact, maybe The Big Ten West should trade Iowa for North Dakota State since NDS wins more the games they should rather than the Hawks who continue to crack under pressure of playing a top rated team be it Power 5 or FCB. There was hope that perhaps beating NDS they would at least get some sort of cred. Not anymore. This game pretty sums up the feelings of what the naysayers have said about Iowa, they're not good enough, they're pretenders. And sorry to say, I have to agree with the hated Colin Custardpie, they're are pretenders and there's not a damn thing they can do about it, till they finally get off their collective asses and beat a Michigan or a Michigan State or a Stanford but rest assured they won't be going to the Rose Bowl this year.
They just don't have it and North Dakota State proved it.
PS: Now that I calmed down, it isn't a total waste of a season and that one game would shape up the scope of the rest of the season, which BIG TEN games start taking over. That said, North Dakota State is a force to be reckon with and if Michigan or Ohio State don't want to play them, that's fine too. The Bisons would have battled them tooth and nail. But I remain unconvinced that this was a upset and an embarrassment, the latter yes it was since it made top news around the sports channel across the America and the naysayers laughing their asses off, as an upset, it wasn't. By adding NDSU, Iowa did try to toughen up themselves by playing quality rivals, but in the process they failed since they couldn't stop the power run in the final quarter, to which their opponents will now use in their plan of attack on future Hawkeye games. And in any case the other teams they play will be tougher than last year, Nebraska is tougher, likewise Wisconsin and Minnesota and they want their trophies back. Wisconsin remains the most shaky of the trio, Nebraska upset Oregon and who knows what the Gophers have in store. Even Maryland is not a gimme game either, nor Rutgers, which the Hawks go to play there. If Rutgers win, that would be considered a bigger upset than the so called NDSU game. Nevertheless, with each loss to a quality team does not help Iowa at all but rather confirms everybody belief that they will be pretenders and until Iowa beats a Michigan, a Michigan State or a Ohio State, the masses will not be convinced. And the falling out has begun, in the Amway top twenty five coaches poll, they falter down to number 25.
However history has shown that after a bad loss, Iowa would come back and kick butt. They did that when Arizona State blitzed them out of Tempe in 2004 but Iowa came back to share the title and a bowl game victory, and in 2002 after Iowa State took them out, went 8-0 to share the title and then lose in the Orange Bowl. And another Missouri Valley team in 2009 almost beat them if their FG kicker didn't miss a couple of field goals, after that Iowa did wake up and start winning and then winning the Orange Bowl that year. Wake up calls like those did enable Iowa to get serious about playing again and playing winning football. It has been done before. But they are not going to convince Cowpie Cowerd, not now and maybe not later, unless it's a top 3 NCAA football powerhouse. It would have been easier to give half a million to Northern Iowa and perhaps a easier game but nothing is a gimme, unless your playing cupcake schools and junior colleges in need of money. North Dakota State gladly took the money and promptly kicked Iowa's offense and defense line's ass all over Iowa City. When your punter moves the ball better than your vaulted Running attack (only 34 rushing yards all day from all of them) and NDSU runs it that much plus 205 more yards, it's going to be a loss regardless. Perhaps the Hawks should have given half a mil to Prairie View A and M or Trump University, ESPN would have ridiculed them (like Colin Cookiepuss Cowerd) anyway but it still would have been a win. Next week's game with Rutgers will tell if The Hawks will be as advertised or worse, not even a ordinary subpar team. Guess we'll wait and see next week.
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