Top 5 4a teams going into playoffs-thoughts?

[db1280]

After Urbandale's loss and new information on transfers, my guess for the top 5 teams going into the playoffs are:

1) SEP: Still probably the best team and likely new champion, but they haven't played Ankeny or Dowling...
2) TIE:Ankeny and Dowling-both teams have received recent transfers, and Ankeny looks explosive offensively. Dowling still has the crown and aside from losing to Johnston, has been pretty stable and hasn't lost in the playoffs for quite some time and best tradition/program in IA football this century. Both have had relatively tough schedules. A matchup would be quite the battle this year.
4) Waukee: They keep getting better and can hang with the best this year.
5) Iowa City West? Fewer games and less competition, but still seem competitive.

Was Urbandale over-rated this whole time because of their easy schedule, or do they actually have a shot at going to the Dome?

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

After Urbandale's loss and new information on transfers, my guess for the top 5 teams going into the playoffs are:

1) SEP: Still probably the best team and likely new champion, but they haven't played Ankeny or Dowling...
2) TIE:Ankeny and Dowling-both teams have received recent transfers, and Ankeny looks explosive offensively. Dowling still has the crown and aside from losing to Johnston, has been pretty stable and hasn't lost in the playoffs for quite some time and best tradition/program in IA football this century. Both have had relatively tough schedules. A matchup would be quite the battle this year.
4) Waukee: They keep getting better and can hang with the best this year.
5) Iowa City West? Fewer games and less competition, but still seem competitive.

Was Urbandale over-rated this whole time because of their easy schedule, or do they actually have a shot at going to the Dome?

Call me crazy but I’m starting to wonder if SEP isn’t the new Urbandale. Aside from a 21-10 week 1 win against Waukee the rest of their schedule was nothing. The other 5 opponents were as follows:

Centennial 1-6 (4 point win over one win Ames)
CR Jefferson 0-7
Valley 2-4 (wins over DM Roosevelt and Centennial)
Ottumwa 0-5
Johnston 3-4

That is a combined 6-26 (11-28 even with Waukee added in).

You don’t get a much weaker schedule than that.

 

[Hawked]

I think Ankeny is the top team. Waukee is up there too with their power run game. Don't count Dowling out and despite the loss Urbandale can upset about anyone if they clean up their own mistakes. They won't beat Ankeny or SEP but I'd give them a shot against anyone else. I don't know much about the east side teams but doesn't seem like they have the horses necessary to keep up with the des moines metro teams.

1. Ankeny
2. SEP
3. Waukee
4. Dowling
5. Urbandale/Best in the east

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

I think Ankeny is the top team. Waukee is up there too with their power run game. Don't count Dowling out and despite the loss Urbandale can upset about anyone if they clean up their own mistakes. They won't beat Ankeny or SEP but I'd give them a shot against anyone else. I don't know much about the east side teams but doesn't seem like they have the horses necessary to keep up with the des moines metro teams.

1. Ankeny
2. SEP
3. Waukee
4. Dowling
5. Urbandale/Best in the east

I’m not going to go over every point of contention with you about all of your post but I’ll take the low hanging fruit with this one... Dowling beat Waukee and couldn’t have helped Waukee any more if they tried. They gave away 3 touchdowns with special teams blunders which while not yet perfect are improved.

 

[Hawked]

I’m not going to go over every point of contention with you about all of your post but I’ll take the low hanging fruit with this one... Dowling beat Waukee and couldn’t have helped Waukee any more if they tried. They gave away 3 touchdowns with special teams blunders which while not yet perfect are improved.

I can't have an opinion or what? Dowling better than Waukee? Maybe so.

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

I can't have an opinion or what? Dowling better than Waukee? Maybe so.

Yes you can, that’s what the site is for... some fun debate. You put Waukee ahead of Dowling and I (and my opinion) challenged that. I play nice... notice I didn’t give you a “told you so” about the Waukee vs Urbandale match-up 😉

 

[Hawked]

Yes you can, that’s what the site is for... some fun debate. You put Waukee ahead of Dowling and I (and my opinion) challenged that. I play nice... notice I didn’t give you a “told you so” about the Waukee vs Urbandale match-up 😉

You said it'd be a whooping like they did to johnston. That wasn't the case. I could have told you Urbandale would lose. I thought Waukee was 2 tds better than Urbandale but after the game I think it's closer than that. So, what did you tell me exactly? A team that is 2 high schools next year and beyond is going to beat one of smaller 4a schools? Urbandale went up 10 to 0, gifted Waukee 3 touchdowns on penalties and special teams, was within 7 halfway into the 3rd quarter, and you told me so? Haha. I had one exception with you and that was it was going to be a beatdown like johnston. It wasn't.

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

You said it'd be a whooping like they did to johnston. That wasn't the case. I could have told you Urbandale would lose. I thought Waukee was 2 tds better than Urbandale but after the game I think it's closer than that. So, what did you tell me exactly? A team that is 2 high schools next year and beyond is going to beat one of smaller 4a schools? Urbandale went up 10 to 0, gifted Waukee 3 touchdowns on penalties and special teams, was within 7 halfway into the 3rd quarter, and you told me so? Haha. I had one exception with you and that was it was going to be a beatdown like johnston. It wasn't.

I challenge to find ANYWHERE in my post that I said or implied “like Johnston.” You won’t find it. It would have been 28 points however if at the end a Waukee wanted to score again but inside the 20 they bled the clock out instead of piling on.

 

[Hawked]

I challenge to find ANYWHERE in my post that I said or implied “like Johnston.” You won’t find it. It would have been 28 points however if at the end a Waukee wanted to score again but inside the 20 they bled the clock out instead of piling on.

Anywhere??? It's right here.

As in Waukee will hand Urbandale their rear end like they did Johnston. Everyone put too much stock into the Johnston/Dowling game. That was an anomaly event. Waukee and Dowling are both superior to Urbandale and Johnston. Urbandale just hasn’t played anyone that great yet. Urbandale will meet the same fate as Johnston versus Waukee.

And theoretically if Johnston was that good and Waukee whipped them then Urbandale is in even bigger trouble.... or did you think I meant Urbandale would handle Waukee? Cuz that’s not what I was implying I the original post you replied to.

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

Anywhere??? It's right here.

I was referring to my follow up post where I said not necessarily 28 points but definitely more than 12.... that said the Johnston differential was 28 and against Urbandale it was 21 and could have been 28 if Waukee didn’t decide to just kill the clock on the last possession. I’m not going to quibble over the 21 vs 28 point differential. Point is you implied in your initial post in that thread that I was dead wrong and that Urbandale was as good as their undefeated record indicated and Waukee wouldn’t come in and handle them... we can agree to disagree but in my opinion that is exactly what Waukee did.

 

[Hawked]

I was referring to my follow up post where I said not necessarily 28 points but definitely more than 12.... that said the Johnston differential was 28 and against Urbandale it was 21 and could have been 28 if Waukee didn’t decide to just kill the clock on the last possession. I’m not going to quibble over the 21 vs 28 point differential. Point is you implied in your initial post in that thread that I was dead wrong and that Urbandale was as good as their undefeated record indicated and Waukee wouldn’t come in and handle them... we can agree to disagree but in my opinion that is exactly what Waukee did.

You said ANYWHERE but now it's just one specific post. You're loose with several facts but I'll just address the "low hanging fruit".

Waukee threw deep on their last drive TWICE. They went for it on 4th down TWICE on the last drive. They ran the same exact offense as they did the entire game on the last drive. They did not bleed the clock. You said they bled it after they got to the 20 yard line. They ran an end around (classic bleed the clock play) inside the 20, got a holding penalty, moved back to the 28, and ran 1-2 more plays after that never getting back inside the 20. Then the game was over. Fact is the game was much closer than the Johnston game although the final score was similar.

Speaking of could have been. If Urbandale's punter takes a safety instead of letting Waukee fall on the ball for a touchdown that's 5 less points. If Urbandale doesn't rough the punter and give up a resulting touchdown on that drive after giving them another first down via penalty that's another 7 points. If Urbandale doesn't get flagged for a bogus PI on 3rd and goal that resulted in a td a play or 2 later that's another 4 points. If Urbandale doesn't go offside on a field goal attempt that results in a first down and 1 play later a touchdown that's another 4 points. Subtract 5+7+4+4 from Waukee's score it's a 1 point Waukee win.

Urbandale and Waukee are way better than Johnston. Waukee is a score or 2 better than Urbandale. Dowling is likely better than Urbandale. Centennial was better than Urbandale last year when Urbandale beat them in the playoffs. I never implied or said Urbandale would win against Waukee. I'm done with this. The playoffs will be fun. Go anybody but Dowling.

 

[27 Toss]

After Urbandale's loss and new information on transfers, my guess for the top 5 teams going into the playoffs are:

1) SEP: Still probably the best team and likely new champion, but they haven't played Ankeny or Dowling...
2) TIE:Ankeny and Dowling-both teams have received recent transfers, and Ankeny looks explosive offensively. Dowling still has the crown and aside from losing to Johnston, has been pretty stable and hasn't lost in the playoffs for quite some time and best tradition/program in IA football this century. Both have had relatively tough schedules. A matchup would be quite the battle this year.
4) Waukee: They keep getting better and can hang with the best this year.
5) Iowa City West? Fewer games and less competition, but still seem competitive.

Was Urbandale over-rated this whole time because of their easy schedule, or do they actually have a shot at going to the Dome?

I dont think there is a defense in the state that will hold Ankeny under 35 points. Agree with you on SEP, other than the Waukee win, which they probably could have lost, who have they beat?

 

[Hawked]

I dont think there is a defense in the state that will hold Ankeny under 35 points. Agree with you on SEP, other than the Waukee win, which they probably could have lost, who have they beat?

It may be a case where the best defense is a good offense so those ball control teams have the best shot against Ankeny imo.

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

You said ANYWHERE but now it's just one specific post. You're loose with several facts but I'll just address the "low hanging fruit".

Waukee threw deep on their last drive TWICE. They went for it on 4th down TWICE on the last drive. They ran the same exact offense as they did the entire game on the last drive. They did not bleed the clock. You said they bled it after they got to the 20 yard line. They ran an end around (classic bleed the clock play) inside the 20, got a holding penalty, moved back to the 28, and ran 1-2 more plays after that never getting back inside the 20. Then the game was over. Fact is the game was much closer than the Johnston game although the final score was similar.

Speaking of could have been. If Urbandale's punter takes a safety instead of letting Waukee fall on the ball for a touchdown that's 5 less points. If Urbandale doesn't rough the punter and give up a resulting touchdown on that drive after giving them another first down via penalty that's another 7 points. If Urbandale doesn't get flagged for a bogus PI on 3rd and goal that resulted in a td a play or 2 later that's another 4 points. If Urbandale doesn't go offside on a field goal attempt that results in a first down and 1 play later a touchdown that's another 4 points. Subtract 5+7+4+4 from Waukee's score it's a 1 point Waukee win.

Urbandale and Waukee are way better than Johnston. Waukee is a score or 2 better than Urbandale. Dowling is likely better than Urbandale. Centennial was better than Urbandale last year when Urbandale beat them in the playoffs. I never implied or said Urbandale would win against Waukee. I'm done with this. The playoffs will be fun. Go anybody but Dowling.

I fully grant you that I said what I said in the post you called me out on... I had forgotten about that post and was thinking only about the post where I remembered I said more than 12 but maybe not quite 28... but you are correct I did have the previous post with the Johnston comment. Not able to address the entirety of your last post... Just going to say there is a big difference between what shoulda coulda woulda happened earlier on the game when both teams were trying their best to score and what could have happened in the last 2 minutes when a team CHOOSES to not score again and just kill the clock for sportsmanship purposes.

 

[No Bias---Just Reality]

I dont think there is a defense in the state that will hold Ankeny under 35 points. Agree with you on SEP, other than the Waukee win, which they probably could have lost, who have they beat?

Don’t know if Dowling would score enough to beat Ankeny but they would hold them under the 35. Turnovers and special teams have put Dowling defense in bad positions this year and outside of Waukee haven’t given up more than 2 TD’s this year. Of the Waukee 33 one was a kickoff return TD, one was a blocked punt inside the 5 yard line, and one was like a 5 yard punt that gave Waukee the ball at about the 15 yard line so that’s essentially 21 points attributable to the special teams and not defense. So assuming the same special teams issues don’t happen their defense wouldn’t give up that much to ankeny.

 

[Reasoned]

I don't know much about the east side teams but doesn't seem like they have the horses necessary to keep up with the des moines metro teams.

1. Ankeny
2. SEP
3. Waukee
4. Dowling
5. Urbandale/Best in the east

As an East coast observer, I’d probably agree with your top five coming from the CIML ( I REALLY hope when they set the next “pods” up they don’t emphasize geography and end up pairing any of those five in the same pod). The East has possibly three teams which might be competitive up to quarterfinals PV, ICW & Prairie. With PV unless the CIML schools are familiar with the wing T triple option, it can give you fits. ICW has some talent as does Prairie (they may be a year away from making a deep run).

 

[hawkod]

Call me crazy but I’m starting to wonder if SEP isn’t the new Urbandale. Aside from a 21-10 week 1 win against Waukee the rest of their schedule was nothing. The other 5 opponents were as follows:

Centennial 1-6 (4 point win over one win Ames)
CR Jefferson 0-7
Valley 2-4 (wins over DM Roosevelt and Centennial)
Ottumwa 0-5
Johnston 3-4

That is a combined 6-26 (11-28 even with Waukee added in).

You don’t get a much weaker schedule than that.

SEP handled the Johnston team pretty easily that beat Dowling. Crushed Valley when they still had Rubley at QB.
SEP's defense has been pretty tough all year; would love to see what they can do against Ankeny...probably the best offense in the state. Debates are always fun; bet against SEP at your peril.