Non Conference Season over 2-2

 Hi all I'm back again with another blog about the Iowa Hawkeyes football team. Well things didn't go the way most of us expected in the Non Conference portion of the schedule going 2-2 with losses to ISU 9-6 and CMU 32-31. Now we start Big Ten play and a lot of people are ready to jump off the bandwagon just go on any of the Hawkeye message boards to see all the negativity surrounding the Iowa Football Team. I have watched every game this season including the Central Michigan debacle where we messed up the second onside kick but that play was very confusing as a referee blew the whistle after the CMU kicker was already moving to kick the ball. I have no idea why the kicker can start before the Referee blows his whistle but I guess you can. That was a very tough loss but once again the defense made good adjustments at halftime getting more pressure on Central Michigan's QB but it just wasn't enough. Honestly if we get that onside kick we win the game and have a 3-1 record on the season it just didn't work out that way.

 The outlook on the rest of the season, I get that people may be discouraged because of the tough non conference losses to Iowa State and Central Michigan. I believe this team has improved from week one the offense is getting better we have a strong running back in Mark Weisman who just has that look of a physical bone crushing running back. This guy refuses to go down on the first hit and has been a real spark for this team over the last couple weeks. When you look at most of Iowa's good teams they have always been based around the running game more so than the passing game. Honestly I think we are very close to putting a full game together the offense has improved since week 1 as the passing game has been better lately and we have seen Keenan Davis really step up as well as Martin Manley getting involved in the offense, plus even Jordan Cotton has come on strong over the last couple of weeks. The offense seems to be a lot closer to breaking out this weekend vs Minnesota and they really look a lot better plus they are way more in sync then they were as the start of the season. I really think the new system took a little longer then most expected to learn but now that they have I believe the offense is ready to take off.

 Defensively this team for some reason has come out of the gates slow in every game. We have played to soft in the first series against teams and they have marched down to get points. The good thing though is we have been able to make a lot of in game adjustment at halftime that have really turned a lot of the games for us. We even did a nice job last week but at the end we went away from the aggressive defense we were playing which caused us to lose the game. I'm still confident in this defense they didn't have a good day on Saturday but that was really the first game of the year they didn't play well. We have played 4 games and only given up over 18 points once so I think we will be in a lot of games because of the defense but we have to figure out how to get things started faster.

 On to the big ten this game we have coming up on Saturday is going to tell us a lot about this team. I'm not saying it's a must win but its as close as it can be without it being for a championship. The Big Ten is down this year so I think every team in the conference could struggle. Right now if we can beat Minnesota this weekend and get Floyd back it should give us a big boost going in the the rest of the season. I think the momentum we will get from a big win should help us and all of the fans that are discouraged right now this is when the team needs us the most. We need a raucous crowd on Saturday to really get this team going to a huge victory and recapture the Floyd of Rosedale. Now Minnesota is not going to be an easy game I expect a close drag it out slug fest but I truly believe that we will bounce back and get a nice W over Minnesota I'm going with 24 to 14. The Gophers like to pass the ball a lot and we won't have to worry about Shortell running, if we play some tighter coverage plus run our nickle and dime coverages we should win this game.

 So Season 1 is over the Non Conference didn't got our way but we can still get things cleaned up in the conference season and have a good team. It all starts Saturday against the Gophers we need this one on Saturday if we can win this weekend we have 2 weeks to prepare for a game at Michigan State which looks winnable. My point is don't give up on the season there is still time to get this thing turned around so don't jump off the ship yet.

GO Hawks

Iowa Vs Northern Illinois Thoughts

   Hey I'm back with another post as the Hawkeyes got there football season underway this past Saturday against a very solid football team in Northern Illinois. It was not an easy game and for 3 in half quarters I was thinking we were going to be 0-1 but this team showed there heart. They got the job done in the 4th quarter to survive a trip to soldier field 18 to 17 and move to 1-0. This was an all around team win that the defense and special teams saved us plus we found a very good running back. I've watched the game twice and these are my thoughts on what the problems were on Saturday and what some of the good things we did on Saturday.

  First we got off to a great start on offense scoring on our first possession yeah it was only a field goal but to put points up on the opening drive was a great start for the offense. We really ran the ball well which was a very pleasant surprise as Damon Bullock was very good and we had some great blocking from the offensive line. Our passing game was a little bit frustrating partly due to the fact that Vandenberg didn't have a lot of time to throw the ball and also didn't make quick decisions. We definitely got an idea of what this offense will look like as we run a little bit more of a west coast offense with shorter routes, we really only attempted one deep ball which was broken up. I think the problems on the offensive line was partly due to the fact that our line isn't as experienced at some of our positions. Brandon Scherrf has not played a lot of left tackle, our right guard Austin Blythe was making his debut,and at Right tackle Brett Van Sloten was making his debut so we didn't have a lot of experience with this line as a whole. The line blocked extremely well when we ran the football but I think got a little bit confused on some of the blitz packages and stunts the Huskies were doing on Saturday. The offense as a whole was a little bit disappointing even though we moved the ball up and down the field we would have 1 or 2 plays that would stall the offense and force us to kick a field goal. I think the offense will continue to improve as the season goes on they didn't play great but we did find a good running back that we can trust plus I believe Vandenberg and the wide receivers will improve this weekend against Iowa State.

 Defensively I thought are team did fairly good defensively in the 1st half I felt our linebackers were thinking too much and a little to slow to the holes which allowed NIU's QB Jordan Lynch to have lots of room to run. In the second half we completely shut down the Huskies except for the 73 yard TD run which was a big play. The defensive line was a pleasant surprise because in the 2nd half we really controlled the line of scrimmage and even got to the QB to force a sack and fumble which helped to change the game even though we didn't put it in the endzone. The defense all afternoon really kept us in the ball game and allowed the offense to finally get their stuff straight and score a Touchdown. I thought the secondary was fantastic even though NIU didn't throw the ball a lot our secondary was in perfect position on every pass play we did get one PI called but it was a questionable call at best. Lowery left with Bruised ribs and than Castillo came to play hero in a way knocking away a deep pass than downing the ball at the 1 yard line which changed the whole complexion of the game. I really believe this defense will be special the defensive line to me played very good for the most part, the linebackers need to improve there play a little bit but the secondary to me was the best part of the defense on Saturday and going forward this season.

 Special teams made a big difference in this game last year our kickoff coverage and punt coverage wasn't the best so far this season facing a very dangerous return man they completely shut down the NIU return game. Our coverage was outstanding all day long on kickoffs and punts. We had a new punter in Kornbrath who did very well in his 1st game, and than John Weinke who made the punt that changed the game we downed at the one. Field goal wise Mike Meyer was very good going 4 for 5 including hitting a 50 yard field goal and with the winds swirling at Soldier field that was very impressive.

 Overall it was the first game of the season we made some mistakes on both sides of the ball partly due to the new coordinators. I think we will improve every game this season as we got more comfortable with our new systems. We will find out a lot more on Saturday when we play a decent IA state football team who had a nice win over 38 to 23 even though they struggled a little bit. We won the turnover battle vs the Huskies 1 to 0 and could be a big factor next Saturday but I'll talk about it in my next blog.

Thanks
Andy
Jennings