Hey Hawk fans I'm back with my review of Iowa's second big road win of the season and first Conference win over Minnesota 23 to 7. Coming into this game I knew a couple of things one if Minnesota tried to run the ball right at Iowa's defense they would be in a lot of trouble. Sure enough that is exactly what Minnesota tried to do running the ball right at the Hawks defense for only 30 total yards rushing. The other advantage I thought Iowa had coming into this game was quarterback play and that definitely was the case as Rudock had a big game for the Hawks. Rudock was outstanding on Saturday which was one of the main reasons the Hawkeyes came out with the victory. Lets take a look at what the offense was able to do to a Gopher team that was very good at stopping the run in their first four games.
Iowa ran the ball very effectively once again going for 246 yards on 45 carries. The run has been our identity all season but the key in this game was the improvement in the passing game. Weisman ran for 147 yards on 24 carries and Damon Bullock added 11 carries for an additional 47 yards. The run game has been there all season long but the way Rudock played gave me hope that later on in the season if we can't run the ball at will, he has the ability to win a game with his arm. Rudock went 15 for 25 for 218 yards scoring one touchdown rushing and throwing one to Damond Powell. He made one bad read on the interception in the End zone where he stared down his receiver. Watching the game Iowa made play after play on 3rd down which was the difference in the game. Minnesota put the Hawks in a number of 3rd and longs but Rudock wasn't phased converting a number of them. Iowa was 8 of 14 on 3rd down conversions compared to Minnesota who went 4 of 13. Rudock did it a number of ways on Saturday scrambling for some first downs and also with his arm as he was throwing strikes on Saturday. We can't forget about the Offensive line who was outstanding giving Rudock plenty of time to throw the football and opening up some big holes for all of our backs. We were very good running to the left side of the offensive line which is right behind potential first round pick Brandon Scherff. Iowa ran the ball to the left side 22 times for 129 yards rushing. Now that we talked about Rudock and the rushing attack which receivers stepped up to make big plays on Saturday.
The play that really took a lot of air out of the Gophers sails was the 74 yard touchdown pass to Damond Powell on a perfect screen pass. It was really nice to see Powell continuing to get a bigger role in the offense as we move into conference season I see him becoming more of a weapon. This play really crushed any hope of the Gophers getting back into the game and it put Iowa up 17 to 0 at the half. Rudock threw 15 completions to 8 different receivers leading the way was Kevonte Martin Manley who had 6 catches for 56 yards. Martin Manley could of had an even bigger game but he dropped a long pass that probably would of gone for a touchdown. As we have seen all season Kmart seems to be Jake's safety valve when he is back to pass. The key to more success in the BIG Ten is having more of the receivers step up to make more than one catch. A lot of guys are contributing the good thing is that out of the 8 guys that caught passes 7 of them caught passes over 8 yards. The big one obviously was the 74 yard screen pass to Powell but other guys made some plays too. I like that a lot of people are contributing and so far Iowa has not had to throw the ball a lot which may be why we don't have multiple wide receivers with more than one catch. The next step for this receiving core is to have a Hillyer, Smith or Powell really have a breakout game to complement what Martin Manley has been doing all season. Michigan State will be a good test on Saturday for this very reason, if they slow down the rushing attack will we see guys like Smith, Hillyer, and Powell rising to the level Kmart has been playing at. Now that we have looked at what Iowa's offense did how did the defense completely shut down the Gophers.
The Gophers came into this game rushing for 282 yards per game which ranked in the top ten in the nation. Iowa held them 252 yards under their average only allowing 30 total rushing yards. Iowa completely controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball but especially defense. The defensive line specifically the tackles completely dominated. Carl Davis and Louis Trinca Pasat basically lived in the backfield all day completely neutralizing the Gophers rushing attack. The defensive line also got to the quarterback sacking Phillip Nelson 4 times on the afternoon which was a big step forward for the defense who only had 2 sacks coming into the game. The linebackers were excellent again I think Morris had one of his better games gathering 8 tackles with a sack and an interception to seal the game. The Hawks also forced one more turnover on a diving interception by Christian Kirskey. Iowa's defense held Minnesota under 200 yards total offense only allowing 165 total yards with 135 of that coming through the air. The defense continues to be very good improving each week to not allow big plays, the front 7 is a big strength for this team and I don't see anyone just running all over Iowa that includes teams like Wisconsin who are built that way. Now that we went over the positives for the defense what are some things they need to improve on .
The Secondary gave up some big plays again. Minnesota had a number of open receivers which was disappointing especially on the flag route Nelson was dropping the ball in behind the corner and the Safeties looked a little bit slow on those plays which were big completions for the Gophers. BJ Lowery was beat a lot later in the game which makes you wonder if the team just relaxed a little bit when they had a big lead. The problem is a lead can vanish quickly when you allow your opponent to create big plays. The one touchdown Minnesota had Lowery was lazy in his bump and run coverage allowing a quick release for Engle who scored a touchdown. Lowery was beaten one more time where the Engle was behind him again but Nelson overthrew him or Minnesota could of been right back in the football game. The secondary must continue to improve as we will be facing a lot better passing attacks than what we have seen from the Cyclones or Gophers. Northern Illinois passing game the first game is good but we will see teams that are just as good if not better in the coming weeks. Iowa can't allow big plays on defense those are big momentum plays so that is the biggest thing the Hawks defense needs to work on. The way this defense has played if the secondary improves this could be one of the best defenses we've had in a while probably not as good as 2010 for the defensive line but you can see them improving every week. Now lets talk about special teams which had some positives and negatives on Saturday.
First for the positives Mike Meyer made 3 of 4 field goals on the day which were big in the game as he put us on the board first with a 49 yard field goal than made a big one to the put the Hawks up 23 to 7 in the fourth quarter. He did miss one so he wasn't perfect but still Meyer made some big kicks for the Hawks on Saturday and I have total confidence he will make the big kicks later in the season. Now on to the negatives the kickoff coverage was a problem once again allowing two 50 plus yard kick returns. This has to be cleaned up because even though this defense is very good we don't want to give up great field position. The only touchdown Minnesota scored was setup by the long kick return. Iowa had problems with kickoff coverage last season so they will have to get this cleaned up quickly. The problem I see on the first big return we were out of our lanes and a missed tackle allowed him to spring free. The second one again we missed some tackles which allowed the return man to get to the sideline and set Minnesota up in good field position again. I want to see this unit continue to improve because special teams can cause big momentum shifts in a game. The return units didn't get much of a chance but Jordan Cotton did have a very nice kick return where he was one broken tackle away from breaking one. After Martin Manley's big day last week Minnesota didn't give him a lot of space to run.
So week one of Big Ten play is in the books the Hawks sit 1-0 in conference and 4-1 overall. Next up will be a very strong defense as the Hawks face off against the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday. This was another big road win for Iowa and the Hawks have now proved they can win on the road so far this season winning in two hostile environments Ames and Minneapolis. This season is starting to feel kind of special but I'm trying to temper my expectations on what Iowa can do this season. If Iowa beats Michigan State on Saturday I might not be able to temper them anymore Iowa has an identity Kirk's good teams have always ran the ball great and played great run defense. That is what this team has done so far this season with Rudock showing how good of quarterback he is the sky is the limit for the rest of this season. I will have a preview of the Michigan State game coming up in the next few days so make sure you check that out.
Go Hawks.
No comments:
Post a Comment