Saturday was the home opener at Kinnick Stadium against a very good opponent in the Northern Iowa Panthers. It was a tight with a lot of good and bad moments for Iowa. Iowa won the game 31-23 as they were finally able to close out the Panthers on Saturday. I'm going to talk about the offense from Saturday what I liked and what I think can be improved on.
First of all Jake Rudock was outstanding on Saturday he was so efficient completing 31 of 41 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. Rudock really looked confident in the offense he was looking off defenders all game and doing a very nice job of progressing through his targets. I think he did dump the ball down a little too often today but UNI likes to play a lot of 3 deep in the secondary which takes a lot of the deep balls away. I thought Jake did a nice job of taking what the Panthers gave us. He completed passes to 13 different receivers on the day so he was definitely sharing the wealth. I think this could be the best pass offense Iowa has had in a while the receivers are ready to become the playmakers we haven't had the last couple of years. This team has the talent at the skill positions this season, we have speed with guys like Willies, Powell and Smith. The veteran presence of Keyvonte Martin Manley is so nice for this offense he is a great possession receiver who runs very good routes and is Jakes safety valve on big plays. Jake Hillyer also shows flashes at different points although he had the fumble today. I think this might be the deepest and most talented receiving core since we had McNutt and DJK. Tevaun Smith showed his play making ability today on a great run on the end around for 35 yards. He also made a tremendous one handed catch later in the drive for a touchdown. I want to see more down the field throws this season because we have the receivers that can make those plays. Rudock was nearly perfect on the afternoon about every throw he made was to the right spot and at a place the receivers had a chance to make a play. Jake was at his best when he trusted his pass blocking and stepped into the pocket. He made a huge throw over the top to Derrick Willies who made a lunging catch to put Iowa in business. He also had a huge 3rd down throw to Keyvonte Martin Manley the play before. The good news for the Iowa offense is over the last couple of years if a team took a way the run we were in big trouble now Iowa has the pass offense to be able to overcome that. The pass offense looks to be developing and should only get better as the season goes on.
Iowa used a running game by committee against the Panthers. A lot of guys got a chance to carry the ball in this game with 6 different players running the football. Iowa as a team ran for 151 yards on 36 carries. Mark Weisman led the way with 10 carries for 34 yards, Jordan Canzeri has 7 carries for 22 yards, Leshun Daniels had 8 carries for 15 yards and Damon Bullock had 3 carries for 10 yards. I don't know if we will see this much rotating but the guys all stay fresh which is big when you need to run the football. The great thing about this committee is all of these guys have different skill sets your have the faster backs in Canzeri and Bullock than the power backs in Weisman and Daniels. Eventually I think Daniels may start to emerge as the best running back for Iowa he has that quickness and power to become a very good back. The encouraging thing I saw from Daniels was that he was reading the blocks better on the zone blocking scheme. He should continue to get better at this as the season progresses. Canzeri is the fastest guy of the group has the ability to take the ball to the endzone on every carry. Weisman is still the best of the bunch he just has such great vision in the zone blocking scheme he always finds the right hole not to mention the power he runs with. I also felt Damon Bullock ran a lot better yesterday he was more patient than last season where he was hitting the hole to quickly. We also got to see one of the young backs in Johnathon Parker who ran a fly sweep for 21 yards, he is another one of the quicker backs and like Canzeri is a homerun threat. This group as a whole is very strong they didn't have the best day Saturday but UNI was getting 9 guys to the box most of the day. I thought the running offense was okay but still needs improvement which is a good thing because there is room for improvement.
The offensive line was outstanding in pass protection giving Rudock plenty of time to throw the football. The run game was another story early on they were dominant but during the middle of the game UNI controlled the running game. Now its easy to say the offensive line wasn't doing their job but that's a little short sighted UNI was putting 8 guys sometimes 9 guys in the box to stop the run. Every time Iowa turned to hand off their safeties were sprinting to the line of scrimmage. This offensive line has a chance to be very good and if they can keep Rudock clean he has a chance to have an outstanding season.
I thought the play calling was really good at points Saturday the opening drive was a thing of beauty. The fly sweep was a really nice change of pace play then we normally see. I would like to see Iowa try that play with Damond Powell, and Jordan Canzeri to go with Parker because that can be a big play. Also we can fake that play to hand it off up the middle or even playaction off that play. A lot of options for Iowa offensively we have the weapons this season to do a lot of things. The only criticism I have is I would like to see more down the field throws to Smith, Willies and all of our wide receivers. The more shots Iowa takes the easier the medium pass will become and the run game will open up. Iowa can beat teams with the run or through the air and that means this offense could become one of the best in the BIG Ten. Rudock makes a lot of great throws and takes care of the football. Although the Iowa offense wasn't great on Saturday the potential is there for this to be a very dynamic offense. I'm really excited to see how the offense will look next week vs Ball State will see more of Willies and Powell. The jail break screen down at the 10 to Powell was a great play and I'd like to see that play more this season. The rushing attack is going to be there for Iowa if the passing game plays like they did Saturday look out. Thanks for reading
Go Hawks.
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