Saturday afternoon went about as well as Iowa fans could have hoped for. Illinois State is a good Football team and Iowa completely dominated. There were a lot of question marks coming into this game and although its Illinois State all the question marks were answered. CJ Beathard was making his second career start Saturday and played very well.
The offense got off to a fast start on Saturday taking the opening kickoff 81 yards to score a Touchdown. The Iowa offense ran for over 200 yards and threw for over 200 yards also. The Hawkeyes first 2 drives were text book 81 yards and 99 yards to take a 14 to 0 lead. Leshun Daniels showed a great burst and had enough patience to allow his blockers to open the holes. Iowa's offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. Iowa's first drive was 13 plays going 81 yards for a Touchdown. The Hawks were balanced with 7 run plays including a 27 yard gain by Daniels and 6 passes including a 15 yard gain to Tevaun Smith. Iowa looked to be out to make a statement to start the game moving the ball right down the field, they also converted a 4th and 2 on a quick slant to Tevaun Smith. CJ Beathard showed off one of the skills he has by capping the drive on a beautifully designed QB Draw. We've all watched this team struggle against teams that they should dominate but that wasn't the case Saturday. Iowa had a perfect game plan and they really didn't show a whole lot to Iowa State.
The second drive Iowa had was 99 yards in 12 Plays to take a 14 to 0 lead. On this drive the Hawkeyes showed a couple of different looks, first they ran a hard play action pass where Beathard hit Hillyar for 18 yards and a first down in the middle of the field. The second new play Iowa ran was a shovel pass screen to Jordan Canzeri, Beathard lured the defense in then shoveled the pass to Canzeri who picked up 21 yards. The other key play on the drive was another play action pass where Beathard showed his ability to get outside the pocket but keep his eyes down the field hitting Matt Vandeberg for 17 yards. The Hawkeyes also showed some new look wide receiver screens that weren't the jail break variety we are used to seeing. This wide Receiver screen was set up on some great blocking by Tevaun Smith who blocked 2 guys on one play to help Vandeberg pick up another 17 yard gain. The second TD Came on another perfectly designed play where the Hawkeyes had a bunch set to the left and ran Jordan Canzeri right up the middle for a 5 yard TD.
One of the bigger drives of the game came with just 37 seconds left in the first half. Iowa ran a HB Screen to Jordan Canzeri who turned a 3 yard pass into a 51 yard gain. Those are just some of the things that Canzeri can bring to this offense. That play set up a Marshall Koehn FG to make it 17-0. The score was only 17-0 but the lead felt a lot bigger then that. On the Hawks second drive of the 3rd quarter the Hawks put the game out of reach with a 13 play 57 yard. Iowa ran another new look out of the bunch set to the left side of the field, earlier in the game the Hawks ran Jordan Canzeri for a TD this time they threw a quick screen to Matt Vandeberg who got two big blocks from Tevaun Smith and Jake Hillyer to help him get to the corner and score. The final scoring drive for the Hawks went 10 plays 66 yards capped by a QB sneak by Beathard. Iowa had 4 double digit plays where they scored a TD and the hawks were 5 for 5 in the Redzone with only one score being a field goal. The last few years it seems like we've had trouble scoring TD's in the redzone Saturday was a big first step in changin that.
Iowa's offense was balanced Rushing for 210 yards and throwing for 221 yards. Leshun Daniels led the rushing attack on 26 carries for 123 yards. Daniels looked like the total package, he's fast enough to hit the hole but also agile enough to make defenders miss and powerful enough to run through defenders. Jordan Canzeri came in to change the pace he had 5 carries for 28 yards but also caught 4 passes for 90 yards. The Run blocking was great, the biggest thing I noticed was Iowa finally has a center who can pull and get the reach block to spring the running back. Austin Blythe was outstanding on his pulls to help spring Daniels for big gains. Also Iowa usually only runs stretch plays but vs Illinois state they ran more plays on the inside of the line.
The passing offense did some things but for the most part Iowa wasn't looking to throw the ball deep down the field. CJ was 15 for 24 211 yards 1 TD 0 INTS. Beathard also ran the ball 8 times for 26 yards and 2 touchdowns. Matt Vandeberg was the leading receiver with 6 catches for 59 yards and a TD. Vandeberg showed an ability to get open down the field, he also had some nice runs after the catch. Jake Hillyer showed a lot of improvement from last season catching 2 passes for 38 yards. Tevaun Smith had 3 receptions for 24 yards and Jameer Outsey had one catch for 10 yards. It seemed at times the receivers couldn't get open and Beathard had to throw the ball away a lot. The Receivers have to continue to improve but Iowa didn't really open up the passing game much. The one strange thing I noticed was the Tight ends weren't targeted on time by the first team offense. Now I believe this could have been one of those games where the Hawks didn't use the whole playbook.
Defensively Iowa's first team unit completely dominated the Redbirds. The defensive line was the first thing that stood out in a major way. They overpowered the Redbirds offensive line all day. Drew Ott basically lived in the backfield wreaking havoc on Tre Roberson. Ott had 2 sacks but he could of had few more forcing Roberson up in the pocket to allow other defensive lineman to make the play. Jaleel Johnson was great also getting a lot of penetration into the backfield. Iowa held Illinois State to 36 yards rushing and 196 yards passing but only 49 yards passing by Roberson. The linebackers were a big question mark coming into the season and they played really well. Ben Niemann was in on a lot of plays including a sack of Roberson. Josey Jewell was in on a lot of tackles and Cole Fisher made a lot of plays on the perimeter. The Hawkeyes Perimeter defense was much improved, last year teams took advantage of Iowa's defensive speed on the outside. Illinois State had some players who could make some plays on the outside like Roberson and Coprich but Iowa completely shut them down. The Secondary also made a lot of plays Desmond King wasn't tested much but a made couple of nice tackles. Greg Maybin made the best tackle of the day picking up Coprich and throwing him to the ground. Last year the Iowa defense gave up big plays on Saturday the first team defense didn't give up any big plays.
I was impressed with both sides of the ball Saturday. I honestly didn't know what to expect vs the Redbirds, last year Iowa played UNI to a close game. Iowa completely dominated Illinois State, it wasn't a game at all as the Hawks led 31-0 in the 4th quarter before the second team defense allowed two scores. The offense was balanced running and passing. I do want to see some more passes deep down the middle of the field. The offensive line was dominant keeping Beathard clean and opening up holes for the running Backs. Now I don't know what this means for the rest of the season but Iowa passed their first test vs a Top team in the FCS. The next test is a big one in Ames vs the Cyclones. I'll preview that game coming up early next week.
Thanks For Reading
GO Hawks
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