I finally got time to re-watch the game last night between Iowa and Iowa State. What a thrilling win the Hawkeyes pulled off in overtime 44 to 41. There were a lot of positives and some things that need to be cleaned up before Big Ten play starts.
On the positive the Iowa offense played extremely well for large portions of the game. Nate Stanley in his 1st road start threw for 333 yards and 5 touchdowns. One of the more impressive things about Stanley was his patience when Iowa trailed 38 to 31. A lot of young quarterbacks force a pass into coverage and get intercepted. Even though the clock was running he kept his cool. The other great thing he did was spread the ball around, he completed passes to 9 different receivers. The only thing where he could improve is the deep ball. He missed at least 3 if not 4 receivers for touchdowns over the top. Last year we rarely saw our receivers able to get deep on anyone so the fact that the separation was their is positive. Iowa State has a very good secondary.
The other big thing we saw Saturday was Ihmir Smith Marsette made some big time plays on the outside. The Freshman Receiver fumbled on his 1st ever carry in week 1 vs Wyoming. He showed a lot of potential to be a big playmaker for this offense. He had 4 receptions for 36 yards and two touchdowns. A terrific diving catch for one and then he ran a great route in overtime for the game winner. All 3 tight ends were involved in the game, Noah Fant didn't have a huge game but he made some critical catches on the game tying drive. TJ Hockenson also got in on the action for the first time hauling in 2 passes for 41 yards. Even Peter Pekar had a 1st down catch. On the outside Nick Easley had another good game with 7 catches for 48 yards, Matt Vandeberg also looks to be getting more comfortable he caught 3 passes for 42 yards including a great diving touchdown catch.We also saw a number of the young receivers on the field Brandon Smith played a lot but was never targeted. The Fact that he's getting on the field means he's close to making some plays on offense.
At running back the carries split was pretty similar to week 1 with Wadley getting 28 carries for 118 yards and Jame Butler getting 10 carries for 37. Wadley also had 4 catches including the play of the game to tie the game at 38. I felt James Butler looked more confident this week. He just had a different look to him when he was running the football. I'm not going to say Wadley could be in the Heisman conversation but he's definitely is a true playmaker. Iowa plays enough big name teams if he puts together big numbers you never know.
Defensively the biggest disappointment for me was all the missed tackles. Now David Montgomery is a very good running back but he was breaking way too many tackles Saturday. The Hawks just weren't wrapping up. Another concern is the front 4 just didn't get much pressure on Park. Iowa State is unique in that they go so quick and they normally get rid of the ball very fast. Only a few times was Iowa able to get some real pressure on Park.
The other thing we saw a lot on Saturday was the Dime and Nickle package. A number of young players got on the field defensively for the first time. Manny Rugamba made his return to the Defensive backfield and was a little bit rusty. Hopefully he can get back in the groove this week. Saturday was the first week we really found out how good Desmond King and Greg Maybin were. There were a lot of mistakes in the secondary but you have to remember Gervase was making his 2nd career start at Safety so things are going to break down sometimes. Rugamba even though he looked great as a Freshman is only a Sophomore. Joshua Jackson played a lot in the Nickle last year but now he's in tough one on one situations. Ojemudia is another corner who hasn't played a lot. We also saw Amani Hooker on defense for the first time. Of course he got matched up on Lazard and Iowa State scored a touchdown on the play.
The Final thing we saw Saturday was the ability for this team to respond. Iowa State took an early 7 to 0 lead and the Hawks put together a terrific drive mixing the pass and run for a touchdown. Iowa State went up 10 to 7. Iowa would put together an even better drive traveling 91 yards in 10 plays to take the lead at halftime 14 to 10. After exchanging Punts the Hawks would go on another long touchdown drive this one 94 yards on 11 plays. Once Iowa State went up 31 to 21 it would have been very easy for the Hawks to give up. They didn't putting together an 11 play 92 yard touchdown drive to pull within 3. Only one play into Iowa State's drive Parker Hesse intercepted Park's pass. Even though Iowa didn't score they had a perfectly designed play on 3rd down Stanley just didn't have enough time to put the throw on Fant. The biggest punch to the stomach a team can have is after battling back to tie the game. they gave up a 74 yard touchdown pass.
The next drive the hawks went 3 and out just missing on another deep pass to Noah Fant which could have been 6. Although the defense struggled they came up big getting Iowa State to go 3 and out. The Final drive Iowa took their time and didn't rush things. Stanley was in complete control on that final drive. On the touchdown Wadley ran a little angle route and Stanley put the ball right on him before Akrum broke a bunch of tackles to tie the game.
In overtime the Iowa defense once again came up big holding Iowa State to a Field Goal. Iowa right away was going for the win they threw deep on the 1st play. Wadley had a 4 yard run to make it 3rd and 6. Stanley found Easley for a huge 1st down. The next play James Butler ran off the left side but something I noticed on the play was Wadley faked like he was running a screen so that could be a play we see sometime. On the game winning touchdown Marsette ran a great rout to get open and Stanley put the throw on the outside away from the defender for the touchdown.
Now what does this win do for the Hawks? I think one of things it does is give Iowa confidence that they can come back if they fall behind in a game. This was a very hostile environment and for the Hawks to come away with the win was huge. This was a wild game that could have gone either way the Hawks found away to win a game a lot of people thought was over down 31 to 21. Now one bad thing is Iowa may have lost Ike Boettger for the year with an injury. Now Iowa play's North Texas this week a game they should win big but they need to take care of business. I'd expect a possible let down with Penn State on the horizon. I'll have some thoughts on North Texas this week. Thanks for reading and Go Hawks.
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