Well it took a little bit longer for me to find time to write my thoughts on Iowa's 24 to 3 victory over Wyoming on Saturday. It was definitely an interesting game the defense played outstanding and we may have seen the emergence of a superstar at tight end. Also we found out a little bit about how the split will be when it comes to the running backs.
First of all starting with Nate Stanley making his 1st career start. He had some good and bad plays which you'd expect from a young quarterback. The one thing that is slightly concerning is the fumbles but I doubt he's been hit much in a game environment in a while. Stanley was 8 for 15 for 125 yards 3 Touchdowns just one interception. Wyoming's game plan was basically to all out blitz most of the game. It was a great test with the way Wyoming played defense it forced Stanley to make quick decisions. His leading receiver was Nick Easley who caught 4 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown. Noah Fant also saw a lot of targets he only caught 2 passes for 29 yards but both were for touchdowns. Fant looks like he could be a match up nightmare for defenses this year. He had a similar seam rout that he scored the TD on later in the game where he took a big hit and dropped the pass. Matt Vandeberg had the other 2 catches for 19 yards. I also think the more Vandeberg gets to play in a game environment we will begin to see the old Matt. I was a little bit surprised we didn't see many of the younger receivers. The only guy's that got in were Devonte Young and Ihmir Smith Marsette who fumbled on a jet sweep.
The Rushing attack was a little bit shorthanded with two starting lineman sitting with injuries James Daniels and Boone Myers. Alaric Jackson made his first career start at left tackle and overall he looked very good. Ike Boettger had a tough day on Saturday allowing some sacks. The running game overall wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Wadley had 24 carries for 116 yards and Butler had 10 carries for 47 yards. This was one of the big questions I had in how much of a split would Wadley and Butler have. The first game it was mostly Wadley with Butler as more of the change of pace instead of the 50/50 split some expected. Akrum did do some things out of the slot but was never able to really get the ball in space. Look for Wadley to be more involved in the pass game against ISU this Weekend.
Defensively Iowa had a big test in front of them going against a quarterback with the talent of Josh Allen. The Linebackers were outstanding all 3 had double digit tackles in the game. Josey Jewell had 14 tackles with 2 sacks. What those stats tell me is the defensive line was doing their job allowing the linebackers to flow and not get blocked. Wyoming is a tough team to defend with the way they spread teams out, they threw a lot of short passes and tackling in space can be a challenge. On Saturday Iowa had a number of players make one on one tackles in space.
On the defensive line the Hawks put a lot of pressure on Allen. A number of guys played on the line I counted at least 8 Parker Hesse, Anthony Nelson, Cedrick Lattimore and Nathan Bazata were the starters. Rotating in were Matt Nelson, A.J. Epenesa, Sam Brinks and Brady Reiff. On 3rd down passing situations all 4 defensive ends stayed in to rush the passer. They didn't show a raider package but a similar package to the raider. Reiff also had maybe the most impressive play reading a screen pass and getting the interception.
The Secondary deserves a lot of praise for their performance as well. Joshua Jackson had a tremendous game coming up with a big deflection and also jumping a route for an interception. Michael Ojemudia also filled in nicely for the suspended Manny Rugamba. He did get beat on a deep ball after a fumble but the wide receiver bobbled the pass and couldn't bring it in. Jake Gervase looked really good at safety he made a nice play where he jumped in front of the receiver to knock the ball away. He also made a great tackle at the line of scrimmage to force a Wyoming punt. Miles Taylor had a little bit of trouble tackling in the 1st quarter but after that he was wrapping up better he had 8 tackles. We really didn't see a whole lot of nickle or dime formations and with Rugamba out that wasn't unexpected. Matt Hankins got in at the Nickle Corner on one play I remember. I would expect to see more nickle and dime with Ojemudia playing the slot when Rugamba returns as starter this weekend.
Special teams was a little bit of a mixed bag on Saturday. Iowa Punter Colton Rastetter punted 4 times for 153 yards with a long of 42. He only averaged a little over 38 yards per punt. It was his first game so their definitely could have been some nerves. Miguel Recinos has taken hold of the kicking job he made a 44 yard field goal and all 3 PATS.
Overall it was a good performance to start the season. Now its time to go on the road for the first time and it won't be easy. Iowa will travel to Ames to face Iowa State on Saturday Morning at 11 am. They say teams make their most improvement from week one to week 2 so I'm excited to see if some of the young players are more relaxed in their second game. Stanley now has a game under his belt so hopefully he will have more confidence in what he's seeing this week. Iowa should get James Daniels back which will be a big help for the offensive line. I'll put together a full preview of the Cy-Hawk Showdown sometime this week.
Thanks for reading and GO Hawks
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