The Season started with a nice victory for the Hawkeyes as they beat Miami 38 to 14. They did get off to a slow start trailing 7 to 3 and only leading 10 to 7 at halftime. They took control of the game in the second half outscoring Miami 28 to 7. I haven't had a chance to re-watch the game yet so these our my thoughts from Kinnick Stadium. I'll talk about some of the things that stood out to me.
First of all on offense Nate Stanley had a strong game completing 21 of 30 passes 252 yards and 3 touchdowns to 3 different receivers. Nate had one bad play where he looked like he panicked a little bit in the pocket where it didn't look like anyone was around him but the clock in his head said to move out of the pocket and he was called for intentional grounding. Stanley had a couple of nice runs to pick up 1st downs one on a QB Read play and the other a great scramble with the pressure closing in.
All 3 Running Backs that played looked very good led by Mekhi Sargent. I was very impressed with his vision and ability to find the hole. Their were a couple of times where he was one broken tackle from being off to the races. He also showed his versatility in the pass game which we did see last year. Toren Young ran tough and showed good vision. Freshman Tyler Goodson also showed a nice burst and I was impressed that he was getting carries in a closer game in the 4th Quarter.
The Wide Receiving core has me really excited. All 5 Receivers that played had a reception and 3 different receivers scored touchdowns. Anytime we throw a jump ball to Brandon Smith is a good thing he will have a lot of those fade routes thrown his way in the red zone. I would like to see Ihmir Smith Marsette get the ball more. I liked that they ran a jet sweep to him and the Jailbreak Screen for the Touchdown was nice. It was great to see Oliver Martin have early success catching a Touchdown on a nice fade route. Tight End Shaun Beyer showed an ability to catch the ball in traffic on one play that was very similar to what TJ did last year.
I can't forget about the offensive line they consistently pushed Miami off the ball. That is to be expected but it was nice to see anyways. They also gave Stanley plenty of time to throw. Iowa averaged 5.2 yards per carry on the day rushing for 213 yards.
I also thought the play calls in the run game were very good. I loved seeing us running out of shotgun with trips on one side of the field to not allow teams to just load up the box. Iowa ran against 6 and 7 man fronts a lot of the time which they are going to win that battle more times then not. They still ran some I-Form but they also mixed in the runs out of the gun. I hope we see more of this throughout the season because it's very difficult to run into 8 or 9 man fronts.
It was a good way to start the season 465 yards of total offense. The offense showed a lot of versatility in the way they can attack defenses this year. 5 different players had touchdowns with 3 different receivers Brandon Smith, Ihmir Smith Marsette and Oliver Martin. Both the top two RB's scored Mekhi Sargent and Toren Young. I'm looking forward to next week vs Rutgers to see this offense continue to develop.
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