Iowa Football vs Nebraska Cornhuskers: Four Players to Watch
By Jeremy Karll
QB, C.J. Beathard
2016 Stats: 58.2 CP%, 1,730 Passing Yards, 14 TDs, 7 INTs
It’s C.J. Beathard‘s last home game as an Iowa Hawkeye. It hasn’t been the remarkable senior season that everyone hoped for from him, but Beathard still has a couple of games left to improve on his play from recent weeks.
This is a big test for Beathard after Nebraska got the best of him a year ago. The Cornhuskers forced Beathard into completing 9-of-16 passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. It was one of just two games last season where Beathard failed to reach 100 passing yards.
This season, he is coming off back-to-back weeks of failing to reach 100 passing yards. In the past two weeks, Beathard is only completing 47.2 percent of his passes for 146 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Part of it is Michigan has a very good defense, and Iowa reverted back to running the ball as of late, but he also did not look good against Illinois a week ago.
Granted he only had 17 pass attempts, two fewer than against Michigan, but Iowa had to run the ball due to poor throws, decisions and drops. Iowa has had problems with drops all season, but Beathard’s poor throws have just started to happen in recent weeks.
He has to fix that issue this week against a defense with 16 interceptions. Keyan Williams has five for Nebraska and Nathan Gerry has four. In fact, the Cornhuskers have four players with at least three interceptions. Beathard has thrown an interception in each of Iowa’s last three games, but he can’t turn it over against a team who thrives on forcing turnovers.
It’s Beathard’s last hurrah at Kinnick Stadium, where has gone 10-3 as a starter, but Iowa needs the senior quarterback to step up on senior day in order to win. The Hawkeyes can’t solely rely on their run game.