Iowa football: Defense stuffs Montgomery as the Hawks beat ISU

The Iowa football program took on Iowa State in the annual Cy-Hawk trophy game yesterday. For the second week, it was Iowa’s defense that carried the Hawks.

After a 2017 season that saw Nate Stanley take the leap from exciting prospect to bona fide star quarterback for the Hawkeyes, expectations were high for Brian Ferentz’s offense. Through two games, however, it’s the Hawkeye defense that is carrying the team. Against the Cyclones, the Iowa football team stuffed a high-powered offense in route to a 13-3 win.

This outcome is pretty surprising considering the number of returning players from last year’s overtime shootout thriller where Iowa stole a victory from the Cyclones 44-41.

The Iowa State offense led by sixth year senior Kyle Kempt and last year’s Big 12 First-Team Halfback David Montgomery was held in check throughout the day’s ugly festivities. The Cyclones took the lead quickly after taking the ball 66 yards down the field before settling for a field goal on their first drive of the game. That was the last time the Hawks would cede another point.

Until the Hawks finally got on the board with 5:18 left in the second quarter on a short field goal, the game was pretty boring if you love offense. In that time there were five punts, including two shanked punts by Iowa State punter Corey Dunn, and a missed field goal by Iowa’s kicker Miguel Recinos.

The second half didn’t start off much better as the defensive struggle continued. In seven drives, there were four punts, one turnover on downs, and a missed field goal (again by Iowa’s Miguel Recinos). Iowa did manage to squeak out three points to take the lead with 6:34 left in the third quarter.

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s defense began to really turn it up a notch after that.

During this sack, Epenesa unintentionally fell on Kempt’s ankle resulting in the Iowa State captain to leave the game.

A few minutes later the Hawkeyes offense decided to wakeup as Nate Stanley led the team on a 13 play, 83 yard drive that ended with a Mekhi Sargent touchdown run with just under give minutes remaining.

Iowa’s defense could do the rest, closing out the game with a strip-sack by AJ Epenesa (his second sack of the game) on backup quarterback Zeb Noland.

Iowa State’s offense would finish with just 169 passing yards and 19 rushing yards. Iowa State’s other captain, David Montgomery would only finish with 44 yards on 17 carries. This was one of the key storylines we talked about earlier in the week.

While there are many things for the Iowa football program to improve upon after this game (specifically on offense), coming away from a tough rivalry game with a victory is fantastic. The Iowa football program will be taking on another in-state team in FCS powerhouse, the University of Northern Iowa Panthers next week before jumping into their Big Ten schedule.

Stay tuned for our deeper post-game analysis pieces from the game including the game’s standout players, what needs to improve, and our take on the ever evolving linebacker unit.