Iowa football: Three ways the Hawks need to improve before they face Wisconsin

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IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 15: Quarterback Nathan Stanley #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes is sacked during the first half by defensive lineman Jared Brinkman #44 of the Northern Iowa Panthers on September 15, 2018 at Kinnick Stadium, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /

Nate Stanley

I want to be very clear that Nate Stanley had a MUCH better game against the Panthers than he did in the previous two weeks. One of the biggest issues in the first two weeks was Stanley appeared to be locking in on his first read and not progressing through the rest of his reads. Additionally, he looked like he was forcing and aiming his throws, not just letting his natural talent do the work.

This is something Kirk alluded to in last week’s Tuesday press conference that we did a write-up on.

While he did improve significantly against the Panthers there still a few head-scratching plays including his interception. The below tweet is a pretty accurate description of Stanley’s day.

Pretty good day for Stanley with a couple of bad throws mixed in; INT was just a panic throw with rush coming, WR84 was open & right read, just chopped his feet and rushed release, was looking like a good 2 min drill up to that point
— Hawkeye Gamefilm (@hawkeyegamefilm) September 17, 2018

Like I said earlier, it’s going to be tough to find major issues with the Hawkeyes game play Saturday, but for the Iowa football team to make a run, they need to clean up a few things. With the high expectations surrounding Nate Stanley’s ability, I expect some of these things to be better than they have been. From the first game to this game, Stanley has shown a significant amount of improvement, but I want to see him put it all together for a full game.

The team that faces that Nate Stanley should be scared because he is one of the most purely talented quarterbacks Kirk has ever had.

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