Iowa football: Stopping Purdue’s offensive trio key to winning Saturday’s game

Rondale Moore

Rondale Moore is the player the Iowa football team should be most worried about, and it sounds like they are.

Kirk Ferentz wasn’t afraid to lay the praise on the diminutive (5’9” 175 pound) freshman.

"Yeah, he’s awfully impressive, and I saw most — not most of the Ohio State game. We must have had a day game that week, right? That in itself was enough to impress anybody, not only playing the way he played but playing against that type of competition, it’s pretty unusual. For a guy that’s a senior it would be really impressive; to consider him being just out of high school, it’s awfully impressive. So he’s a very dynamic player, very explosive and very, very dangerous in a lot of regards."

He isn’t wrong though. The former four-star recruit has over 1,400 total yards this season with 802 coming through the air, 163 coming on the ground and 484 coming on kick and punt returns.

Against Ohio State, he couldn’t be stopped.  He hauled in 12 catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns in the rout of the Buckeyes two weeks ago.

Moore is going to get his touches, but the key is to reduce the effectiveness of each touch. In three of Purdue’s losses, He has averaged less than ten yards per catch on 25 catches.

It sounds like the Iowa football team is game planning to do just that but having a few of their own guys emulate what the freshman can do.

If the Hawkeyes can put pressure on Blough, stop DJ Knox in the run game and limit the damage of Moore in the passing game, they will be well on their way to a seventh win this season.

We will find out in tomorrow.