Iowa football: Five observations in crazy win over Cyclones

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AMES, IA – SEPTEMBER 14: Defensive back D.J. Johnson #12 of the Iowa Hawkeyes breaks up a pass meant for wide receiver Joseph Scates #9 of the Iowa State Cyclones in the first half of play at Jack Trice Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Ames, Iowa. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images) /

Injuries have destroyed the secondary

I knew the injuries would be tough to overcome, but wow that was bad. With the late announcement that Matt Hankins was out against Iowa State, the Iowa football team would be heading into arguably their biggest rivalry game without four of their top six defensive backs.

It showed.

Brock Purdy and Deshaunte Jones carved up the Hawk’s secondary all night as they put up 327 passing yards, the third most against Iowa since 2016 (the other two were Iowa State in 2017 and Purdue last season).

In Kaevon Merriweather’s place was Jack Koerner and in Matt Hankin’s place was DJ Johnson.

Both Koerner and Johnson struggled and were equally responsible for the Cyclone’s two big passing touchdowns. The first one (the wide receiver pass) was on Johnson who bit on the swing route and let his guy fly right past him. The second was on Koerner as Iowa State ran a deep post and a deep flag. Koerner was supposed to take his guy but instead switched, leaving his guy wide open across the middle.

In addition to those struggles, the lack of secondary depth has forced the Iowa football team out of using their 4-2-5 defense that worked so well last year and while historically the Hawks do a solid job of running their 4-3 zone scheme, they need to be able to match up better against spread attacks otherwise you see what happened last night.

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