Iowa Football: Hawkeyes, now 4-0, roll past Blue Raiders

The last non-conference game for Iowa football has been won 48-3. I will recap the action and give you some of my immediate takeaways.

The Iowa football team picked up 24 points and over 350 yards in the first half of the game this year. In most seasons, this is an entire game.

When your second string running back has 100 yards on the ground, you know your team has had a good game.

The passing game was on today as well. Stanley looked about as good today as he ever has with a Hawkeye uniform.

Like any college game, the offense was not without fault. We missed a field goal late in the first half, dropped a few passes early in the second half, and committed a few penalties throughout the game.

None of these mistakes mattered in the grand scheme of the game, but they need to be minimized for the gauntlet the Iowa football team goes through in the next few weeks.

The defense, while still doing their job, was helped greatly by penalties by Middle Tennessee. The box score did not reflect this until Middle Tennessee started driving down the field late in the third quarter.

The drive ended in a field goal but would have yielded six against a better opponent.

Andrew mentioned a few keys that he was watching for today earlier.

Here are a couple of outcomes related to what he was hoping to see:

•         Petras – and the backup Iowa defense – were in for the majority of the fourth quarter
•         Corners overall looked good (136 total passing yards allowed). The way Middle Tennessee moved the ball was via the QB run.
•         Banwart had a rough day early with a holding penalty. However, when Iowa compiles over 300 yards on the ground, fans should praise the offensive line.
•         Alaric Jackson did not appear to make an appearance, nor did many of the injured players. Personally, I think this was better than unnecessarily playing them
•         While Geno Stone left the game, he came back shortly afterward. I did not notice any other injury today

For those counting, Iowa accomplished at least three of these outcomes, which is exactly what Andrew hoped.

One other thing to note is how fantastic Tyler Goodson looks. He is the one Iowa player I’ve seen that has the ability to make a 41-3 game exciting.

Of course, the Iowa football team was unable to get him the final touchdown. Spencer Petras got it with a sneak late in the fourth to complete a 48-3 win.

Overall, this is normally one of the games early in a season where most observers cannot learn much about their team. The team on the other sideline is a middle-of-the-pack Conference USA team and that matters.

However, according to the ESPN broadcast, today’s 644 yards was the most Iowa has gained under Kirk Ferentz. Maybe we should start talking about Brian Ferentz as a legitimately good offensive coordinator.

The Hawkeyes beat them in an emphatically Iowa-style game. This style is not going to boost our Hawkeyes in the polls like Penn State’s whipping of Maryland likely will.

Make no mistake about it though, Iowa played a good, complete game on both sides. They made some mistakes, which I’ve identified. These, however, are the games you schedule to work through some of these issues.

The Hawkeyes have an enormous two weeks ahead. For now, let’s celebrate Kirk Ferentz’s fifth 4-0 start.