Iowa football: Five observations from win over Northwestern

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EVANSTON, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 26: Roderick Campbell #9 and Andrew Marty #7 of the Northwestern Wildcats celebrates after a play in the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the second quarter at Ryan Field on October 26, 2019 in Evanston, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

The Iowa football team is back to being conservative

Before I start on this, I realize that against Northwestern, the Iowa football team can’t afford to make silly mistakes, and they can’t afford to lose the field position battle, but this isn’t the same Northwestern team.

The offense couldn’t do anything against Phil Parker’s defense, and yet twice on fourth down and short in Northwestern territory, the Hawks decided to punt the ball.

That honestly isn’t what frustrated me though. The first time, Iowa ran out the clock for a delay of game and the second time they called a timeout. Why not just get Nate Stanley up there and do a hard count to see if you can draw the defensive line offsides? If it doesn’t work you still take a delay of game or call a timeout. You can’t win if you don’t shoot, and today, I felt like the Iowa football team took a step back in terms of aggressiveness on the offensive side of the ball.

Now, I know you may be saying well what about the 4th and 8 in the second half? Here’s my answer to that, the weather was too bad for Keith Duncan to kick that field goal from 45-50 yards, and we were in good enough field position that Kirk could live with the risk if it doesn’t go well. Fortunately, Kirk’s son Brian had a perfect play call to get it done.

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