Iowa football: Five observations from victory over Minnesota

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IOWA CITY, IOWA- OCTOBER 19: Defensive end A.J. Epenesa #94 and defensive back Geno Stone #9 of the Iowa Hawkeyes walk off the field together following their match-up against the Purdue Boilermakers on October 19, 2019 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /

AJ Epenesa puts together a dominant performance

Iowa football fans have patiently waited for a game-changing performance from star defensive end AJ Epenesa, and in game ten, he delivered.

It’s not that he has performed poorly this year. He’s just been the focus of so much attention by offenses, it’s been hard for him to make an impact from a statistical perspective.

Last night it didn’t matter how much attention was paid to Epenesa as he dominated the Gopher’s offensive line.

He finished the night with 4 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 1 QB hurry. Had Iowa been able to recover his forced fumble, his impact would have been felt even more.

Simply put though, as the stats show, Epenesa worked the Gopher offensive line over good.

And he delivered in crunch time. With Minnesota getting the ball back with 1:35 left to play in the game, Epenesa exploded through the line from the defensive tackle spot to take down Tanner Morgan for an 8-yard sack. That sack also knocked Morgan out for the game, leaving Minnesota with two attempts to move the ball 21 yards with their first down.

If the Iowa football team wants to reach the new goal of ten wins this season, they’ll need more performances like this from AJ Epenesa.

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