This is stupid. Heck started out 2-6, then finished 12-13. Honestly, the TD passes were to wide open receivers. I can see why Kirk is still trying to figure who's better. KM running for 200+ plus yards had a huge hand in the win, also.
I was rewatching the game a bit last night. With 4:40 left in the first quarter, Heck threw an incomplete pass to Diaz, which put him at 2-7 for the game. And we punted. If I'm being honest, I was probably forming an opinion about Heck's overall ability at that point, as these results pretty much mirrored what we saw in the NIU and UNI games.
For what it's worth, the next play from scrimmage was Moulton's 56-yard touchdown run. That gave us the 13-0 lead, and perhaps more than anything, changed the game.
From that point on, Heck did not throw another incomplete pass. With 12 straight completions, he finished the day 14-19, topping 200 yards and throwing three touchdown passes.
Look back on my posting history, and you will see I've been a pretty strong supporter of Brown. I am even one of only a handful of people to have voted for Brown in the poll at the top of this thread (though I have also admitted I did so partially just to mess with the fanboys who have been blindly all-in on Heck from day one). I am still a big supporter of Hank, but if I'm picking our starter right now, I think I'm going with Heck.
The way I've come to look at it is this: Despite the slow start Friday night, Heck put together what has been the best performance by a Hawkeye QB all season. Yes, it was against a team that probably isn't very good. And yes, some of his receivers were wide open. But it was still an excellent performance, and as I've argued elsewhere (in defense of Brown), the results are the results. You don't get to pick and choose metrics to ignore.
Beyond the Washington game, I see two solid performances from Hank in the ISU and Michigan games, especially the winning drives in both games. He deserves credit for both performances. He also deserves credit for his play in the non-P5 games against NIU and UNI -- especially the UNI game when he didn't throw an incompletion.
But Hank also turned in what was clearly the worst performance by an Iowa quarterback this season during the tOSU game. Yes, it was against an outstanding defense. But it was still bad. And the results are the results.
Outside of the Washington game, Heck looked pretty mid in his appearances in the NIU and UNI games. Small sample size, but they still count. Then, in another small sample size, he looked great in his one late-game series against tOSU (perhaps as good a series for either QB all year). There's also the Kids Day practice, when he apparently looked sharp. Just a practice, but still part of the publicly available body of results.
So, I guess my conclusion is that Heck's best seems to be better than Hank's best, though there are good examples of both. We have also seen that Hank's worst has been worse than Heck's worst, imho. Obviously, every game is different, and context matters. So does sample size. I think we have two good QBs, and I will continue rooting for both. But for now, I think we need to keep riding the Heck train and see where it leads us.