It wasn't pretty, but the #21 ranked Hawkeyes hit a last second field goal to beat an Iowa State team that lost its coach and 50+ guys off its roster...a team picked to finish 16th out of 16 teams in the Big 12. The 16-13 score tells us the Hawkeye offense could be problematic again this year after getting our hopes up with last week's 40 point scoring frenzy.
Why is Brown Locked in as Starter? Iowa's QB play was decent. Brown went 21 of 30 for 191 yards and 0 touchdowns. Solid stats for Iowa...but mediocre for a Big 10 QB. His lack of leg strength on QB sneaks and his tendency to lock in on his intended receiver from the moment he hikes the ball are signs that we've got another game manager leading the team who probably won't be winning games on his own. Brown did hit on one deep ball, which Hawk fans aren't accustomed to, but he mostly relied on check downs, with Moulton alone accounting for 6 catches. So what about Heck? It was just a month ago that he was head and shoulders above Brown, going 17-25 for 205 yards and 5 touchdowns while Brown went 9 for 21 for 41 yards. Was Heck really given a fair shot here?
Running Game Sputters After Dominating Last Week. Going into the season, the run game was supposed to be the team's strength. But against Iowa State's rag tag group of random transfers, the "elite" OL got virtually no push and the RBs looked slow and unable to break tackles. X Williams, who IowaLaw was high on last year, averaged just 1 yard per carry while Moulton averaged just 3.8 yards per carry with a long of just 7 yards. Basically the same kind of production he was putting up last year when Kirk opted to go to the portal to find someone better.
Vander Zee Still Returning Punts? IowaLaw was the only one complaining last week when the coaches trotted out Iowa's 6'4 possession receiver / borderline tight end to replace all-world 5'8 Wetjen at punt returner. Against NIU, Vander Zee seemed content to either fair catch despite plenty of running room or simply let the punt roll and roll. This week, RVZ was back there again (still no Lutmer or the kid who returned one for a TD last week?) it was more of the same. On the two punts he did return against ISU, he showed zero shiftiness or lateral quickness leaving IowaLaw perplexed why the staff wouldn't at least give some of the team's younger speedy WRs or DBs a shot to show their stuff.
Parker's Defense Dominates. After shutting out Northern Illinois 40–0 last week, Iowa's defense again carried the team. The Cyclones managed only 255 total yards and nine first downs, and the D allowed just eight yards in the fourth quarter when it counted. Buffington was an absolute beast and will be Iowa's next all-Big 10 LB. He finished with a career best 15 tackles. Underclassmen Jaylen Watson had his coming out party this week after being a highly touted recruit. He seemed to be in on every pass play and finished with 5 tackles and at least 1 deflection, if not 2 or 3.
DJ V Another Non-Factor Game. If you think it's weird for a coaching staff to put a 6'4 possession receiver back to return punts, how about running reverses to your 4.7 40 running tight end? Well, that's exactly the kind of randying around Lester pulled from his bag of tricks for a gain of 2 yards. The WRs, on the other hand, had zero carries on jet sweeps or counters. Like last week, DJ V had another 3 drops (one was tipped but still hit his hand) and just 2 receptions for 25 yards. Clearly Iowa's TEs the past few years have not been the caliber they had been the previous 20 years of building TE University.
Buhr & His Holder Clutch for the Hawks. Not only was walk-on Buhr a perfect 3/3 in field goals and 1/1 on PATs, but he was extremely clutch, nailing two high pressure 4th quarter field goals in an extremely close game. I've seen close ups of the snap on that game winning kick and it was so bad. I don't know how the holder had the reflexes he did to reach has far as he could to catch the snap then got the ball down lightning quick so Buhr was able to kick it in stride.
