All You Need To Know About The Most Recent Hawkeye Loss

Here is the only stat you need to know about Iowa - Purdue game.

Christensen ran the ball 8 times. Young ran the ball 7. They did let Sims run 11 times but I can pretty much guarantee that anytime Christensen is running the ball more times the Young, Iowa will lose.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Young needs at least 20 runs and Sims needs at least 15 runs. Every game. Whether they get 0 yards or 200. They give Iowa the best chance to win the game. They give Iowa the best chance to get first downs and give the defense a chance to rest. They give Iowa the best chance of not sending the punter out onto the field. They give Iowa the best chance of not having a receiver drop the ball or not be able to reach a ball thrown two yards behind them.

I don’t care if Iowa is down by 50. Young and Sims need to be running the ball.

Okay. Let’s hope they follow the game plan in next weekends game.

Will the road kill the offense

Over the last couple years, the Hawkeye team that goes on the road trips is not the same team that plays at Kinnick Stadium. Sure the players are the same, but they just don’t play with the same confidence or toughness.

This year, the offense has been pretty pathetic at home and away until they started moving the ball last week against Illinois. But now they are back on the road against Purdue and the Iowa offense is only a week older than they were last week.

The good news is that Purdue gives up nearly 400 yards a game. 250 through the air and 143 on the ground and they have given up 21 TDs in their 7 games. So the odds look good for the offense having some possibility of moving the ball.

Plus, Purdue lost handily to Michigan and Ohio State which happened to be the only two good teams they played. All of their wins were against some pretty sketchy teams and even those teams didn’t have too much trouble scoring some points.

But, can the Hawkeyes, with all of the young players on offense, actually move the ball at Purdue. One way or another, this appears to be a pivot game for the Hawkeyes. It is probably the toughest game left on the schedule and after this game 3 of the last 4 games will be at home.

I’m going to predict the Hawkeyes move the ball well enough, scoring 20 points when they actually let the field goal kicker play a few more times than against Illinois. Then the defense will pounce and hold Purdue to 13.

But I’ve been wrong before. Tune into ESPN2 at 11am tomorrow to see what happens.

Can the Hawkeyes get to a bowl game?

So, Iowa managed to beat Illinois.  They finally got around to really running the ball, play after play and getting first down after first down.  I have been begging for more running plays all season.  Don’t worry, Hawkeye coaches.  I don’t expect any compensation for helping you tweak your game plan.

And as I’ve been saying all along, that Iowa defense is pretty insane when given the chance to catch their breath every now and then.

And just like that, people are starting to talk about the Hawkeyes chances of a bowl game which is probably actually fairly reasonable given the insane number of bowl games and the fact that you just need to win half your games to be eligible for one of those bowls.

The good news is that with Minnesota and Western Michigan at the end of the schedule, there is a great chance at getting at least 2 more wins which would make the Hawkeyes bowl eligible.

In the other 3 games, Iowa plays Purdue, Michigan State, and Northwestern.  Slam dunks right?  That would leave Iowa a very respectable 8-4.

Michigan State has scored 32 TDs.  Purdue has 30 TDs.  Northwestern only has 24 TDs but most of those have come during wins the last two weeks where they scored 48 and 49 points.  Iowa has only scored 14 TDs.

Iowa’s defense should do just fine but in addition to just moving the ball, the Hawkeyes are going to need to actually get the ball into the end zone which is still a problem with all the injuries and youth on the offensive side of the ball. Hopefully, they will continue running the ball a lot and start breaking a couple plays a game.  I don’t think 10 points will end up beating Purdue, Michigan State, or Northwestern.

I’d really like to jump on the bandwagon but this is still a team that has only beaten one team not named Syracuse or Northern Illinois, is second from last in the Big Ten and still has not won a real road game.  However, if the offense can show some ability to actually get the football in the end zone on the road against Purdue I’ll probably start feeling a lot more confident about doing a little trash talking.

How do you beat the Hawkeyes?

Just throw the ball more than 15 yards every single time.  We have no idea how to stop it.  In fact most of the time, there won’t be a Hawkeye anywhere near the receiver.