The Hawkeyes' 20-19 win will forever be remembered for its dramatic ending, but Iowa won this game despite another poor performance from the running game.
Though the Iowa players and coaching staff has already moved on to preparing for Saturday's massive showdown against No. 3 Ohio State at Kinnick Stadium, Hawkeye fans certainly haven't moved on from last weekend's dramatic win over Michigan.
Hank Brown's 16-yard touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee on the final play of the game will forever be remembered as one of the great plays in Iowa football history, but as is the case with every game, there were some concerning things that stood out from the Hawkeyes' win.
Here are three questions I still have about Iowa football after the unreal win at the Big House:
Why Can't Iowa Run The Football?
The most alarming result from Saturday's game was Iowa again not being able to run the football against a Power Four defense. We've seen what this loaded running back room is capable of against Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa, but there just hasn't been much real estate in the two most important games of the season. Hawkeye fans were quick to chalk up the poor performance against Iowa State (93 yds, 3.2 YPC) to the Cyclones' aggressive style at the line of scrimmage, but it didn't get much better against Michigan last weekend.
The Hawkeyes managed just 58 rushing yards on 2.4 yards per carry against the Wolverines, and though Michigan's defensive line is very good, Iowa not opening lanes with a talented offensive line is a little troublesome at this point in the season. We'll hear more from Kirk Ferentz and the players on Tuesday afternoon, so it will be interesting to hear their perspective on things with another ridiculously good defensive line in Ohio State on deck.
Why Can't Iowa Get To The Quarterback?
Iowa is never going to be a team that gets to the quarterback very often, but another one of my observations from the Michigan game was just how much the Hawkeyes struggled to get pressure on Wolverine quarterback Bryce Underwood. The sophomore has faced a lot of scrutiny in Ann Arbor this year, but he had arguably his best game against Iowa, going 17-for-26 for 276 yards and two touchdowns.
The passing numbers were great by themselves, but what allowed Underwood to have as much success as he did was his legs. The Hawkeyes recorded just one sack in this one, but that's not the only alarming figure. According to CollegeFootballData.com, Iowa tallied a front-seven havoc rate of just 1.7% (Michigan's was 6.7%), which has to improve if it wants to take down Ohio State this weekend.
What Will It Take To Get Offense To A Fast Start?
As good as Hank Brown was in the fourth quarter, he and the offense really struggled to find a groove for the first 45 minutes of that football game. A 99-yard kick return touchdown by Braeden Jackson and a bend, but don't break defense helped the Hawkeyes stay alive by the time the fourth quarter, but that's not going to be sustainable against the Buckeyes. Tim Lester needs to get things opened up early and often to give his group a chance.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]
