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Iowa Football: Grades for Performances Against Minnesota
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Grades for each unit on Iowa for their performance against Minnesota
It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win. Iowa football should make that their official slogan this year because it seems like everyone says that after every game.
There’s no doubt that the Iowa Hawkeyes haven’t been the same dominating team that they were in 2015. They’re not blowing teams out and their wins aren’t in impressive fashion at all. Although, at this point, Iowa will be happy with any win.
The Hawkeyes moved to 4-2 as they’ve concluded the first half of their season. As disastrous of a season as it seems, Iowa is still in the thick of things in the Big Ten West. In fact, if they continue to find ways to win, they have a decent shot at winning the Big Ten West, even if their play doesn’t suggest that.
The second half of the season holds a lot of intrigue, although Iowa should head into it with more confidence after they defeated their first respectable opponent of the season.
After loses to North Dakota State and Northwestern, they still had to prove that they could win against decent teams. Even if it wasn’t in eye-popping fashion, they proved they can win against solid teams after defeating Minnesota.
Here’s a look at how each unit on Iowa performed during their win over Minnesota.
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Offense: D-
It was brutal to watch the Hawkeyes offense try to score on Minnesota. The Gophers came into the game giving up 26 points per contest but the Hawkeyes only managed three points in the first half and would have lost 7-6 if it wasn’t for a 54-yard touchdown run by Akrum Wadley late in the fourth quarter.
Just like most of the year, the Hawkeyes relied on their defense to keep them in the game. Luckily for Iowa, this time their offense did just enough.
While just enough might be accepted at the beginning of the season when teams are still making adjustments, Iowa needs to be better than this halfway through the year. This is already the second time in three Big Ten games that they’ve failed to score 15 points, after only failing to do so once in 2015.
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Despite struggling to score, the Hawkeyes did sustain a couple of decent drives. They held the ball for nearly 10 minutes longer than Minnesota, a feat that has not occurred often for Iowa this season. They also had three drives of at least eight plays that didn’t result in points, and four drives lasted at least four minutes.
The ability to move the ball has been a problem for Iowa, therefore it’s a good sign that they controlled the tempo of the game. That being said, multiple drops by Riley McCarron and Jerminic Smith, and three turnovers, including one that killed an 11 play drive that lasted nearly five minutes, won’t win many games.
Not to mention, besides Wadley’s 54-yard touchdown scamper, the Hawkeyes running game had problems. The offensive line didn’t give them a lot of room to work as LeShun Daniels Jr and Wadley were constantly met at the line. In fact, if you take away Wadley’s touchdown run, Daniels and Wadley combined to rush for 119 yards on 30 carries — 3.9 yards per carry.
It became evident that while the play calling allowed C.J. Beathard to get rid of the ball quickly and avoid sacks, even if he continued to take big hits, it didn’t solve the lack of running lanes.
Plus, Beathard had a couple of uncharacteristic poor decisions that resulted in turnovers. Beathard is usually a very smart passer, however he had a lot of lapses in judgement on Saturday that could have cost the Hawkeyes.
When it comes down to it, the Hawkeyes looked like the Hawkeyes on offense. They didn’t score, didn’t block, throw or run well, and the lack of a true receiving threat hurt them. In the end, though, Iowa did just enough and that’s what really matters. But there’s no doubt that there are major holes still on the offense.
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Defense: A
After Iowa’s bend but don’t break defense broke against Northwestern and allowed a season-high 38 points, the defense reverted back to normality against Minnesota. They forced three turnovers for the first time since week one against Miami (OH) and allowed a mere seven points.
Minnesota shot themselves in the foot with eight costly penalties, but Iowa capitalized on their mistakes and took away the run game, as a result.
Minnesota only ran the ball with Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith 21 times because of the long distances they put themselves in. Brooks did score in the third quarter to give Minnesota a 7-6 lead, although, for most of the game, the Gophers relied on Mitch Leidner‘s arm.
It did not go well, simply put. Leidner completed a mere 13-of-33 passes, an atrocious 39.3 completion percentage. Not to mention that Leidner also threw two interceptions and only gained one rushing yard on five carries due to Iowa putting pressure on him all game.
This was the first week that Iowa has been able to get consistent pressure on the quarterback, and it paid off. They sacked Leidner twice and forced a lot of hurried and inaccurate throws. Plus, they held top receiving option Drew Wolitarsky to just five catches for 58 yards.
As dominating as the defensive line was, the secondary stole the show. Desmond King had a near pick-six, and arguably had his best game of the season. Also, freshman defensive back Manny Rugamba intercepted the first pass of his career. Rugamba came into the game with his only action coming against Iowa State, however he was able to halt a 12 play drive.
Safety Brandon Snyder had arguably the best afternoon, though. After Bo Bower forced a fumble in the first quarter, Snyder recovered the fumble for the Hawkeyes. Snyder also intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter that gave Iowa a chance to ice the game.
Iowa’s defense had very little room for error against Minnesota, especially in the fourth quarter. Minnesota had six drives in the fourth quarter alone, and Iowa held them to four 3-and-outs, an interception and stopping them on fourth down on a potential game-tying drive.
They gave the offense plenty of opportunities to put the game away early, although one bad drive that resulted in a touchdown nearly cost the Hawkeyes.
Sure, Brooks had a couple of nice runs and could have wreaked havoc if Minnesota didn’t put themselves in passing situations all game, but the defense made big stops and kept Minnesota off the scoreboard. The defense had its best game of the season and should gain even more confidence next week against a sub-par Purdue offense.
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Special Teams/Coaching: B+
Special teams had a couple of mishaps this week, although none were costly in the grand scheme of things. Kirk Ferentz opted towards trying a 50-yard field goal, sending Miguel Recinos into the game. Recinos was short and off-target, making it a questionable decision by Ferentz, even though Iowa faced a 4th and 11.
Keith Duncan connected on both of his field goal tries, though. The freshman kicker is now 4-for-4 on field goals this season, although has yet to attempt one from 30-plus yards.
In the return game, Desmond King proved why many regard him as the best returner in the Big Ten. He averaged 24 yards per kickoff return and his longest punt return went for 22 yards. However, King did have one near costly mistake to start the second half when he put the ball on the ground. Luckily, Iowa recovered.
On the sidelines, Iowa has had a lot of questionable play calling this year, however, they had the right mindset against Minnesota. Offensively, they called quick three-step drops so C.J. Beathard wasn’t constantly being sacked and it also did not put too much pressure on the offensive line.
Also, despite the run game not working extremely well, they stuck to the run and didn’t panic and become a pass-heavy offense. Beathard still attempted 31 passes on the afternoon, however it seemed like a much better balance. They could have tried more play-action since Minnesota was packing the box, although that likely would have resulted in a hurried throw from Beathard, considering how often Minnesota blitzed.
On defense, Iowa knew they had to stop the run, so they honed in on Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks. It resulted in great pressure on the quarterback, as well, which in turn helped their secondary. Iowa made the needed adjustments after allowing Northwestern to score 38 points on them, and it worked like a charm.
It’s easy to blame the coaches when a team is under-performing, but Iowa’s coaching staff coached a very good game on Saturday.
Sure, they were a little conservative at times, although with the way the defense was playing you could see where they were coming from. If Iowa was down or their offense was moving the ball well, Ferentz might have been more willing to go for it on fourth and short.
In the end, Kirk Ferentz had a very sound coaching game. The Hawkeyes will need Ferentz and the rest of the coaching staff to be near perfect to have a chance of upsetting one of the three ranked teams left on their schedule.
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