It seems card stunts weren't the only tricks that Iowa had up its sleeve in its 41-31 win over Northwestern.
Consider the following statistics: Northwestern converted 16 of 22 third downs. Iowa went 1-for-7.
Northwestern ran 92 to plays. Iowa ran 50.
Northwestern held the ball for 38:23. Iowa had possession for 21:37.
Northwestern gained 495 yards on offense. Iowa gained 379.
Normally, Iowa would come out on the losing end of those numbers.
However, as every football fan knows, the only numbers that matter are the ones on the scoreboard when the clock reads 00:00.
As the Hawkeyes head into homecoming week to face the 1-6 Indiana Hoosiers, there is a great deal to take away from this game in terms of the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good: Place kicker Mike Meyer was 2-for-2 on field goals and 5-for-5 on extra points. He had a long of 40.
Punter Eric Guthrie continued his stellar year, as he averaged 40 yards on three punts, with one inside the 20.
The Bad: While Northwestern kick returner Venric Mark's average of 20.3 YPR on seven returns was not stellar, he had a couple of big returns, including one for 35 yards and one for 31. Iowa cannot afford to give up good field position on kickoffs.
The Ugly: Early in the third quarter, Mike Meyer had his third out-of-bounds kickoff on the year. That gave the ball to NU at their own 40. That is entirely unacceptable.
The Good: Keenan Davis had five catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Marvin McNutt had six catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. Both had catches for over 30 yards. Though neither played an inspiring game against Penn State last week, I will stand by my early-season contention that this is the best receiver duo in the Kirk Ferentz era.
The Bad: Kirk Ferentz and Ken O'Keefe have to use these guys vertically from the opening snap to the closing gun. Moreover, they have to find ways to get the ball into their hands on the run.
One would have thought Marvin McNutt was in church, given that his first three catches were all made on his knees. He needs to get the ball on the move so that he can outphysical the usually much smaller player that is tasked with covering him.
Furthermore, Michigan State and maybe Nebraska are the only secondaries on Iowa's remaining schedule that have a chance of matching up against McNutt and Davis. In effect, the Hawkeye coaches have to go to McNutt and Davis every single time they see the opposition trying to run single man coverage.
The Ugly: Drops still plague this bunch. McNutt and Davis were clean—to the best of my memory—but third receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley had a key drop in the first quarter that led directly to a stalled Hawkeye drive.
The Good: Fullback Brad Rogers is back and healthy. That is good news both for the Hawks and for Rogers, who has missed the last nine months with a heart issue.
Marcus Coker is beginning to look like the player we hoped he would be following his 219-yard Insight Bowl performance. He is not nearly as explosive as Shonn Greene, but he is almost as adept at bowling over defensive backs, and he has gotten back some of the confidence and decisiveness that he lacked early in the year.
Also, he is a great receiver out of the backfield.
The Bad: Kirk Ferentz is still searching for a backup to Coker.
Later in the game, redshirt freshman De'Andre Johnson got some carries, but nobody other than Coker saw the field when the game was on the line.
The Ugly: True freshman Jordan Canzeri might have been that backup option, but he was a last minute scratch due to a pulled hamstring.
Hopefully, Canzeri gets healthy quickly, because Iowa needs a big play, change-of-pace back that can make hay between the 20s. Coker is a five-yards-per-carry type of back.
The Good: Iowa had 155 yards rushing for 5.5 YPC. They also gave up zero sacks to an aggressive, if not good, Wildcat defense.
On top of that, the Hawks are building up a wealth of depth, as they rotated both guard positions throughout the game. That is good for now, and it is very good for the future.
The Bad: Sophomore guard Nolan MacMillan still hasn't played due to a sports hernia. There might not be so much rotation in there if MacMillan were healthy.
The Ugly: Two motion penalties on the line while an audible was being called?
There are two unacceptable penalties for an offensive lineman. One is holding on a screen. The second are motion penalties during an audible.
The Good: It is evident how much faith the coaches have in the redshirt junior out of Keokuk.
Overall, JVB played a good game. He only made one really bad throw—the interception—and it wasn't so much a "bad" throw as it was a second too late.
He missed a couple of other throws, but generally speaking, he didn't try to force anything.
Finally, when he is hot, he is on fire. On Iowa's final five drives, Vandenberg was 5-for-6 for 78 yards and a touchdown. He also had two rushes for 16 yards.
The Bad: As previously mentioned, I'd like to see the playcalling veer more toward the quarterback's and receivers' strengths.
JVB is still not entirely comfortable with the playaction game. Moreover, what happened to the no huddle wrinkle that Iowa was playing with? Has it been abandoned? Because it seems like it would have worked pretty well on Northwestern's porous secondary.
The Ugly: Vandenberg has got to be more consistent. He's young and he is learning, but just as he is on fire when he's hot, he's pretty icy when he's cold.
As it happens, the Hawks won't play another good defense until November, so hopefully he can work the kinks out over the next two weeks.
The Good: There was much better play from this position group than we saw against Penn State. In fact, the tight ends might have been the worst position group against the Nits, and that's saying something.
This game, they protected the quarterback when applicable, sustained their blocks and helped lead Marcus Coker to the second level.
In fact, it was a block by senior tight end Brad Herman—one that was very close to holding—that freed up Vandenberg on his fourth quarter 14-yard scamper.
The Bad: The tight ends had no catches for no yards against Northwestern. On the bright side, there weren't any drops, but when was the last time Iowa tight ends had this little productivity in the passing game?
In order to answer that question, you have to go back to before Kirk Ferentz.
The Ugly: C.J. Fiedorowicz didn't do anything truly "ugly," and, in fact, he had a strong game on special teams. I'm just left to wonder where he is. His blocking must be dreadful for Ferentz to keep him off the field. A player with his size (6'7", 265 pounds) could be eating safeties for lunch.
The Good: Kirk Ferentz seems to recognize that this is a pass-first team. The run is there, but in order to open up the running game, he needs to pass. The head man has embraced that, which is easier said than done for Ferentz.
All things considered, the Hawks have done a good job of protecting the ball. After six games, they are near the top of the conference in fewest turnovers lost.
There is a lot of big play potential with this group, particularly the passing game.
Something else to consider is that Penn State, who squashed the Iowa O, was the best D the Hawks will face all season. Though Michigan State, Michigan and possibly Nebraska will field formidable defenses, none of them will hold the Hawks like the Nits did.
The Bad: My issue concerns Iowa taking advantage of that big play potential. While the Hawks do lead the conference in passing plays of 20 yards or longer, they are near the bottom of the conference in passing plays of 30 yards are longer.
The Hawks' two biggest playmakers are Davis and McNutt. They are both big, physical, NFL-type receivers that can make plays downfield. They need to be consistently put in a position where they can do that.
Finally, while Ferentz has embraced the pass-first dynamic of this team, I'm still not sure he has fully accepted the fact that if this year's Hawks are to be successful, they have to lead with the offense.
The Ugly: Where are the tight ends?
Up until last season, every starting tight end under Kirk Ferentz got drafted. And last season's starter, Allen Reisner, was only recently released by the Vikings. That streak will end with this year's team.
The Good: Free safety Tanner Miller is starting to get comfortable back there. That is really good news, as he will be patrolling the free safety position for the next three seasons.
Also, Micah Hyde is playing like an all-conference cornerback.
Lastly, getting true sophomore cornerback B.J. Lowery back from injury helps. He gives the Hawks options they were previously missing on passing downs.
The Bad: Iowa cannot continue to play its base defense on passing downs.
The Iowa defensive coaches made it very easy on the Northwestern quarterbacks. Persa/Colter/Siemian simply had to locate which receiver was being covered by a linebacker. Once he did that, he knew where he was going to throw it. That played a large part in the Wildcats' success on third down.
In short, the coaches are not giving the defense its best chance for success.
The Ugly: What is wrong with Shaun Prater? I never felt he would be as good as former Iowa cornerback—and current Detroit Lions starting safety—Amari Spievey, but Prater continues to have mental lapses. I don't like to pick on individual student-athletes, but I am admittedly perplexed.
Also, strong safety Jordan Bernstine has continued to play solid ball, but teams can and are targeting him in coverage.
The Good: Three sacks and generally a good job of containing the slipperiest quarterback to play in the Big Ten since Drew Tate.
Also, they held the Cats to 3.7 YPC on 41 carries. That is less than Northwestern's season average. The only team that was more successful against the Wildcat rushing game was Illinois, which held them to 3.31 YPC.
Seniors Broderick Binns and Mike Daniels and sophomore Dominic Alvis stepped up multiple times. That is especially good to see from the seniors, who faced a good deal of criticism last season.
The Bad: As previously mentioned, the defensive schemes on third down did the defensive line no favors.
Admittedly, Persa is, by far, the best quarterback Iowa will face all season, and the only one that can consistently complete over 60 percent of his passes. Still, the coaches have to do something to get the defense off the field.
16-22 on third down is just not acceptable, and while the injuries to starters James Morris and Thomas Nardo played a part, the schemes did not deal with the situation on the field.
The Ugly: During the stretch between the second and third quarters, where Northwestern was moving the ball at will, the Iowa defensive line was getting pushed all over the place.
Also, Persa is the best quarterback Iowa will face all season, but let's face it, he was playing on one leg.
The Good: Iowa is mixing up looks. They ran a number of 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 looks against Northwestern. Also, they have blitzed more this season than they ever have in the past. In short, Iowa is not just sitting back and playing the same old scheme over and over again.
As previously mentioned, the seniors, Binns and Daniels, are taking ownership of this team.
Also, the secondary, despite Prater's previously mentioned inconsistent play, is steadily improving, and since Iowa State, has played better than the stats would indicate.
Finally, the Hawkeyes will not play another quality passing quarterback for the rest of the season.
MSU's Kirk Cousins is decent, but he has a tendency to fall apart in big games. Otherwise, there are no signal callers on Iowa's remaining schedule that have completed over 60 percent of their passes. In fact, most of them haven't completed over 55 percent of their passes.
The Bad: Linebacker depth is ugly. Frankly, I'm surprised Iowa did as well as it did against Northwestern given how much it had to scrape by with linebackers.
The tackling simply has to improve, and I don't know what the answer is, but the Hawks need to find a way to generate a consistent pass rush.
The Ugly: The fact is this defense is not nor will it ever be near the quality of defenses Iowa has fielded since 2008.
They are undersized, undermanned, inexperienced and not overly talented.
In short, the dynamic of this team is that the offense will have to win games and the defense will have to do what it can.
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