IowaLawWasRight
Well-Known Member
A 23-19 win against an undefeated top 10 team salvaged the season for the Hawks. Wins against lowly Illinois and Nebraska will set this team up for a 10 win season...and extremely rare accomplishment at Iowa.
1. Tyler Goodson - Vindication for those of us who feel Kirk has a history of failing to always start his best players. Against Northwestern, Goodson got just 2 carries in the first half. Against Wisconsin, he had 5 carries total. This week, meritocracy finally prevailed. Goodson had 13 rushes for 94 yards (7.2 yards per carry) in the first 3 quarters. By comparison, Sargent, who has double the carries this the season, averaged just 3 yards today. We may never know why Oliver Martin hasn't been targeted in the past 5 games but had no problem seeing the field at Michigan, but at least Goodson is finally getting the carries he deserves. Maybe LaPorta will start getting starter reps as well?
2. Kristian Welch - What a difference having Welch back makes on defense. Welch and crew held Rodney Smith to 14 rushes for 46 yards. He had 11 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss, so it's hard not to wonder how much better the D would have played with him in there the past few weeks instead of a freshmen who was absolutely gashed by Jonathan Taylor last week.
3. Nate Stanley - Uggg. Once again, the Hawks won in spite of Stanley. His stats were average for a game manager, completing 14-23 for 173. By comparison, Minn's sophomore QB, who was playing in his first hostile environment, completed 25-36 for 368 against Iowa's top 10 defense. As has come to be expected, Nate had head scratching over throws, under throws, and unnecessary sacks in situations where most QBs would have had enough composure to throw the ball away. But where his randying around was most evident was on Iowa's last drive, nursing a small lead and trying to run the clock out with 3 min to go in the game. Nate leads the Big 10 in delay of game penalties, yet somehow when he actually needs to play slow, he clueless sprinted to a 3 and out, running just 1:30 of the clock, and failing to convert on yet another clutch 3rd down where he choked. The guy's not clutch, and there's no sense expecting that to change.
4. DLine - This game was won by the DLine. AJE enhanced his NFL draft highlight video with 2.5 sacks, Goldston & Lattimore each had 3 tackles, and Nixon was a beast clogging the middle. But perhaps most impressive to me was the play of the lesser hyped guys like Reiff and Joe Evans, who combined for 2 sacks up the middle. The DLine had a lot to prove after Wisconsin shredded them, and they stepped up.
5. Tyrone Tracy - I don't know where Tracy was in the beginning of the season, but he's come on since Smith's injury to become a solid #1 option in the receiving corp. 6 catches for 77 yards (and 11 yards rushing) after 5 catches for 130 yards last week. We're finally getting the kind of productivity out of our WRs that other schools expect on a weekly basis (by comparison, Minn's Johnson had 180 yrds receiving against us today and Wisconsin's Cephus had 94 yrds against us last week). The bottom line: being "tight end U" is nice, but having average to above average WRs who can make explosive plays is even better.
1. Tyler Goodson - Vindication for those of us who feel Kirk has a history of failing to always start his best players. Against Northwestern, Goodson got just 2 carries in the first half. Against Wisconsin, he had 5 carries total. This week, meritocracy finally prevailed. Goodson had 13 rushes for 94 yards (7.2 yards per carry) in the first 3 quarters. By comparison, Sargent, who has double the carries this the season, averaged just 3 yards today. We may never know why Oliver Martin hasn't been targeted in the past 5 games but had no problem seeing the field at Michigan, but at least Goodson is finally getting the carries he deserves. Maybe LaPorta will start getting starter reps as well?
2. Kristian Welch - What a difference having Welch back makes on defense. Welch and crew held Rodney Smith to 14 rushes for 46 yards. He had 11 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss, so it's hard not to wonder how much better the D would have played with him in there the past few weeks instead of a freshmen who was absolutely gashed by Jonathan Taylor last week.
3. Nate Stanley - Uggg. Once again, the Hawks won in spite of Stanley. His stats were average for a game manager, completing 14-23 for 173. By comparison, Minn's sophomore QB, who was playing in his first hostile environment, completed 25-36 for 368 against Iowa's top 10 defense. As has come to be expected, Nate had head scratching over throws, under throws, and unnecessary sacks in situations where most QBs would have had enough composure to throw the ball away. But where his randying around was most evident was on Iowa's last drive, nursing a small lead and trying to run the clock out with 3 min to go in the game. Nate leads the Big 10 in delay of game penalties, yet somehow when he actually needs to play slow, he clueless sprinted to a 3 and out, running just 1:30 of the clock, and failing to convert on yet another clutch 3rd down where he choked. The guy's not clutch, and there's no sense expecting that to change.
4. DLine - This game was won by the DLine. AJE enhanced his NFL draft highlight video with 2.5 sacks, Goldston & Lattimore each had 3 tackles, and Nixon was a beast clogging the middle. But perhaps most impressive to me was the play of the lesser hyped guys like Reiff and Joe Evans, who combined for 2 sacks up the middle. The DLine had a lot to prove after Wisconsin shredded them, and they stepped up.
5. Tyrone Tracy - I don't know where Tracy was in the beginning of the season, but he's come on since Smith's injury to become a solid #1 option in the receiving corp. 6 catches for 77 yards (and 11 yards rushing) after 5 catches for 130 yards last week. We're finally getting the kind of productivity out of our WRs that other schools expect on a weekly basis (by comparison, Minn's Johnson had 180 yrds receiving against us today and Wisconsin's Cephus had 94 yrds against us last week). The bottom line: being "tight end U" is nice, but having average to above average WRs who can make explosive plays is even better.