DEFENSE: A-minus

The Hawks gave up one big play in the game, which came after the special teams miscue on the fake punt. They allowed just 92 passing yards, with 37 of those yards coming on one play, and 65 rushing yards, 37 of those coming off of the special teams fake punt, which isn’t on the defense per se. Micah Hyde probably won’t like the film study this week as it seems like he got caught staring into the backfield twice on the same drive.

The Defensive Line was their sturdy self, and it was fun watching Christian Ballard at end keeping up with backs out of the backfield, as he will shift back to tackle next week. Karl Klug and Mike Daniels were great inside and Adrian Clayborn was triple teamed at some points of the game. He was illegally blocked twice, and the Panthers were flagged both times.

Iowa started two new LB’s today, and the backup at MLB as Jeff Tarpinian didn’t go due to a hand injury. I thought they did a good job of keeping the lateral passing game in front of them and keeping contain and leading ball carriers into gang tackling areas.

Iowa’s safeties didn’t get a lot of work, because EIU didn’t throw the ball across the middle much. They attacked the flats for most of the day. Tyler Sash laid two huge hits and Bret Greenwood came up and make a great tackle for loss on a flare pass.

On the whole, EIU had 10 possessions and five of them were three and outs, with an asterisk; the fake punt series of downs where they scored a touchdown was also a three and out, but they converted the fake punt, so it could have been better. 5 of 10 is excellent.

OFFENSE: B

You have to factor in the typical season opening rustiness. Iowa was also had three offensive linemen making their first starts and I believe they did well at first blush. Adam Robinson is a nice runner to have on a Big Ten football team, and his value will come to the fore more in late October and November when the weather gets worse. For September and early October, you’d love to have a home run hitting option to mix in there because gains are there. Jewel Hampton will provide that next week when he returns for the ISU game.

One area that needs some more light shed on it is Robinson’s pass blocking. He saved Stanzi a few more knock downs..he is one of the best blocking tailbacks Iowa has had in a long time.

Rick Stanzi went down with an injury in the second quarter, and the entire Hawkeye Nation threw up in the back of their mouth. Well, at least I did. He came in later and while he favored the knee on one running play, he still turned in a solid day. 18 of 23 for 229 were Stanzi’s numbers on the day, with one touchdown. He was also involved in a fumbled snap when Iowa was at the EIU 2 yard line in the third quarter, robbing Iowa of a touchdown.

I took four hours of phone calls from Iowa fans after the game on Soundoff, and many people wondered why the receivers were not more involved, where were McNutt and DJK, things like that. Iowa’s tight ends caught eight passes between them. In last year’s season opener, Tony Moeaki caught 10 by himself. Iowa was also worked the quick outside routes, and those mostly went to Sandeman.

It looked like Iowa was working on Stanzi getting the ball out quicker, and some fast play action slant work. If it works well, and it was working well for Iowa for the most part, keep it going. For the most part, Iowa worked it’s bread and butter offense today. It only went deep one time, and Stanzi didn’t get enough air under the ball after McNutt had the defenders beat by five steps. We know this will change, but the Hawks were milking the usual cows.

I thought the offensive line was more than adequate on a day where three players were making their first start. MacMillan, Zusevics and Ferentz did a decent job and I am looking forward to watching the game a few more times to focus on the line play. Keeping in mind that Gettis, who might be their second or third best linemen, didn’t play, it was a solid opening game.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

Mike Meyer is a revelation in the kickoff game. Four of his six kickoffs went into the endzone, something we have not seen in a while. He also put several of them right in the Kaeding zone; three or four yards deep, where opponents get tired of taking a knee and dare to come out. When that happened on Saturday, the Panthers never once made it to the 20. Those are the hidden yards I have been talking about this offseason as it relates to the kickoff game. With the defense Iowa has, you are going to allow your offense to take over on shorter fields.

EIU’s average starting field position was their own 19 yard line for the game. By contrast, Iowa’s was their own 35. If Iowa gained 35 yards, it was in 47 yard field goal range. EIU needed to go 50 yards to get into long field goal range. That’s what a good leg on kickoffs will get you, along with a sand wedge punter like Ryan Donahue, whose long punt was caught by Micah Hyde at the EIU 4.

Paki O’Meara busted through the line and two EIU blockers to block a punt, he scooped it up and scored. Iowa did not have a punt block call on for that one, so it was all Paki. Iowa’s kickoff return coverage was exceptional, but the fake punt run that Iowa allowed was a big blemish. Teams don’t normally run a fake punt on 4th and 4 from their own 20 yard line. FCS teams down 21-0 at that point with nothing to lose and several hundred thousand dollars in the bank for playing the game at Kinnick, those teams do that. We won’t see that too many more times this year.

In general, some fans that called into Soundoff felt like Iowa could have done more. People were mildly disappointed that the Iowa offense didn’t open things up.

Having seen the Kirk Ferentz era up close and personal, the Hawks do what they do. In the early portion of the season, they work on the bread and butter that they will need later in the year when the stakes are much higher. They don’t play to the pollsters and they don’t get into the portion of the playbook in September they have no desire to use in November.

It was a solid opening game win, no one suffered a serious injury, Iowa won it by 30 points and the focus now turns to Iowa State. EIU’s offensive attack will be good game prep for ISU, who likes to run a lateral passing attack. Same can be said of Arizona, who dinked and dunked their way up and down the field on Friday night against Toledo. Each team can go vertical on you, too.

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