Friday night was simultaneously a near heart attack and a breath of fresh air for Hawkeye fans. Iowa, of course, defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 38-28 in their first Big Ten game of the season.
But
what stood out about Friday was not the road win against a Big Ten opponent or even the final score. The surprising aspect of Friday night was that the Hawkeyes relied on their offense to not only score points, but also fight from behind to do it. And they succeeded. That’s something that has been missing from the Hawkeyes since the departure of Ken O’Keefe as OC.
Iowa started hot with a big special teams play from Kaden Wetjen (and frankly, credit here should go to LeVar Woods and everyone on the field alongside Wetjen because he barely had to break stride with everyone executing blocks to perfection) but had to go punch-for-punch with the Knights as the defense gave up 21 first half points.
Ultimately, the Hawkeyes fell behind 28-24 before the offense came to the rescue and scored 14 unanswered points. The swing was complete with Gronowski finding Dayton Howard on a 42-yard bomb before ending the drive with a 2-yard rushing TD and a capstone QB sneak TD on the next drive to give Iowa the victory.
After years of leaning on the defense to suffocate opponents but knowing if they couldn’t keep them under 25 points the game was all but lost, it was truly refreshing to see the Iowa offense come out firing and actually mount a comeback to overcome early struggles from Phil Parker’s bunch.
Now, Iowa returns to Kinnick where that defense will face its biggest challenge of the season and the offense will be needed more than ever. They play host to the #11 Indiana Hoosiers on homecoming in Iowa City. The Hoosiers are fresh off a 63-10 thumping of then-#9 Illinois in week three.
IU is humming along on both sides of the ball, averaging more than 63 points per game on the season and close to 600 yards of total offense. They’re rushing for more than 300 yards per game and throwing for more than 275, led by QB Fernando Mendoza who has thrown 15 TD passes without an interception on the season. Given the way Rutgers was able to carve up the Iowa secondary in the first half last week, there is cause for concern entering week four. On the other side of the ball, the Hoosiers are top-20 nationally in rush defense, top-10 in pass defense and top-5 in scoring defense.
The only question is just how tested they are. Yes, Indiana walloped a top-10 Illinois team, but we may know more about how good Illinois truly is after this week than we did going into last week. And beyond that Big Ten opener, the Hoosiers have made their hay against he likes of Old Dominion (their closest game of the year at just 27-14), Kennesaw State and Indiana State.
The folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook opened with this one at Indiana -3.5, but that has quickly climbed as the betting public is heavily on IU. The line is all the way up to -7.5 in favor of the Hoosiers with an over/under at 48.5 total points. That’s an implied final score of Indiana 28, Iowa 20.5.
Unfortunately for those not in Iowa City this weekend, this game is set to be broadcast on Peacock. If you haven’t used your free trial, now is the time to do it.
Here’s a quick look at the full details for Saturday’s matchup.
Date: Saturday, September 27th
Time: 2:30 pm CT
Matchup: #11 Indiana Hoosiers (4-0, 1-0) Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1, 1-0)
Location: Kinnick Stadium – Iowa City, IA
TV: Peacock
Updated Weather Forecast: mostly sunny with temps in the low 80s
FanDuel Opening Line: Indiana -3.5, O/U 48.5
