The Morning After: Savor This
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Well Hawkeye fans how are you feeling!? If you’re reading this on Saturday morning your Hawkeyes have already wrapped up a dub for the weekend and are sitting pretty at 5-1 going into a bye week with its sole loss to a team that will most certainly be in the playoff field and could win the national championship. Isn’t it kind of nice to be able to enjoy the Saturday slate of college football without the anxiety that comes with a tough game for your team?
Going into this year, we all were told a 2-1 record in the first 3 big ten games would be much better than expected and would set this team up for a possible playoff berth. Here we are and it didn’t even feel that tough, did it? That’s something to celebrate and not take for granted!
The Washington Huskies just never quite arrived to this game, which is a gift Hawkeye fans will glady accept. The opening kickoff to the Hawkeyes was out of bounds, giving the Hawkeyes the ball at the 35. The Hawkeyes came out running and gashed the Huskies on 3 straight runs to start the first offensive possession. Though the drive ultimately stalled in Washington territory and ended in a 51 yard Cade Buhr field goal, the night was off to a good start.
The first Husky possession was a 3 and out ended by a 3rd down sack by none other than Cam Buffington. Phil Parker dialed up a linebacker blitz at the right time to end that drive – something that would be a theme throughout the game.
Phil sent linebacker pressure more than is usual for the Hawkeyes to great success as the Hawkeyes logged 6 sacks on a night where it felt like they could have had 12. Cam and Bryce Hawthorne spent a lot of time in the Husky backfield causing all sorts of hell for starting QB Demond Williams Jr. in the first half.
If there were any nerves from Hawkeye fans at all in this game it was early when the Hawkeyes settled for 2 field goals on drives that showed promise but couldn’t find the promised land. That angst was relieved later in the first half when Kamari Moulton went beast mode for a 56 yard touchdown late in the first quarter. In what was in my opinion the play of the game, Moulton broke 4 attempted tackles on the way to pay dirt. At that point the game was 13-0 Iowa and was never in question thereafter.
In the pants predicts I said the Hawkeyes would win this game and that Jeremy Hecklinski would play well enough to re-ignite the quarterback controversy. Please disregard the times where I’ve been wrong in my predictions (very rare I assure you) but I am entitled to a short victory lap here. Do I think Hecklinski has earned the starting role? I honestly don’t know! What I do know is that Hecklinski looked good out there on his way to 3 touchdowns, no picks, and 202 yards on 14/19. For proper context – the Husky defense struggled badly today and some of the throws Hecklinski made for chunk plays and touchdowns were so open that I may have been able to make the play. Where I’m at personally – the Hawkeyes have the luxury of two quarterbacks you can trust to competently lead the offense. This is a good thing!
Potential QB controversies aside, for the Hawkeye offense the story of this game was Kamari Moulton and the offensive line. Moulton had 208 yards with an 8 yard per carry average; that kind of run game will pretty much always result in a win for your team. The offensive line got great push today, but credit belongs to Moulton who looked like a man on a mission every time he carried the rock, punishing tacklers for extra yardage and fighting for every inch. He was unstoppable today.
On the defensive side the Hawkeyes held the Huskies to negative rushing yards, and only gave up a lot of passing yardage because they went into prevent defense in the 2nd half. To me the MVPs of this game were Cam Buffington, Bryce Hawthorne, and Xavier Styles, in that order, with an honorable mention to Jayden Montgomery. Linebacker blitzes were working very well last night and the front 6 lived in the backfield all night, disrupting anything the Huskies tried to get going whether it be run or pass. Buffington is a tackle machine and already to me reminds of Jack Campbell. Hawthorne is an absolute beast at defensive tackle and his dominance can’t be appreciated only by reference to a box score; the Husky offense had no answer for his consistent disruption. Xavier Styles absorbed some earned pass interference calls tonight but his effort and presence is undeniable. He was disrupting routes, getting physical with receivers, and making tackles (he led the team with 9 total tonight (8 solo!)).
Hawkeye fans have to be excited about what they saw tonight. This is a team that is taking care of business and can hardly be blamed for a loss against an elite Ohio State team. This Hawkeye team looks veteran despite featuring a lot of snaps from players who had not played meaningful minutes for Iowa prior to this year. A laugher on the road against a team that was favored should not be taken for granted. And on top of the usual reasons for optimism (elite defense and special teams) this team just scored 41 points on offense on the road! I can’t remember the last time the Hawkeyes put up that kind of offense on a quality opponent.
Savor this! I’ll say that again for those of you who are always worried about what’s next…. SAVOR THIS! The season is going about as well as any reasonable person could have expected for Iowa. The Hawks control their playoff destiny and head into the season’s halfway point and a bye week with a lot of things going right.
Everybody
Move Your Feet and Feel United
Whoa oh oh
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