What We Learned: Iowa Hawkeyes

Well, that was something.

Saturday’s trip to Iowa looked more like a Field of Nightmares for the Huskies, as they were physically overmatched by both of Iowa’s lines on offense and defense, losing 40-16. Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Mistaken Identity

Coach Fisch said last week in the locker room before the Michigan game that “this is the game where we establish our identity”. They then went out and did just that, or so we thought. Then they ran into a black and gold buzzsaw.

Make fun of Kirk Ferentz all you want, the Drive for 325 was my favorite storyline of last season. But man…

He’s been there 26 years for a reason.

As I said before the game, Iowa is going to drag you down to their level and beat you with a frustratingly effective run game, all the while controlling the ball and wearing down their opponent. They did just that against the Huskies, with Kaleb Johnson rushing for 166 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 carries while also catching a touchdown from Cade McNamara, who was 8/14 for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Iowa passing offense was efficient and effective when they needed to be, and Iowa’s great play on offense was due to a very cohesive and physical offensive line, which only gave up 1 sack compared to the Huskies giving up 4. The Hawkeyes were able to capitalize often, only punting twice on the day as they scored 40 points. This is how it feels to be bludgeoned repeatedly for 4 quarters.

The Huskies, however, were a different story.

Despite outgaining the Hawkeyes 393-328, an opportunistic, physical defense got to Will Rogers early and often, forcing Will Rogers to lose a fumble in the second quarter and get intercepted in the third, an interception which was entirely his fault. And despite two drives of 14 plays each to open the game, with each of those going over 7 minutes, they only resulted in 7 points. The Huskies 3rd down performance was also a factor as they went 5/15 on third downs. This underlines the struggles we’ve had all year with leaving points on the scoreboard despite moving the ball fairly well.

Some of that is due to Coach Fisch’s game management issues, illustrated most clearly in this game by his insistence on using Demond Williams in place of Will Rogers in the red zone in the first quarter, even after a false start penalty moved the Huskies from the Iowa 11 to the Iowa 16. You’d think that’d change his calculus a bit, but apparently not, as Demond stayed to finish the drive where a Grady Gross field goal was blocked.

This stands as the worst loss of the season to this point because it proves that even as we triumphed over Michigan last week, Iowa reminded us of what it’ll take to be competitive in this conference going forward. And we have a long way to go. So I say this:

Jedd, what kind of team is this? Is this a passing team? A run heavy team? Because as it stands right now, I don’t think we know. And we need to pick a lane if we want to be competitive, both this season and the next. Because we don’t have an identity right now! Iowa does, and that was the difference on Saturday! As former UW QB Brock Huard said on Saturday on the Fox broadcast, this is the difference between 25 years of continuity with Iowa and 6 months of continuity with the Huskies. But that doesn’t make our identity issues less prevalent, or this loss less demoralizing.

Special Teams Miscues

Going into the game, we had known about the Huskies’ struggles with special teams. But this game brought said struggles into sharp relief. The kick coverage is a glaring issue, as Kaden Wetjen, Iowa’s kickoff and punt returner, averaged 23.3 yards per kickoff return and notched 37 yards on his lone punt return in the second quarter, setting up Iowa with great field position on a drive in which they scored a touchdown. It’s something that you don’t notice until you’ve been given a reason to, and it’s an issue that special teams coordinator Jordan Paopao needs to confront, and clean up quickly. And yes, we need to talk about Grady.

It seems that he’s got the yips, as he hooks every field goal kick slightly, despite nailing them in practice. It also seems as though he struggles with the finer details of his kicks, as this is the second week in a row that he’s had one blocked, but that could also be due to Iowa getting past UW’s blockers. Plenty of stars have struggled with the yips in the past, but this is getting to the point where every drive is 4 down territory, and as a play caller, the lack of a guarantee of points on any given drive would make you anxious. What really makes me feel bad is that Grady is a great guy, and it hurts me to write this. But it is another issue that this team must fix, in a year that is full of them.

Get Right

This year, the roster has turned over a lot. We know this, we knew it coming in. But as the injuries have piled up, the cracks in the depth of this team have started to show. Sure, building a cohesive offensive line from scratch was never going to be easy, but this line is thin. Drew Azzopardi, the sophomore tackle, played the most snaps (82), and recorded a PFF grade of 32.2 out of 100 in overall blocking. Soane Faasolo played 56 snaps and recorded a grade of 29.2 overall. This could be due to Iowa being just physically better defensively, but when you’re getting consistently beat, and you have no other options due to injury, it’s obviously an issue of team health, which is why Coach Fisch stressed that “We need to get healthy this bye week. We need to get all of our offensive and defensive linemen back, and we have to go on the road and play another good Indiana team.”

Taken in sum, this is most definitely a team in a rebuilding year, but this performance is something that’s sad to see as a lifelong Husky fan. Thank goodness for the bye week, because it doesn’t get any easier from here.