Pre-Comment Bag: It’s a Trap!

You know the drill. I write a little column, you adore it and then you submit your questions for this weeks comment-bag in, you guessed it, the comments (or on Twitter if you like to kick it old school, @JerryScherwin). Five McBucks for the best question this week.

Come one, come all. Step right up. Step. Right. Up. It’s time we enter the fabled, the obscene, the kooky, the strange the mysterious... TRAP WEEK!

That’s right. It’s official. On behalf of everyone at BHGP (despite their opinions on the matter), Homecoming Weekend is now Back to the Trap Weekend.

Some of you might be scoffing at this. And I don’t blame you. I’m scoffing at it to. Do I really believe Maryland will beat Iowa this Saturday? Hell no. We’re winning the Big Ten, dammit.

But would I be surprised if Maryland beats Iowa this Saturday? Hell no. We’re doomed, dammit. The sky is falling and Nate Stanley is Chicken freakin’ Little.

It’s only Hump Day and I’ve inflicted so much sports pain upon myself ever since Cody Parkey missed that field goal in overtime against the Dolphins that my cup has runneth over into Iowa. Yes, I know this says a lot about me as a person. But I can’t help but think, nay, believe that things are going almost a little too well in Hawkeye-land right now not to consider that Maryland could be the trap door Iowa forgets to side step while looking towards Penn State.

Would you just look at all of the things I’m trying to mentally decipher right now:

• Iowa is ranked in the Top-25 for the first time since 2016. We’re starting to get the national recognition we deserve. Which also means that people will probably tune into this game on ESPN2 to take a closer look at what this No. 19 Iowa is all about. Ruh roh.
• At 5-1, Iowa is exactly where we thought they would be at this point in the season, but their trend lines are pointing way, way up. And the team who we thought would be a Playoff contender is pointing way down.
• The consensus around this team is super positive considering where we were after the Wisconsin loss.
• Speaking of, the Badgers all of a sudden look SUPER beatable (so glad Heisman Hornibrook only showed up in one game this season). They still have to go to Northwestern (I told ya’ll weeks ago that this team is sneaky bad-good), at Penn State, at Purdue and play a spunky Minnesota team at home to finish of their season. You can’t tell me there isn’t one, if not two losses remaining for whatever iteration that team was we saw Saturday night. Iowa has a real chance of making it back to Indy now.
• Iowa’s offense has, at least, seven players that will be on an NFL roster at some point in the near future (Fant, Hock, Stanley, Jackson, Wirfs, Reynods, Render) and one or two more that I can be talked into if they play their cards right (Smith, ISM). The sheer fact that I’m confident enough to write that and put it on the internet makes me feel worried.
• Nate Stanley threw for 300 yards for the second straight week against Indiana. That’s only the second time in Kirk Ferentz’s tenure an Iowa QB has done that and the first time since Drew Tate did it in 2004. Seems primed for a let down, no? GOD WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?
• Iowa hasn’t played Maryland since 2015 and Kirk Ferentz believes that having to play them is like “ starting over again, a non-league game in some ways”.
• Maryland tends to hit big plays which makes me nervous about the corner backs; in particular, Riley Moss.
• I, along with 17 other Iowa fans and supporters, are headed up to Happy Valley next week. We prebooked a horse farm all the way back in June because, even then, we expected this game to solidify Iowa’s place in the Big Ten West. And that was four months ago, before we knew Iowa’s offense was going to be the second coming of the 2011 Patriots. We’re one week away from having one of the best weekends of all time come true. That can’t be good.
• I’ll say it again, if Iowa can beat Penn State in Happy Valley, they’re going to Indy.
• Iowa is almost too good on Homecoming Weekend and I realize that’s a reach, but that’s where I am right now.

It’s one of those situations where Iowa needs to fear no one but fear everyone. I trust the coaching staff to keep them grounded and focused on the task at hand, but that doesn’t mean this game against Maryland isn’t trappy and that I wont be nervous up “until the game is wonnnnnnnn” Saturday afternoon.

It’s a trap! I don’t care how poor Maryland has been. They beat Texas. And Texas is more back than Iowa is!

I’m worried. I’m worried and I hate it. And I’m sorry.

Please help me.

Love you all.

L’Chaim.