Iowa Football Stats to Watch Recap: Nebby

Clap, clap, clap your hands

My apologies if thre arr numrous typpos en thees artikle. Wheel of Fortune is on in the other room and I’m having a hard time concentrating and typing with all of the ....... clapping. Scott Frost and his Nebby boys are just the gifts that keep on giving. Iowa played a pretty bad game, and the mustachioed boys started thinking they weren’t terrible, and it looked a little tenuous. But then Nebby decided to Nebby and the universe is back to the way it should be.

The stat to watch focused on running the football and stopping the run. Old school stuff. Let’s take a look at how this unfolded.

Iowa’s rushing attack

Coming into the game, Nebraska was allowing over 223 yards on the ground. Iowa netted 129 yards running the football. Tyler Goodson had 111 (3.7). Mekhi Sargent only toted the ball 5 times. He needs more than that. I’m not saying that Goodson should have received less than the 30 carries he got, either. The running game didn’t look very sharp on the day.

Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Hawkeyes’ run defense

Prior to Friday’s game, Iowa was allowing just over 100 yards on the ground. Nebraska ended up with 143 yards rushing on the day. Adrian Martinez and Luke McCaffrey netted 70 yards on the ground. Nebraska averaged 3.8 yards per carry to Iowa’s 2.9. Iowa’s defense didn’t look as dominant as it had the past few games, but when push came to shove the defense stepped up.

Frustrating, but a win is a win

Iowa was building on establishing a powerful run game as an identity. This took a step back. Right now Spencer Petras is struggling. This will make establishing the run both more difficult and more important to continue to win.