Iowa Football Stats to Watch Recap: Michigan State

Whew! That felt good. Going into the game I thought the three glaring keys were the following: a balanced offense after the debacle the previous week vs Northwestern, putting up some second-half points, and slowing/containing the Ricky White / Rocky Lombardi train from their trashing of Michigan’s secondary. Check, check, check. Who’s next? (Shout out to the barbershop scene from the classic Eddie Murphy movie “Coming to America” there).

Balance?: Check

The Hawkeyes played like a team under the direction of Kirk Ferentz. Iowa ran the ball 41 times, passing it 29. This was beautiful and refreshing after the air raid in week two. The Hawks took care of the ball as well. Iowa will win many games with Phil Parker on the sideline if we don’t give it away on offense.

Second-Half Points?: Check

Second, I predicted for the Hawks to put up 14+ points in the second half. We scored 14. I’m checking this box as we felt bad for the green-clad losers. Another given of Iowa football is that we won’t ever drop a 60 or 70 on someone. We saw the debut of Alex Padilla as the backups took most of the reps in the 4th quarter.

Rocky/Ricky?: Check

Finally, Rocky Lombardi and Ricky White torched Coach Harbaugh’s crew the week before (who doesn’t) to the tune of 8 receptions, 196 yards, and 1 TD. The Hawks held this duo to... 1/22/0. Have I mentioned that that was a fun game?! Riley Moss knocked away a potential TD from Rocky to Ricky. Sorry, fellas.

We didn’t see a LeVar Woods-called onside kick from our boys as predicted, but we did line up to run a fake field goal. PJ, you’d best spend some practice time this week on our “trickeration”.

Go Hawks!