This game was a mess offensively for the Hawkeyes, they only had three points up until the 2:58 mark in the game. Luckily, Jake Rudock led them to two touchdown drives in the final 2:58 to pull off the stunning comeback. The running game was pretty much non-existent as they were led in rushing by Rudock, last year they were led by WR Tevaun Smith. The defense was stout all day and much improved over last week, they didn't allow a touchdown all day. Ball State's only touchdown came on a fumble return touchdown. Jonathan Parker fumbled twice for the Hawkeyes, and there's a good chance we won't see him for awhile. The freshmen looks very quick, but needs to hold on to the ball. The running game really needs to emerge against Iowa State, I really don't like how they are rotating in backs. Like Joey Galloway said it's hard to get into any kind of rhythm getting a carry here and there. I know they're trying to keep them fresh and healthy for the season, but something needs to change. We did get to see a glimpse of C.J. Beathard on the second series, he hit some nice passes and threw a nice one in the end zone to Damond Powell, which was ruled an incompletion.
QB: QB play was pretty solid in this game, no mistakes, Rudock got sacked once, but it was the only time they were even close to getting to the QBs. Rudock threw some passes downfield but either overthrew or under threw. He was great in the final three minutes of the game, though, and looked very comfortable in the pocket. I would like to see Beathard a little more, he's got a cannon and needs some more experience.
RB: As much depth as we have here, they are really struggling to get anything going. I really like LeShun Daniels and Jordan Canzeri, and next year they should be a good 1-2 punch. Damon Bullock has been solid as a receiver out of the backfield, but doesn't add much to the running game. Mark Weisman has been pretty much a non factor. I think they'll change it up against Iowa State and start with Weisman and get him 7-10 carries in the first quarter.
FB: Not much to report, they do a good job, Macon Plewa had a catch again this week.
WR: This group is starting to come together, Kevonte Martin-Manley is solid and led the team with eight receptions for the second week in a row. Smith is a nice number two guy, and Powell is getting more action. Matt VandeBerg got more action at WR, but was overthrown a couple of times. Derrick Willies had a couple of catches, including a late touchdown.
TE: The TEs kind of had a rough day, Henry Krieger-Coble and Jake Duzey both had drops, George Kittle almost had a nice deep catch but Ball State was called for interference.
OL: Brandon Scherff went down with an injury in the second quarter trying to make a tackle, luckily it didn't seem too serious and he came back before halftime. Ike Boettger looked pretty good in his place, looks like he might have held a couple of times, but didn't get called, but overall I thought he did pretty well. The OL was great in pass protection again this week, but struggled against the run once again. Ball State was stacking the box much like Northern Iowa did last week.
DL: I love this defensive line! Carl Davis and Lou Trinca-Pasat are beasts in the middle, and Drew Ott has really emerged as a strong defensive end, he had 13 tackles, including a sack of Ozzie Mann with about 30 seconds left and also caused a fumble sealing the win. The depth at DE isn't the greatest, but at DT it looks good. Faith Ekakitie got in some plays while Davis was injured, nothing serious. Next week they'll be tested against Iowa State's Sam Richardson, who can run a little bit.
LB: The LBs were much better than last week. Ball State has a couple of good running backs, but the linebackers kept them in check in the pass game for the most part. Quinton Alston and Reggie Spearman looked solid.
DB: Desmond King is a stud at CB, but other than that the secondary needs some more work. John Lowdermilk looks out of place at times and has whiffed on some tackles. Jordan Lomax has looked ok, and will be good. Greg Mabin didn't have an awful day and is still young, could be a solid player by the end of the year.
K: I said a lot of swear words at the kickers yesterday, they missed three pretty easy field goals, resulting in a loss of nine points. Iowa dominated this game in yardage, but not in points. Marshall Koehn missed two field goals, so they tried true freshmen, Mick Ellis, and he had a similar result. Koehn did make one field goal early.
P: I thought Dillon Kidd did a better job this week, his numbers aren't amazing, but he pinned a couple inside the 20.
ST: Parker had a big fumble on a kick return and there wasn't much opportunity to return any punts. The coverage was solid in the kick and punt games.
Iowa State surprised me yesterday, after getting down 13-0 against Kansas State they stormed back and had the lead for a majority of the second half. K State got a late score and ISU couldn't pull it off, but they looked way better than they did against North Dakota State and Iowa should have their hands full next week when the Cyclones come to town.
I also watched the New Mexico-Arizona State game. ASU was up 22-0 before the Lobos started a comeback of their own behind freshmen QB Lamar Jordan. They were down 29-21 at one point, but ASU dominated the second half. The Lobos run defense is awful this year. Last week UTEP's running back had a career high over 200 yards rushing and yesterday D.J. Foster had his career high as well going over 200.
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