By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald
IOWA CITY ---- They may have the same record after the opening two games as they did last year, but there is something special, something different about the 2010 Iowa Hawkeyes.
This year’s Hawkeyes are relentless, merciless, and efficient, exemplified by a 35-7 beat-down of instate rival Iowa State in one of the teams’ most complete games in years. Last year, Iowa barely scraped by Northern Iowa and a host of supposedly inferior teams.
Iowa’s margin of victory was actually larger against the Cyclones last year, at 32 points. This time, the Hawkeyes were infinitely more impressive.
This year, Iowa looks like a team worthy of their Top 10 ranking.
“Top to bottom, there are no weaknesses,” Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said of the Hawkeyes. “They have the ability to run it. They have the ability to throw it. People are not going to score very many points on them.”
Rhoads said that Iowa was definitely the best team he’s faced since arriving at Iowa State (1-1), but he wasn’t done heaping praise on the team that had just finished manhandling his squad.
“I thought we played a hell of a football team,” Rhoads said. “They’re talking about Iowa contending for a national championship, and they should. That’s a good football team.
“They’re 12 years into their program. They look like it, they play like it, they run like it, they hit like it, they tackle like it.”
For their part, the Hawkeyes (2-0) would scoff at the championship talk. Beating Eastern Illinois and Iowa State handily isn’t the most impressive of feats, but there is no denying that Iowa has looked much more impressive through two games than they did last year.
Sure, for the first time in four years, Iowa State scored a touchdown against the Hawkeyes. But it hardly mattered, and it came against what defensive end Adrian Clayborn said was the “third or fourth” string Hawkeyes defense.
This was a dominant performance from start to finish, and it started in the trenches, a place where Iowa struggled against the Cyclones a year ago.
Adam Robinson ran 14 times for 158 yards, Jewel Hampton made his return with a 20-carry, 87-yard performance, and the line protected quarterback Ricky Stanzi well enough to allow him to methodically pick apart Iowa State, throwing for 204 yards and two touchdowns.
“We wanted to come out and make a statement, and get another win,” Robinson said. “I think we did that. The o-line did a great job, as they did last week; I think they even stepped up a little bit.”
The offense has been the surprise so far this year. Everybody knew coming in that the Hawkeyes defense would once again be among the nations’ elite. But the offense, plagued by mistakes and a subpar running game, was carried all last year by their counterparts on the other side of the ball.
Not so much this year. The offense was so efficient, so precise, that the defense only made it onto the field for three plays in the first 17 minutes of the game Saturday.
“First drive, what’d they take, like six minutes off the clock, maybe more?” defensive tackle Karl Klug said. “That’s what you’re looking for. You want the defense to stay off the field; they did a hell of a job.”
They did so with a suddenly potent running attack, led by the power-running Robinson and complemented by Hampton.
“Adam and Jewel are both real tough runners,” guard Nolan MacMillan said. “They’re willing to get their nose dirty, and they’ll stick their head in their and they’ll punish anybody trying to tackle them.”
The defense did their share of punishing, too, stuffing the Cyclones’ running game – they ran 25 times for 78 yards, a far cry from 2009’s 190 yards on the ground – and making Austen Arnaud’s life miserable, intercepting him three times, sacking him twice and harassing him all day.
It was a dominant performance on both sides of the ball, and, for a change, stayed that way throughout the game.
“There were glimpses last year, but I don’t think we put a full one together like we did today,” Robinson said. “That just came from concentration from everybody on the field.”
There’s no denying that the competition hasn’t been up to par with what the Hawkeyes are going to face the rest of the year, starting with Saturday night in Arizona. Iowa has given themselves a heck of a lot of momentum, though, after executing their game plan nearly to perfection for the better part of both games.
“Going on the road, it’s always a challenge, a different environment,” safety Brett Greenwood said. “Nobody’s really been down there to Arizona, so it’s going to be all new to us. And on top of it, they’re a very good team, so it’s going to be a big challenge.”
Last year, Iowa faced some different types of challenges. They had to be resilient. They had to fight tooth-and-nail to eek out wins against teams that should have been overmatched. Teams they should have put away early.
This year, so far, the only challenge has been whether or not the Hawkeyes could stay focused enough to keep their foot on the gas and take it to the opposition. They let up a bit in the middle of the Eastern Illinois game.
They never did let up on Iowa State, late touchdown notwithstanding.
“We wanted to make a statement as a team that we’re for real and we can compete with anybody,” Robinson said. “I think we did a good job today.”
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