Hawkeyes dominate Spartans, stay tied atop Big Ten

By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald

IOWA CITY ----- It can be tantalizing, thinking about what might have been for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Saturday’s 37-6 pummeling of then-No. 5 Michigan State at Kinnick Stadium was a clear glimpse of the team the Hawkeyes could be.

A week removed for a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin, nobody really knew how Iowa would bounce back. The answer to that question is clear now.

They bounced back with a vengeance.

“I’m guessing it was lingering with everybody,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said of the Wisconsin loss. “Those one-point losses are tough, but you’ve still got to do your job, still got to move forward. I think everybody grabbed onto that principle.

“Most importantly, they played a complete game,” he said of his team. “That’s something we have struggled to do this year.”

The players seemed to unanimously agree that they had a fantastic week of practice, with a clearer focus on the minute details and correcting small mistakes that haunted them the previous two weeks. Their coach agreed with the sentiment, but never expected to see a 31-point whipping of a Big Ten frontrunner.

That’s what they did, though. They out-executed, out-played, and badly overpowered the Spartans (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten).

“I just think we played motivated,” defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. “The last two games, we’ve been so-so. We needed to prove a point to ourselves.”

Point taken.

Iowa (6-2, 3-1) proved to themselves that they can be the team they looked like after a blistering 9-0 start last year. They proved that they still have some of the magic from last year left, despite its absence in both the Arizona and Wisconsin losses this season.

For evidence of that, see Tyler Sash’s pick-and-ladder play, where he pitched the ball after intercepting it and watched Micah Hyde run 66 yards for a touchdown. Or look at Ricky Stanzi’s 56-yard pass to tight end Brad Herman in the second quarter, which, for all intents and purposes, should have been an easy interception for Michigan State.

Everything was clicking for the Hawkeyes, in all three phases of the game. It may not have been Halloween officially, but it was a scary sight for the Spartans to run into these Hawkeyes, playing at this level.

“It just shows that when we all play together, error-free, this is what happens,” cornerback Shaun Prater, who had an interception and 10 tackles, said. “We just have to keep playing like this week after week.”

“That’s the team you want to be,” receiver Marvin McNutt said.

The Iowa team that showed up Saturday was the team that many expected to see the entire year. It was the type of win so dominant, it makes you wonder how this team lost twice this season.

The Hawkeyes don’t look back, though. They say it every week, and they’ve proven coming off of their two losses that they practice what they preach.

So, switch your gaze. Focus on the future. The two losses may be disappointing, but a 10-2 record last year was good enough to get Iowa to a BCS bowl. The road isn’t going to be easy now, with three of the final four coming on the road and the lone home game being against Ohio State, but the Big Ten title isn’t out of reach.

It would be easy to call Saturday’s thumping of Michigan State a statement, a defining win. The team doesn’t view it that way at all. To them, all it’s done is given them another Big Ten win.

To the outside world, this win put Iowa in a four-way tie for first place in the conference, giving them a chance to control their own destiny to some extent. The Rose Bowl is still in play, although the Hawkeyes would need some help from the rest of the conference to get there, and another 10-2 season is obviously on the table.

Try explaining any of this to the Iowa players, though, and their eyes will almost gloss over on you. They don’t particularly care, and, although they focus forward, they never seem to be looking more than seven days ahead.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Stanzi said. “You guys shouldn’t worry about it either, because it’ll all shake out for itself. You’ll find the answer in a couple of weeks now, four weeks when the season’s over. It’ll all shake itself out. That’s why we don’t focus on it – there’s really no reason to.”

If Iowa can keep their focus where it was for the past week, the showdown with Ohio State in three weeks could hold huge implications. But Indiana is all the Hawkeyes will be focused on this week, trying to figure out how to slow down the Pistol offense and keep quarterback Ben Chappell from throwing all over them, as he’s done to so many others.

Iowa has some of their swagger back now. It’s not that they ever lost confidence, but it’s never a bad thing to have reminder of just how good you can be.

“If we play the way we’re supposed to play, it’s hard to beat us,” Clayborn said.

Hawkeyes fall short as defense falters

By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald

IOWA CITY ––––– When push came to shove, the Wisconsin Badgers simply lined up and jammed the ball right down the collective throats of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Four plays in a row in the waning minutes. Four straight runs, totaling 19 yards. Just like that, Wisconsin capped a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ate up the majority of the last nine minutes, burying the Hawkeyes in the process.

“We knew that coming in Iowa’s defense was rock solid, and they have been for the last few years,” Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien said. “We put it on our offensive line, and it started with them. They played their tails off.”

Iowa’s defense was supposed to be one of the best in the nation. Last week, they gave up 522 yards to an explosive Michigan offense, while Wisconsin imposed it’s will on then-No. 1 Ohio State.

Still, expectations nationally were that Iowa (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten) would be able to withstand Wisconsin (7-1, 3-1). And with 8:35 left, a six point lead, and the Badgers backed up on their own 20, the defense had their chance to snuff out Wisconsin and keep the road to the Big Ten title going through Iowa City.

They didn’t, and the Hawkeyes fell 31-30 in a heartbreaker at Kinnick Stadium.

It’s a loss that’s going to sting for a while.

“The defense didn’t step up, and that’s why we lost the game,” Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn, voice quaking and eventually brought to tears, said. “We’ve got to stop them in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t.

“Whatever we’ve done in practice, on the player side, it’s not working,” he added. “We need to change things around. The coaches are giving us the opportunities to make plays, and we just aren’t.”

It’s easy to point the finger at the defense, but for some it will be easier to point it at the offense, which had a minute to drive into field goal range and all three timeouts at their disposal. After a fourth-down quarterback sneak with 14 seconds left, Iowa made the questionable decision to use their last timeout instead of having Ricky Stanzi spike the ball.

That decision left Iowa with 12 seconds, no timeouts, and too far to go for freshman kicker Michael Meyer to take a shot. Stanzi’s last gasp, a short shovel pass to Adam Robinson, ended with Robinson being taken down inbounds and the final few seconds agonizingly ticking off the clock.

“We wanted to burn the timeout and just go from there,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “I guess we could have gone the other way. Might have saved us two seconds, something like that. I don’t think that was exactly the turning point in the game.”

The players backed the decision. Robinson said that with the confusion among the team as the referees were resetting the ball, Iowa likely would have incurred a penalty had Stanzi tried to snap the ball to clock it.

“There’s different ways a two-minute drive can go,” Stanzi said. “You just kind of have to live with whatever decision you make.”

Even with a spike, another play, and a timeout, there’s no guarantee. Iowa has to live with their decision anyway and try to regroup and figure out where to go from here.

With an undefeated Michigan State coming to Kinnick this weekend, there isn’t much time to do so. Special teams are still an issue – a penalty led to a do-over and a big return, a blocked extra point ended up being the final margin of defeat, and a botched snap cost Iowa a field goal try.

But there’s more going wrong than just special teams.

“We can still win the Big Ten; we can still go somewhere nice for a bowl game,” offensive guard Julian Vandervelde said. “The important thing right now is that we’re able to learn from this. We’re going to be hurting on this one for a while, but at the same time it makes you kind of itchy to get back out there on the field. We’ll be hungry and we’ll be ready to go next week.”

That old axiom that Iowa always preaches – look back just long enough to learn from what you did, and then keep focusing ahead – has never been more critical this season than it is now. After losing to Arizona, Iowa knew they had an entire game to bounce back.

Not this time.

“Looking back, that’s all nice and everything, but we’re going to keep looking forward,” Stanzi said. “In the Big Ten, playing football, if you’re going to look back, you might as well stay there.”

Losing to Wisconsin doesn’t put Iowa in the back of the Big Ten by any stretch of the imagination, but this could be a turning point to the season for a simple reason. With their backs to the wall, the Iowa defense did something unusual.

They didn’t just bend. They buckled. 

They broke.

For the second week in a row, Iowa’s defense was a letdown. That defense, a once proud unit, suffered a major blow to their pride, leaving their leader in tears. Whether that serves as major motivation or a major deflator remains to be seen.

Maybe the Hawkeyes will turn it around with the looming return of defensive coordinator Norm Parker. Maybe the Hawkeyes figure things out, and go back to the dominance they are accustomed to.

But maybe, just maybe, this Hawkeyes defense just isn’t as good as advertised. One thing is clear, though, no matter what the truth is.

This one hurts.

Hawkeyes' defense stands tall in dominant win

By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald

IOWA CITY ––––– They may have dropped a few spots from their No. 1 ranking in total defense last week, but the Iowa Hawkeyes defense showed something Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium.

They showed that the numbers, which some thought were a bit lofty based on level of competition, weren’t that far off.

They showed that, even though they personally knew they had things to improve upon, this really is one of college football’s elite defenses.

And they showed it by playing physical, aggressive, mean defense in keeping the Penn State Nittany Lions out of the end zone for the entire 60 minutes.

“That’s how Coach K (defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski) told us to be – just play pissed off,” defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. “Just play pissed off all the time. Just get after it. You can’t be a nice guy on the field. I think that’s how we played tonight on the defensive line.”

Clayborn’s dominance hadn’t been visible on the stat sheets until Saturday, when he racked up 10 tackles, three tackles for a loss, and his first sack of the year.

The dominance of the line as a whole has been obvious all season, but never as much as during the first quarter against Penn State. The Nittany Lions gained all of 36 inches – yes, you read that right – on three drives in the opening quarter. 

Six of Penn State’s (3-2, 0-1 Big Ten) first eight plays went either backwards or nowhere. Iowa (4-1, 1-0) jumped out to a 10-0 lead while their defense continually gave them field position, and the Hawkeyes never looked back.

“Big Ten play comes along, we need to step our game up,” defensive lineman Christian Ballard said. “I think the past four games we were just kind of out there. We were playing OK, but weren’t playing great. This was a good step up, good start to the Big Ten opener.”

Penn State did enough throughout the final three quarters to knock Iowa’s overall defensive ranking to fourth in the nation. The Hawkeyes’ defense served notice to the rest of the conference though by stifling Evan Royster and constantly living in the Nittany Lions’ backfield, piling up six tackles for a loss.

“They’re a good, solid football team,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “They hustle. They’re well coached. You have to beat them; they don’t beat themselves. The Arizona game was a fluke for them.”

With the way they’ve played in all four games aside from Arizona, that failed comeback in the desert certainly looks more like an aberration than par for the course. The Hawkeyes don’t like to look behind them, though. 

They learn from their mistakes and move on, focusing squarely on what’s right in front of them.

“Once we start thinking we’ve arrived anywhere, we’ll go right downhill fast, especially in this conference,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’d better be thinking about moving forward.”

What’s in front now is a much needed bye week. Adam Robinson said he could use the rest after the 28-carry beating he took from a physical Penn State defense. 

Iowa was down to a true freshman middle linebacker in James Morris after Jeff Tarpinian missed Saturday’s game and Troy Johnson got knocked out of it early, so the time off will help restore depth at that vital position.

And the Hawkeyes have been in full-on football mode for eight weeks now. With eight weeks left in the regular season, the timing is just right.

“Personally right now I’m thrilled that we have a bye week,” Ferentz said. “Normally I’m not a big fan of them, but we need a little time to regroup here and get some of our guys that are nicked up back.”

It doesn’t hurt that the extra time comes right before Iowa plays one of the nation’s most dynamic players in Michigan’s Denard Robinson. While they haven’t officially gotten down to film study and looking that far ahead yet, it’s no secret that anybody could use extra time to prepare for him.

That will be a bit of a challenge, since Ferentz admitted that Iowa simply “doesn’t have anybody like him” to help emulate him in practice. But with the way the defense is playing, and with the likely return of Norm Parker to the team for the game, it’s a safe bet that Iowa will be well prepared for the Wolverines and their standout quarterback.

Having a better idea of who they are as a team now will help with the mental part of preparing for Michigan. Before the season, many pointed at the Arizona game as a measuring stick for where the Hawkeyes were.

With how that game played out, the focus instead shifted to this game, the Big Ten opener, to get a better feel for who Iowa is.

“We were kind of at a crossroad; we didn’t know where our team was,” Clayborn said. “We beat three teams we should of beat and we lost to Arizona. We figured this was the game to see where we were at.”

Now they know. Tied at the top of the Big Ten, with the best record possible after one conference game. Top 15 in the nation in the rankings.

And a defense ranked in the top five nationally, with, for the first time in years, an offense that can almost keep pace.

Heinemann on the Hawkeyes - Iowa vs. Penn State

Brian Heinemann, who covers Iowa football for the Herald, previews this week's game.

IOWA CITY ––––– Penn State hasn’t forgotten the last trip it made to Iowa City, in 2008.

That day cost the Nittany Lions a shot at the BCS National Championship game. A last-second field goal lifted Iowa to a 24-23 upset and a late-season derailing of Penn State’s season.

The stakes may not be quite as high this time around, this being the Big Ten opener for both teams, but that doesn’t mean much to a team looking for a measure of revenge.

“Two years ago, we win that game and we very well could be playing for a national championship,” Penn State running back Evan Royster said at the Big Ten Media Days in August. “It’s tough to think about, it really is. Looking at the season ahead, hopefully we’ll get some payback.”

This year is a bit different. After pulling off the upset two years in a row, Iowa will be the favorite Saturday. Neither team is undefeated and in the national championship hunt.

But it’s early, and Saturday is the first game of what Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz calls an “eight-week football race” for the Big Ten title. 

So far, it’s no secret who the team to catch in the Big Ten is. Penn State and Iowa know it. And to compete, to keep pace, both teams need a win Saturday.

“Historically, if you're hanging around waiting for Ohio State to lose three, four games, maybe even two, I think historically, that could be proven as a bad strategy,” Ferentz said. “If you're talking about playing at the top of the league, you better be at your best every week.”

Seemingly every time these teams get together, it turns into a knock-down, drag-out fight. The series couldn’t get more even, with each team winning 11 times, and both teams have been known for punishing, overpowering defenses.

Right now, the Hawkeyes have the No. 1 ranked defense in the entire nation. Ferentz and his Iowa players don’t put any stock in the numbers, but Penn State doesn’t need the statistics to know they are in for a fight.

“If it’s not the best defense we are going to play against, it’s certainly one of the five or six best in the country,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “They’re awfully good. 

“We’re not going to take the ball and jam it down their throat – they’re too good. We’re going to have to fight for our lives for every yard.”

Penn State’s fight is made a whole lot tougher having a true freshman quarterback under center. Robert Bolden has been under fire on the road already – his second game as a collegiate athlete was at Tuscaloosa in a loss to top-ranked Alabama – but this is something else altogether.

This is the Big Ten. This is an Iowa team that’s beaten Penn State seven of the last eight times they’ve met. 

Nobody outside of Pennsylvania expected the Nittany Lions to beat Alabama. With the way Iowa and Penn State have gone at it over the last decade, though, anything can happen at Kinnick Stadium.

“I'm not sure why they'd be considered the underdog,” Ferentz said. “Again, I'm looking at a team that's won 51 games, five years, they don't give up points. I mean, I think our biggest margin of victory in this series is 12 points back in '03. We've had tough games with them or we've gotten nailed pretty good. 

“I'm expecting this thing to be a real 60 minute game and hopefully we'll be in there in the fourth quarter.”

Who: No. 17 Iowa (3-1) vs. No. 22 Penn State (3-1)

When: 7:00 p.m. Saturday

Where: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City

The series: Tied at 11-11

Last meeting: Iowa won 21-10 last year at State College

This week's challenge: Not digging themselves into a hole. Last year, Iowa fell behind the Nittany Lions by 10 before scoring 21 unanswered to pull away for the win. Two years ago, Iowa needed a last-second field goal to beat Penn State. Last year, Iowa showed it could play behind just fine. This year, in one opportunity, they showed that while they still can fight back, some of the magic might have run out. Iowa needs to take advantage of the home crowd and jump on Penn State early, forcing true freshman Robert Bolden to be the one attempting to lead a comeback.

To pull off an upset: The roles of the two quarterbacks would need to be reversed. If Ricky Stanzi plays like a freshman and makes bad decisions and Bolden plays like a seasoned veteran, Penn State will knock of the Hawkeyes. 

Players to watch: Penn State’s offensive line could be in trouble after losing senior tackle Lou Eliades for the season last week against Temple. His replacement at RT is junior Chima Okoli, who just this spring switched from defensive line to offensive tackle. He’ll have his hands full with Broderick Binns and, if Iowa moves their d-linemen around as they did last week, Adrian Clayborn or others. For Iowa, all attention should be focused on running back Adam Robinson. The last thing the Hawkeyes want is to throw the inexperienced duo of Marcus Coker or Brad Rogers in at running back against a strong Penn State defense, so Robinson needs to shoulder a heavy load.

Gettin' down with Brian (four keys for Saturday):

First down — Starting fast. In three games this season, the Hawkeyes jumped all over their opponents and cruised. In the other, they fell too far behind and couldn’t complete the comeback. Iowa needs a strong start on offense to set the tone, pounding Robinson right at Penn State and opening up the play-action for later in the game.

Second down — Getting to Bolden. It’s been a best case scenario for the Nittany Lions, as their true freshman quarterback has barely been touched. Bolden has been sacked all of one time this season, tying Penn State for tops in the nation, and it wasn’t even Alabama that got him. Iowa needs to get to Bolden relentlessly to force him into mistakes and bad plays.

Third down — Holding on to the ball. Normally, this would apply to running backs. They haven’t been a problem for Iowa, though. Ricky Stanzi, on snap exchanges, and the wide receivers, with drops, have been. Those kinds of mistakes will kill the Hawkeyes against a tough conference opponent.

Fourth down — Kick coverage, kick coverage, kick coverage. At this point, it’s like beating a dead horse. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make the problem go away. Iowa looked good on kick coverage against Ball State, but the overall team speed and strength ramps way up this week. Iowa can’t give up big plays in the return game; they need to make Bolden and the Penn State offense work for every yard they gain.

Trivial tidbit: Iowa has never lost to Penn State in a homecoming game. The Hawkeyes beat the Nittany Lions 19-0 in 1930 and 24-18 in 2001. Iowa has won eight of its last 10 homecoming contests.

Did you hear?: Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker is finally out of the hospital – he was released mid-week – and could rejoin the team in some capacity next week during the bye week.

Bottom line: Iowa is simply the better team in this one. Not by a wide margin, but significantly better in several key areas. The Nittany Lions will slow the Iowa offense, but not completely stop it, while the Hawkeyes defense will make Bolden and company struggle to get anything going. Evan Royster will be running with a purpose for Penn State, out to prove recent critics wrong and try to help carry his team past the Hawkeyes for the second time in his career, but it won’t be nearly enough as the Hawkeyes run defense should keep him well under 100 yards, forcing Bolden to beat them. He won’t.

Final score: Iowa 24, Penn State 6