Iowa Football: Grades for Week Three's Loss to NDSU
Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Grading the offense, defense and special teams from Iowa’s week three performance
North Dakota State has built a very good resume over the past five seasons. Aside from their five FCS championships, a win over the 13th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City will be near the top. The Hawkeyes knew they couldn’t take this team lightly, however they didn’t play their best and got burned in the end.
The Hawkeyes fell 23-21 and never gained any real momentum all game. They were able to find the end zone three times but they struggled to move the ball all afternoon and couldn’t stop North Dakota State late in the game.
It could have been much worse if North Dakota State didn’t shoot themselves in the foot on a couple of promising drives. Whether it was a bad snap or an interception, the Bison had a couple of key mishaps that cost them potential points.
For the Hawkeyes, it was their first regular season loss since the final of week of the 2014 season, ending a 14 game regular season win streak. It’s also C.J. Beathard‘s first loss of his collegiate career. Beathard now is 15-1 with the Hawkeyes.
Many believed that the Bison would be the Hawkeyes biggest non-conference test this year, and they lived up to the bill. In a game where everyone was waiting for a big play to jumpstart the Hawkeyes offense or defense, it’s makes the loss even more disappointing considering both sides of the ball stayed ineffective the whole game.
Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Offense: D-
The Hawkeyes found the end zone three times and had a couple of big plays, but for the most part it was a complete mess. The offensive line wasn’t able to gain traction all game and allowed the Bison defense to be constant visitors in the backfield. They were constantly getting pressure on C.J. Beathard and got a couple of sacks and nice hits on him, as well.
The pressure was evident as Beathard finished the game only completing 11-of-22 passes. Of course, the pressure also caused C.J. Beathard to throw his first interception of the season, resulting in a pick-six and a 7-0 Bison lead at the time.
As tough as the pressure was on Beathard, North Dakota State effectively shut down the Hawkeyes run game and left Iowa confused about what to do. The Hawkeyes averaged just 1.4 yards per carry, and LeShun Daniels Jr and Akrum Wadley combined for only 49 yards on 18 carries — 2.7 yards per rush.
The lack of a run game forced the offense to throw the ball more often. While the Bison had great coverage for most of the game, the Hawkeyes also hurt themselves at times. Key drops from Matt VandeBerg, George Kittle, Akrum Wadley and Jerminic Smith halted any possibility of gaining momentum on offense. Drops have been a problem in the Hawkeyes first two games, however a solid pass rush and good secondary exemplified the Hawkeyes’ struggles.
Beathard did connect with George Kittle for a couple of big plays, and Riley McCarron for a 30-yard touchdown on fourth down. In fact, when C.J. Beathard went down in the third quarter and missed a couple of plays, Kirk Ferentz made a gutsy play call and aired it out with backup quarterback Nate Stanley. He connected with Kittle for a 37-yard gain, eventually setting up a touchdown pass to Matt VandeBerg from Beathard a few plays later.
The Hawkeyes biggest play on the night was brought back, though. After an underwhelming first half, Iowa knew they had to come out firing in the second half. They did so when LeShun Daniels Jr ran for 62 yards, down to the Bison two yard line, on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. Although, a holding on George Kittle brought it back.
It’s fitting for a game where anytime the Hawkeyes had any chance to get something going on offense, a dropped pass, poor blocking, or a penalty brought it back. Besides, even the 30-yard touchdown pass to Riley McCarron opened up when a Bison defender slipped, causing a blown coverage.
The Hawkeyes exploited the smothering blitz at times using Kittle. He finished with 110 yards on five catches, but that doesn’t tell the full story for the tight end’s rough afternoon. Besides, the Bison’s tough pass rush outweighed the couple of times Iowa was able to exploit it.
If you ever wondered what would happen if a team shut down the Hawkeyes run game, well, you found out. And it wasn’t pretty. Besides a couple of big plays, the Hawkeyes offense went nowhere. The silver lining is C.J. Beathard returned and finished the game, but we’ll see how banged up he is in the coming weeks.
Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Defense: D+
The defense kept the Hawkeyes in the game but fell flat on their face in the fourth quarter. As crazy as it may sound, the defense wasn’t terrible in the first half. They didn’t allow a point with them on the field — North Dakota State scored on a pick-six. Iowa also forced five punts and Brandon Snyder intercepted his first pass on the season.
Sure, the Bison moved the ball fairly easy in the first half, however they kept them off the scoreboard. As worrisome as a near five minute drive from the Bison was to start the game, the Hawkeyes stood their ground and didn’t give up a costly big play. The problem was that the offense never gave them much help and the defense couldn’t keep North Dakota State out of the end zone forever.
The Bison’s run game started to get going in the second half. After not scoring against the Hawkeyes defense in the first half, the Bison drove 65 yards on their first possession in the second half to tie the game. In fact, they only failed to score once in four possessions in the second half — when they missed a 50-yard field goal.
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The lasting memory of King Frazier running over every defender on Iowa will be engrained in everyone’s mind for a while. Frazier finished the game with 99 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. He played a very small role in the Bison’s total running game, though. Four players rushed for at least 30 yards and North Dakota State finished the game with 239 yards — only 45 yards fewer than the Hawkeyes gave up in the first two weeks combined.
Simply put, the Hawkeyes had no push on the Bison’s offensive line and couldn’t wrap up Frazier or Lance Dunn. Frazier and Dunn were able to get a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage before a Hawkeyes defender would even touch them.
In a game where the Hawkeyes knew they needed to control the trenches to win, they failed to do so, as seen in both team’s running game. Whether it was the fact that Easton Stick completed 57.9 percent of his passes, or that the Bison’s offensive line is just that good, the Hawkeyes defense could not solve North Dakota State’s run game.
Despite Frazier single-handedly driving the Bison down the field late in the fourth quarter to bring the Bison within one point, Stick proved to be the Hawkeyes biggest problem. Other than the 29-yard run on the first play of the game-winning drive, Stick’s mobility caused major problems for the Hawkeyes all game.
He ran for 35 yards on 11 carries and added 124 yards and a touchdown through the air, as well. While Stick didn’t win the game through the air, he constantly evaded defenders to buy more time to find an open receiver or get to the edge for a five yard gain. The Hawkeyes hadn’t faced a quarterback with the mobility Stick has, and his ability to get out of the pocket when it collapses was an even bigger problem than most expected.
As poor as the Hawkeyes defense played in the second half, they gave the offense time to get ahead in the first half. It wasn’t pretty but they kept the Bison out of the end zone for as long as they could. A couple of bad snaps over Stick’s head and a costly interception helped the Hawkeyes. Nonetheless, they did their job and didn’t allow the Bison to score early.
Not to mention also stopping the Bison on a key two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter.
The Bison’s last two drives of the game are engrained in our minds, however Iowa should have been able to top 23 points.
Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Special Teams/Coaching: C-
There isn’t a lot to complain about on special teams. Desmond King continued to be a guy or two away from bringing a return back for a touchdown. Keith Duncan made all three extra points and didn’t attempt a field goal.
Ron Coluzzi punted six times, averaging 45.5 yards per punt. It would have been nice if he could have pinned the Bison inside their 20, however he was never in great position to do so and only had one touchback, as well.
Usually when a team struggles on offense and defense, it turns into problems on special teams, too. That wasn’t the case, though. The Hawkeyes didn’t let a big return or turnover in the return game determine the outcome. Iowa did lose on a 37-yard field goal as time expired, but Cam Pedersen‘s poise under pressure should be accredited for the clutch field goal as time expired.
On the sidelines, Kirk Ferentz got out-coached by Chris Klieman. His play calling was questionable, as seen by the Hawkeyes stagnant offense. Ferentz also continued to constantly run up the gut instead of trying to change things up. The Bison’s defensive line pushed around the Hawkeyes line, which made running up the middle ineffective and pointless for most of the game.
Defensively, a couple of safety blitzes late in the game opened up the secondary for Easton Stick and King Frazier, when he was able to get to the second level. He had no solution to the Bison’s ground attack and it always seemed that Klieman was one step ahead of him.
The most frustrating set of calls came late in the fourth quarter, though. The Hawkeyes needed to run out the clock after maintaining their 21-20 lead. Ferentz opted towards burning a timeout with 2:11 left in the game.
While it made sense that Ferentz wanted to wind the play clock all the way down instead of snapping it a couple of seconds earlier, it could have been a very costly loss of a timeout. The way the Bison moved the ball on the previous drive, it wasn’t unimaginable to see them breaking a big run or two and scoring with time remaining. Of course, it didn’t happen that way, although Ferentz could have been down to just one timeout instead of two if Iowa had a chance on offense to win.
Coming out of the timeout, Ferentz called a pass play. It was 3rd and 11, however, the situation didn’t need the Hawkeyes to get a first down, it was to keep the clock moving and force North Dakota State to burn a timeout. The Bison did use a timeout but sacked Beathard nine yards back. Not only did that pin the Hawkeyes back even farther with a punt on the next play, it risked an injury to an already banged up C.J. Beathard.
Iowa punted the ball to the Bison 34, however they could have pinned them back even farther if it wasn’t for the sack. Obviously that alone didn’t cost the Hawkeyes the game, however Ferentz seemed as unfocused as the team at times.
As well as North Dakota State played, Chris Klieman deserves a lot of credit for getting his team ready to play, keeping them composed under pressure in the fourth quarter, and continuing to find ways to break the Hawkeyes on both sides of the ball.