The game for the Hawkeyes against the Ball State Cardinals is exactly what they needed. They reestablished their running game, they protected Ricky Stanzi, they put points up on the board, and they shut down the Cardinals offence.
Adam Robinson played only the first half and the first drive of the second but in that time managed to gain 115 rushing yards on 22 carries. Just for good measure he added 3 receptions for 75 yards to his stat line. Once Robinson left nothing really seemed to change the 2 freshman backs for the Hawkeyes, Brad Rodgers and Marcus Coker, averaged 6.3 yards per carry.
Ricky Stanzi had another spectacular day, 5 of his receivers had 3 or more catches and his 7 total receivers ended up with 288 receiving yards. Stanzi played into the fourth quarter and his line didn't allow him to be sacked once. Overall on the rainy day, a poor one for passing the football, Stanzi went 19 for 25, including 3 obvious drops by receivers in the first half. James Vandenberg picked up the minutes at the end of the game going 2-4 with a touchdown pass but mostly just got to hand the ball off to the freshman backs to let them try to prove themselves. One fumble was the only turnover for the offence, credit this one to the rain and lack of communication and hopefully it can be avoided next week. The rest of the offense was outstanding, knowing there is help behind Robinson is sure to take some pressure off of the coaching staff.
The defense played outstanding as well, although they surely were helped by the rain to an extent. They held Ball State's freshman quarterback, Keith Wenning, 4 pass completions on 8 attempts for 26 yards and an interception. The sophomore Kelly Page did about the same, going 4 of 11 for 30 yards and getting sacked once. The defense forced 2 turnovers, the interception and a fumble both by Keith Wenning. Overall the Hawkeyes held balls state to 112 yards and most importantly no touchdowns.
Special teams play was one of my only complaints about this game. Freshman Michael Meyer went 6 for 6 on extra points but only 1 for 2 on field goal attempts. The commentators were high on this kid since he is only a freshman so ill cut him some slack since it was his first game and the rain couldn't have helped his case. Getting at least 3 points on drives will be critical as we enter Big Ten play beginning this week. The punt coverage team wasn't tested in the game because of the Hawkeyes efficiency on offense; they didn't have to take the field once. The kickoff team performed much better then in the previous week against Arizona as well. Kickoffs for the Cardinals averaged only 17.4 yards per return.
Overall it was a great week, 562 total offensive yards and 45-0 win is usually hard to find complaints. One thing that they will have to touch up on is penalties, Both teams were highly penalized with Iowa committing 9 infractions to the Ball State 8. Free yards cant be given out against teams that are at the same level as Iowa.
This week against Penn State it will be crucial once again to get pressure on the young quarterback. Arizona has been to only one to create time for theirs and was able to exploit the secondary, pressure on the freshman at Penn State could cause him to made bad decisions. Hopefully in this night game the Hawkeyes can get off to a quicker start and feed Robinson the ball early to wear down the defensive line and the game should be able to grow from there. It should be a close tight game at home against the Nittany Lions but if the same team shows up that did last week, the Hawkeyes should be able to come out on top.
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