5 Thoughts on Iowa vs. Iowa State

1. Very impressed with Rudock on his first drive. He showed some mobility, had some pocket presence, and yes, there is room for growth, but he was solid in all areas. The one really weird thing early on is it looked like he was doing three-step drops when the routes were designed for five-step drops. He wasn't firing quick enough, so it would have been more beneficial to have him drop back more and give him room to step into his throws. That pocket was really tight.

On the other hand, he looked off the chain when rolling out of the pocket. It's a good move for young quarterbacks, because it cuts the field in half and gives them a simple high-low read.

2. I love fullbacks. Adam Cox did a great job opening up some holes for the Iowa halfbacks.

3. Iowa dominated the line play in the first half.

4. One thing that bothered me about Weisman is that in the second half he allowed defenders to get under him and push him to the side instead of getting low and falling forward for an extra yard. I think it had to do with fatigue, since I noticed it primarily in the second half, but that's a sign to give Daniels some of those carries.

5. Iowa won, and that is good. They only won by 6, which a lot of people are saying is bad, but I would just look at it as not as good as it could have been. A win's a win, and Iowa thoroughly outplayed Iowa State for the first 53 minutes. They probably should have been up by four or five touchdowns. Instead, they were up by 20 points and played a very safe style of football. Both the offense and defense failed in just about every aspect in those last seven minutes, and it could have cost them had Iowa State gotten two onside kicks. Let's be honest though, sometimes things go wrong, and Iowa failed to receive yet another onside kick, which is bad, but at least they got the second one. And they won the game; that's all that really matters.

Iowa is never going to win style points, so who cares? They went on the road and won against a BCS Conference team. Yes, Iowa State sucks (I think most sane Cyclone fans would agree with that), but Iowa is nothing special either. 7-5 is the goal at this point, because that would mean a .500 record in conference, which is by no means guaranteed, since right now, I can only really see them favored against Minnesota and Purdue.

But with that being said, they got the win, and they are far more fun to watch this year than they were last year. Is it a great time to be a Hawkeye? Not really, but it ain't bad, and after last year, I'll take it.