The following is an excerpt from the DI’s Pregame Podcast. A new episode can be found on our Soundcloud page every Wednesday.
Danny Payne, Pregame editor: Obviously, Iowa with the big win this past weekend, beat Pitt with a 57-yard field goal … Ryan, I know you were in the stands. How loud was it?
Ryan Rodriguez, football reporter: That was probably the first time I’ve watched a game in the stands since my sophomore year, and I haven’t heard Kinnick that loud. The only other time where I can think of that the excitement level was that high would be the overtime game against Northwestern a couple years ago.
Shades of that Penn State game in ’08 or ’09. I was sitting next to a couple who had been to every home game for the last 10 or 15 years, and they said it was the loudest they had heard it in the last five or six years.

https://soundcloud.com/annyayne/pregame-podcast-7-the-big-boot

Charlie Green, football reporter: There just seems to be something about playing Pittsburgh that brings out the most exciting games at Kinnick. I just remember as a freshman in 2011 … Iowa was down something like 24-3, and it came back and won.
This time against Pittsburgh it was the craziest I’ve ever seen.

Jordan Hansen, football reporter: Fifty-seven yards, though — that’s a long field goal, I don’t care if it’s in the NFL or in college.

Green: Right when it left his foot, though, you knew it was good.

Hansen: It would have been good from 60, 61, maybe 62. It was a great kick.

Payne: Yeah, it hit the net … I would have given it 60, I don’t know about anything past that. But if you’re hitting that kind of field goal …

Green: It puts you on the map.

Payne: Sure does.

Takeaways from the Pittsburgh:

Payne: One was the physicality of that contest. That comes from, at least a little bit, new head coach Pat Narduzzi, who brought some of that from Michigan State when he came over to Pittsburgh.
C.J. Beathard got banged up in the second quarter on his 9-yard touchdown run. Hurt his left hip and got some treatment on that. Didn’t really look comfortable at all after that until those last couple drives.
That’s the most physical team Iowa’s played so far this year. A lot of blitzing, a lot of pressure on Beathard. The same goes for Iowa’s defense. Tyler Boyd is a freak of nature, but he’s physical, too. That’s a big guy, and that’s a physical guy.

Green: I thought the major concern I should have is that they got beat up around the line of scrimmage. No pass rush on Peterman, Pittsburgh’s quarterback and also Beathard was under pressure, and Iowa’s running game struggled to get going.
Did a little better in the second half, but the yards per carry were still pretty low.
Also when you looked at Beathard, he was looking to get out of the pocket. He never seemed as if he looked comfortable. He has a good sense of the rush, so he knows when to get out, but he was getting out quickly.
He played a great game; a lot of credit to him.

Hansen: Iowa’s offense changes so much when LeShun is not your every-down back. C.J. threw the ball 40 times. Granted, he was 27-of-40 and had a pretty decent passing game, but it kind of really showed that when Iowa can’t run with Daniels, it’s going to have to rely on the passing game quite a bit more.
If Iowa can win through the air, that’s an option it really hasn’t had in a long time.

Green: But it’s nice to have that option. It’s an option that hasn’t been there, and it’s probably the reason Iowa won that game.

Rodriguez: I thought Beathard’s ability to make decisions and make the right decisions in a split second when the pocket collapsed was what I thought was the biggest reason they won that game.
He was under pressure, he was scrambling, his offensive line was giving him basically no time, and it seemed like the quicker the guys were coming, the quicker he got the passes off and the more zip they had on them.

On Beathard’s demeanor:
Panye: Was this the most in control Beathard has looked this year?

Hansen: Undoubtedly.

Green:  The way he handled, he was under pressure and still got the ball off.

Hansen: He put Iowa in a position to kick the field goal. It’s literally as simple as that.

Payne: I think he did look totally in control, I agree. They don’t get there without Beathard. I think his rushes on that drive were 12, 8, and 7. The last one to get down to the Pitt 39 … Beathard said that he was just watching the clock and that when it got to three seconds, he was going to go down.

Green: That awareness is just perfect. That’s a game last year that Iowa might have lost by more than a touchdown.

On Iowa’s defense:

Rodriguez: Iowa’s pass coverage looked good; there’s only so much you can do against Tyler Boyd, but all things considered, I thought Greg Mabin and Desmond King handled themselves very well.
Defensive line is still going to be a work in progress. They had some series where they looked good, and some in which they didn’t look so great.

Green: They have 11 sacks on the season, and you have to wonder how many of those are coverage sacks. Peterman was standing in the pocket for so long, your receivers are going to get open if you give him that much time.
Peterman was comfortable and he was taking his time.

Hansen: Overall, Iowa’s defense played well, yardage wise. It only gave up 282 offensive yards, and that’s impressive. Just 55 yards rushing.