The No. 17 Iowa football team beat Illinois 29-20 on Oct. 11.

By Jordan Hansen
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Iowa does have another deep threat

True freshman wide receiver Jerminic Smith broke out against Illinois, hauling in four passes for 118 yards.

After being held without a catch in his first real action of the season last week against Wisconsin, Smith and quarterback C.J. Beathard’s chemistry looked much improved. Iowa missed the deep ball sorely against Wisconsin with senior wide receiver Tevaun Smith (no relation) out of the lineup with a knee injury.

Three of the freshnan’s four catches went for first downs and two of those — a 46- and 49-yard catch — came on a third-and-long play.

Bottom line: Smith might just be Iowa’s deep threat of the future, something the coaching staff has to happy about.

Canzeri can tote the load

There shouldn’t be any question as to if Jordan Canzeri can be Iowa’s featured running back after his 256 yards on a school-record 43 attempts.

He also added 15 yards on two catches while scoring both a receiving and rushing touchdown. Incredibly, he ran the ball on 11 consecutive instances in the fourth-quarter.

Canzeri was unquestionably the star of the game and with LeShun Daniels Jr. still limited with a high-ankle sprain, he might continue to be Iowa’s main running back.

No other running back got a carry on Saturday, though Beathard did tuck the ball and run five times for 29 yards.

Pass defense isn’t perfect

The Hawkeye secondary has been one of the team’s best units on the team this season, but this was nowhere close to their best game.

Cornerback Greg Mabin got beat by Illinois wide receiver Geronimo Allison several times and got called for two penalties — defensive pass interference and a facemask call.

Mabin did have a couple good moments, however, and intercepted Allison on a trick play later in the game.

Mabin’s opposite — Desmond King — was also called for a pass interference call late in the game, but did not see the ball thrown his way much during the game.

Illini quarterback Wes Lunt finished the day with 317 yards on 24-42 passing. He also threw one touchdown and was not intercepted.

Beathard has a short memory

After a fairly bad performance against Wisconsin, the quarterback had a strong game against Illinois.

He did not turn the ball over, threw two touchdowns, and generally looked much better than he did against the Badgers. Beathard has a reputation for being cool under pressure and he showed this skill once again.

Offensive line questions

Iowa had both starting tackles and a starting guard out during parts of the game and generally looked in disarray most of the game.

The run blocking was not terrible, but the line struggled immensely to give Beathard any time to throw the ball. Iowa went into shotgun for good portions of the game, simply so he could get a pass off.

True freshman James Daniels saw time at both guard and tackle during the game, with mixed results. Jordan Walsh — the aforementioned injured guard — came back during the game, but starting tackle Ike Boettger did not return from an ankle injury.

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