Iowa tight ends Henry Krieger Coble and George Kittle had career games against Purdue on Nov. 21.
By Charlie Green
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Tight ends Henry Krieger Coble and George Kittle finished Saturday’s 40-20 win over Purdue with a combined 6 catches.
That statistic doesn’t do them justice.
Of those grabs, 4 went for first downs, the other two for touchdowns. If the game revealed anything about Iowa’s offense, it may have been just how much this team relies on its tight ends to make big plays.
“Whenever they call our number, we’ve been doing a really good job of making those plays,” Kittle said. “We’re just seizing the opportunities that they give us, if they throw us five balls a game, we’re going to catch all five of those balls and try to get first downs or touchdowns.”
It started on Iowa’s first drive. On third-and-eight from his own 44 yard-line, Krieger Coble hauled in a pass from quarterback C.J. Beathard and turned it into a 24-yard gain. The Hawkeyes scored six plays later to take a 7-0 lead.
In the fourth quarter when Beathard rolled out on a play-action naked bootleg, Krieger Coble slipped away from the back end into his quarterback’s vision and took a short throw 22 yards in for the score. It was set up by almost virtually the same play, this time falling into the hands of Kittle.
“They were coming off the edges really hard so we started running some nudes, and C.J. got out there, and there was no one in the flat,” Kittle said. “So that led to me and Henry being wide open in the flat for back-to-back plays”
In the third quarter, Kittle slipped off his man on a delay route over the middle, getting the Purdue safety to bite hard before scoring on a 35 yard-touchdown catch and run.
Outside of the deception-based plays from the tight ends, Iowa’s passing game struggled. In fact, it often consisted of a rushed Beathard bolting from the pocket or taking a sack.
It relied on playing off the run, which it has done all year. The two clutch targets made almost all of their catches after blocking for a moment at the line, then making their way into the secondary when the Boilermakers bit.
It wasn’t a new theme for the Hawkeyes — it’s something the two have done all year. Krieger Coble has been possibly Beathard’s most reliable third-down target, and Kittle is the big-play guy.
Both have to pull their weight in blocking — a requirement for the position at Iowa and especially true for Krieger Coble. But this season, they’ve done a lot more. They’ve arguably been the foundation of a passing game that relies heavily on the deception that a solid run game can allow.
But it takes commitment and patience, and once it’s time to reap the rewards both players have consistently stepped up in the Hawkeyes’ journey to winning the Big Ten West.
“Just the way they work is impressive,” center Austin Blythe said. “They just go to work every day, give 100 percent, and I think it shows on the football field.”
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