By Jordan Hansen | [email protected]
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In hindsight, Penn State showed everything it was going to try and do on its first drive of the game.
A long kickoff return set the Nittany Lions up with great field position at its own 48 yard line. Running back Saquon Barkley got the ball three times, getting the ball down to the Iowa 33. Quarterback Trace McSorley then ran the ball 14-yards, setting his team up inside the red zone. The next play he beat star Hawkeye cornerback Desmond King for a 19-yard touchdown strike.
Penn State didn’t look back, winning the game 41-14.
“Certainly none of us were expecting this type of game,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “None of us are very happy with it… Penn State played a tremendous football game right from the start and we weren’t capable of responding.”
Iowa was plagued by offensive inefficiency throughout the night, gaining 234 yards to Penn State’s 599. The Nittany Lions yardage was the second-most the Hawkeyes have given up in the Kirk Ferentz era. The most? 604 to Wisconsin in 1999, Ferentz’s first season.
The defense was certainly an issue, but it didn’t help quarterback C.J. Beathard was sacked four times and was under duress for a good portion of the game.
Iowa got little out of its running game for the second game in a row. Despite having two weeks to prepare, the Iowa rushing attack managed just 30 yards on 26 carries. Over the past two games (Wisconsin and Penn State), the Hawkeyes have rushed the ball 53 times for 113 yards. Certainly not ideal.
Akrum Wadley was the leading rusher against Penn State, with 28 yards on nine carries. LeShun Daniels Jr. had 10 carries for 18 yards.
Iowa could get very little going on the ground, as its outside stretch plays went absolutely nowhere. There was little creativity in the run game and even when plays didn’t work, the team kept going back to them.
As a result, the passing game didn’t have much going for it either. The Hawkeyes also found themselves in bad third down situations more often than not and only converted 2-of-10.
Beathard finished 18-26, 204 yards with two touchdowns and a single pick. His numbers were a bit inflated, with 89 of those passing yards coming in the fourth quarter as the game was out of reach.
Receiving wise, Jerminic Smith and Wadley both had 5 catches. Smith had 85 yards and a touchdown, while Wadley had 35 and a screen pass that he danced his way into the endzone with. Those were the Hawkeye’s lone scores of the day.
“We just killed, so it’s tough coming off a loss like this. We’ll watch the film tomorrow and get back to work on Sunday,” Beathard said. “You can always do stuff to improve yourself, a lot of it is just execution things.”
On the stat sheet, it comes across as Barkley (who finished with 20 attempts for 167 yards, 1 reception for 44 yards and two touchdowns) and the rest of the Penn State offense just mowing through the Iowa defense. While not inaccurate, it was a combined effort of both groups that lost the game. There was little rhythm in offense and it looked as if the Hawkeyes were shellshocked as soon as they stepped on to the field.
While team captain and starting linebacker Josey Jewell said nothing Penn State did surprised them, the fact they weren’t able to consistently make stops has to be concerning. Though as Ferentz said after the game, there’s no new help or players coming right now. Iowa has to work with what it has.
“We’ve got to try and coach them a little bit better and get them to play a little bit better,” Ferentz said. “The cavalry isn’t coming… we’re going to try to find the answers. We certainly didn’t have enough tonight. At times we looked okay, but not good enough, certainly.”
It was the worst loss of the season, though that could change next week as second-ranked Michigan comes into Iowa City. The Wolverines will more than likely be a double-digit favorite in that game.
But for now, Iowa has to figure out how to pick up the pieces.
“We just have to put this behind us, see where we can improve at, watch film tomorrow, and just move on with it,” King said. “We have to give it our all these last three weeks.”
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