Iowa’s offense isn’t helping the cause.

Iowa’s first-half offense against Iowa State looks pretty similar to what Hawkeye fans saw against Northern Illinois in the first half.

Twice, Iowa started out inside Iowa State’s 30-yard line. That’s prime field position. Iowa’s average starting field position in the first half was at its own 40-yard line — a big advantage compared with Iowa State starting at its own 20 on average. Yet, we’ve got a 3-3 ballgame heading into the second half.

Numbers-wise, Iowa has 73 yards of offense, 52 in the second quarter, when Iowa showed the ability to (somewhat) move the ball.

The ground game has been pretty much hit-or-miss. At times, Toren Young has been untouched coming out of the backfield, but at other times, Iowa State has been able to get to the ball carrier virtually at the same moment he takes the handoff. Iowa has 47 rushing yards, 36 of those coming from Young.

-Adam Hensley

Defense, defense, defense

Besides the opponent, it would be hard to find much of a difference between this first half of the Sept. 8 game and last week’s.

The Iowa offense has failed to put up anything more than a field goal (missed one), and the defense has succeeded in keeping the opponent out of the end zone.

Also similar to last week, Iowa’s defense was about the only positive, especially the front four. After a rough first drive, in which Iowa State drove all the way to the Hawkeye 1, a false-start penalty forced the Cyclones to settle for a field goal.

Since then, the Hawkeye defense stiffened up and held the Cyclones to just 39 yards of offense. Iowa’s defensive front continually swallowed up Cyclone tailback David Montgomery, holding him to just 34 yards, 16 on the first drive.

Kyle Kempt also felt the power of the Hawkeye defensive line, which brought him down for 2 sacks — one by Nick Niemann, the other by Matt Nelson.

-Jordan Zuniga

Twitter reactions

Fans aren’t too excited with Iowa’s output (most likely the offense’s) in the first half.

Some people, though, are all about the 3-3 tie.