Thoughts on Eastern Illinois Game

With memories of last year’s 17-16 heart racing opener against Northern Iowa still fresh in the minds of Iowa fans, the 37-7 victory over Eastern Illinois resembled what Iowa fans have come to expect out of a season opener. The major concern, of course, was that scary moment during the second quarter when quarterback Ricky Stanzi made an awkward move to avoid a defender and came up limping. According to Kirk Ferentz, Stanzi is a little sore but is 100%, which is reassuring with Iowa’s annual matchup with intrastate foe Iowa State on the horizon. Here are my thoughts on the Eastern Illinois game.

• Vanilla Offense. As one would expect, the Iowa offense was fairly vanilla and basic against an over-matched Eastern Illinois defense. Offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe utilized plays that the Iowa offense has run for the past twelve years and gave very little for future opponents to find something new about this Iowa offense. Perhaps the wildest plays came in the third quarter when Iowa ran back-to-back end arounds to Marvin McNutt and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. I would guess that the end arounds were put in place as a setup for a play to occur later this season. Adam Robinson had an impressive 109 yards rushing with two touchdowns and, with return of Jewel Hampton this week, appears to be one part of a formidable duo in the Iowa backfield this season. Overall, I thought the offense did what it should do in a game like this, which is move the ball easily down the field with a run-pass balance. One thing that I am interested to see next week is how much push the undersized Iowa offensive line is able to get on a running play against a much better defensive front.

• Try to Stop Him. On the very first defensive play of the year, All-American hopeful Adrian Clayborn experienced what he will likely face most of the year—a double team. While Clayborn’s statistics were not his best, Eastern Illinois avoided running the football in his direction and double-teamed and, sometime, triple-teamed him. Nonetheless, Clayborn was his usual disruptive force in Eastern Illinois’s backfield. On pass plays, Clayborn’s ability to push the left tackle into the backfield may not always result in a sack or tackle, but it does force the quarterback to move around the pocket, which messes up the timing of passing routes and allows more time for the other defensive linemen to get a sack or disrupt the play. Similar to the play of Shonn Greene in 2008, enjoy watching this defensive end, Hawkeye fans, as players of Clayborn’s caliber are once a decade type of players.

• Special Teams. Unfortunately, Trent Mossbrucker did not have the opportunity to attempt a field goal, which would have been good game experience for him with Daniel Murray out with an injury. Ryan Donahue did what Ryan Donahue does best—high, booming punts that die near the goal line. One of the most impressive showings on special teams was Mike Meyers’ kickoffs, four of which landed in the endzone. Forcing opponents to start at the 20 yard line as the result of a touchback would be a huge advantage for the Iowa defense this season. Finally, count me as one Iowa fan that was happy to see Paki O’Meara find the endzone after his blocked punt. Players like O’Meara who work hard their entire college careers with no possibility of playing professionally deserve good things like that to happen.

• Warmup Game. While there was little chance of Eastern Illinois repeating the UNI game from last year and although Eastern Illinois did not have the talent to compete with Iowa, they played physical football for the final three quarters of the game. I think one of the most beneficial takeaways from this game is how much Eastern Illinois blitzed in the second half. As young as this offensive line is, it was great practice for them to work on blitz pick-up coverage and to work on how they will work as a unit against the blitz, as Iowa’s opponents for the rest of the year will likely stack the box and blitz regularly against this young offensive line.

While Iowa played well, there are certainly things that they did not do well, which I think is actually a good thing, as it allows the coaching staff to point out all of the errors to young men who may have a little bit of an inflated view of how far along they are in their development this season. As a fan, however, there is not much to be able to take away from this game. A top ten team should dominate an FCS school and should beat them soundly. Without stating the obvious, I think Iowa fans will quickly learn in the next two weeks whether the lofty expectations of this season can be met.