Iowa's special teams came through in a big way in their win over Michigan State Saturday night, as we continue to track Brian Ferentz's progress on his controversial contract objectives imposed by athletic director Gary Barta.
The Hawkeyes offense suffered a big loss early in the contest after starting quarterback Cade McNamara left early in the game early following a lower leg injury during a scramble.
Deacon Hill stepped in and went 11-26 for 115 yards with a touchdown and interception leading the Hawkeyes on the night.
The Hawkeyes managed 222 yards of total offense, with 161 coming through the air and 61 on the ground while going 2-of-13 on third down.
The Hawkeyes entered the game against the Spartans needing to average 26 points per game through the rest of their contests to hit the Brian Ferentz's contract objective of averaging 25 points per game.
Thanks to a 70-yard punt return for a touchdown and a late field goal that pushed the game to a two-possession lead, they were able to hit that 26-point mark exactly.
On the second play of Michigan State's final drive to tie the game, the Hawkeyes hopped on a Spartans fumble with under four minutes to go and took over with great field position and holding onto a 23-16 lead.
They continued to run the ball, forcing Michigan State to burn their remaining timeouts, and their play selection on second and third downs around the two minute mark seemed intent on keeping the ball in the middle of the field.
After making the Spartans use all of their timeouts, Iowa faced a 4th and 2 deep in Spartan territory and Kirk Ferentz let the clock run all the way down before taking a timeout.
Coming out of that timeout, the Hawkeyes trotted out their field goal unit, and after a false start backed them up a bit, they lined up and hit a 34-yard field goal to push their lead to 26-16.
So far this season, the Hawkeyes have posted point totals of:
24 (Utah State)
20 (Iowa State)
41 (Western Michigan)
0 (Penn State)
26 (Michigan State)
They will face a Boilermaker squad next that ranked 113th in scoring defense heading into today's games, as the Boilermakers are allowing over 32 points per game in the first year under Ryan Walters.
Not counting today's scores, the Hawkeyes have games remaining against top 50 scoring defenses against Wisconsin (44th), Rutgers (20th), and Nebraska (32nd).
David Eickholt of 247 points out that through the last seven quarters (against Penn State and Michigan State), the Iowa offense is 1 of 17 on third down, 16 of the last 20 drives have resulted in three-and-outs or a turnover and one of those drives was a 3-play drive for -5 yards that resulted in a field goal.
As rough as that sounds, those that watched the game saw a number of dropped passes by Hawkeye receivers in key down and distance situations - and those types of missed opportunities have nothing to do with Brian's ability to call effective plays, yet have a real effect on the contract objectives.
The win against the Spartans pushed the Hawkeyes to 4-1 overall, and one win closer to the 7 wins outlined in Brian's contract and the 26 points puts their average at 22.2 points per game currently.
