Voice of the Hawkeyes Board

A few things that stood out to me:

I thought Vandenberg looked pretty good. One thing I really like about him is his touch and accuracy on short passes. A lot of QB's will have a guy wide open 5 yards downfield, and throw the ball 100 MPH at them. That's a tough catch for anyone to make, especially FB's and TE's. And if you throw it that hard and it isn't a perfect pass, you're really making it tough on the guy. I remember during the middle of the '07 season, the Giants had a home game on Sunday/Monday night, and their offense looked AWFUL. Eli Manning couldn't complete a pass. He was throwing lasers on swing passes, screens, etc, and his receivers couldn't catch them. I'm not overly high on Eli, but after that game, he really improved this aspect of his game, and they ended up winning the Super Bowl that year. Especially in Iowa's ball control offense, I think it's a great sign that Vandenberg already has that down. It's part of being a winning QB.

I thought Mike Daniels looked like Iowa's best player on D. Great get off, heavy hands, relentless motor. Really like what he brought to the table today. If he can keep it up against the tougher teams, he should be poised to have an outstanding year.

I realize it's still very early, but my biggest concern about Iowa today was the defensive ends. None of them were overly impressive rushing the passer. Just not a lot of explosiveness there. This was the most playing time some of those guys have ever gotten, so part of it may have been that they were a little tentative coming off the ball. But moving forward, when Iowa plays better teams, they'll have to get a lot more out of those guys.

What did you guys think?

True, I'm sure the weather did play a part in it. In such bad conditions, I would expect the DE's to be much less versatile in their passrush when it comes to making moves and counter-moves. But they should still be able to come off the ball. Daniels was playing in the same weather, and it didn't seem to affect him. That being said, a slippery field affects different guys differently, especially the longer/rangier DE's. That's definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on next week in Ames.

I've always felt that, to have a great defense, you need at least two of your four defensive linemen to be very good (or better) pass rushers. I realize it's only one game, but Daniels looks like he could be one of those guys. Someone else needs to step up and become that second guy.

Offensively I thought Iowa performed well. Keenan Davis will be a playmaker. Mcnutt, well he was outstanding and will continue to be. Offensive line played well as expected. The only downers were obviously the McCall injury and Cokers ineffectiveness, but I fully believe that was a result of not having full contact for a while. Tightends were adequate, in fact I really like Herman, but ultimately it was hard to take away a accurate impression of how good the offense can be due to the monsoon.

Defensively I thought they got after the QB quite a bit. I still thought there was to many open running lanes. The linebacking core is very fast. Kirksey and Morris can really fly and Nielsen is solid. The corners weren't challenged at all, most of the completions came over the middle, which could be a concern I guess but nothing overly worrisome. Really liked the way Bernstine was playing. He certainly was standing out. Really is a heavy tackler. I expect him to find his way to the starting lineup opposite of Hyde.

Special teams was pretty darn good, especially Meyer. Rain didn't bother him at all as he put the ball through the uprights without problem.

In summary, it was hard to really get a good gauge on how good this team can be as the elements were horrendous. I expect improved play this week against the Clones.