Iowa vs. Eastern Illinois (What to expect)

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

To get you all ready for Saturday’s game between No. 9 Iowa and Eastern Illinois, I put together a list of things you ought to know before heading to Kinnick Stadium.

At the end, I’ll provide what I think are three keys to an Iowa victory.

No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes (0-0) vs. Eastern Illinois Panthers (0-0)

Kinnick Stadium; Iowa City, Iowa

Sept. 4, 2010

11 a.m. Central

TV: Big Ten Network (Tom Hart, Anthony Herron, Lisa Byington)

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Ed Podolak, Rob Brooks)

Weather: 70 degrees

Brendan’s Three Keys to the Game:

1. Set the tone

More often that not, Iowa receives the opening kickoff. Assuming it does so again on Saturday, I think the Hawkeye offense needs to generate a touchdown drive before the Panthers’ offense even takes the field. Last season in the opener against UNI, Iowa settled for a field goal on the first drive, and it remained a tight ball game. If the opportunity is there to step on Eastern Illinois’ throat early, the Hawkeyes must be able to do so. Good teams go for the kill right away.

2. Defensive line

For all the match-ups that exist with this particular game, none appear to be a bigger mismatch on paper than Iowa’s front four against Eastern Illinois’ O-Line. If the Hawkeye D-Line comes to play, the Panthers are going to struggle mightily moving the football.

3. Don’t let history repeat itself

I don’t expect the 2010 opener to be anything like 2009, but the Hawkeyes can only assure themselves of this if they play the full 60 minutes. Even if Iowa has a big lead in the second half, not getting complacent is going to be important on Saturday, especially with a motivated in-state rival coming to town next week.