Iowa at Arizona (What to expect)

Posted on 17. Sep, 2010 by admin in Iowa Football

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

To get you all ready for Saturday’s game between No. 9 Iowa and No. 24 Arizona, I put together a list of things you ought to know before these two face off inside Arizona Stadium.

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

No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes (2-0) at No. 24 Arizona Wildcats (2-0)

Arizona Stadium; Tucson, Ariz.

Sept. 18, 2010

9:30 p.m. Central

TV: ESPN (Mark Jones, Bob Davie)

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

Weather: 90-93 degrees

Brendan’s Three Keys to the Game:

1. Field Position

This game is largely going to be determined on who has better field position throughout. This means quality special teams play for the Hawkeyes out of guys like senior punter Ryan Donahue and kickoff specialist Michael Meyer. This also means the offense shows an ability to move the chains and win time of possession. Defensively, this means not surrendering any big plays to Nick Foles and the Wildcat offense.

2. Have balance on offense

Iowa cannot be one-dimensional on offense and expect to win this game against a disciplined Arizona defense. The Hawkeyes have shown through two weeks they can be effective both running and throwing the football. This needs to continue in order to give the defense the rest it will need, and just as important, keep Arizona’s offense on the sidelines.

3. Weather the storm

I fully anticipate the Wildcats showing plenty of emotion early and attempting to take advantage of the momentum they will receive from their crowd considering what’s at stake. It is essential for Iowa to do what it did quite often last season on the road, which is avoid things from getting completely out of hand and become more dominant as the game wears on.

Tags: Iowa Football