Iowa vs. Ball State (What to expect)
Posted on 24. Sep, 2010 by admin in Iowa Football
By Brendan Stiles
HawkeyeDrive.com
To get you all ready for Saturday’s game between No. 18 Iowa and Ball State, I put together a list of things you ought to know before these two face off inside Kinnick Stadium.
At the end, I’ll provide what I think are three keys to an Iowa victory.
No. 18 Iowa Hawkeyes (2-1) vs. Ball State Cardinals (1-2)
Kinnick Stadium; Iowa City, Iowa
Sept. 25, 2010
11 a.m. Central
TV: Big Ten Network (Wayne Larrivee, Danan Hughes)
Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Ed Podolak, Rob Brooks)
Weather: 57 degrees
Brendan’s Three Keys to the Game:
1. Third-down conversions
If the Hawkeyes want to dominate this game from start to finish, then this is an area that needs to be strong. Ball State struggled against Purdue last week defensively in this department early on, and it paid off in the end for the Boilermakers. If Iowa keeps the chains moving and converts on third downs, this should be as easy a victory as the Hawkeyes will have the rest of the way.
2. Stop the run
For all the talk there is about the two Ball State quarterbacks and about the injuries the Cardinals have up front, this is a team that likes to run the football, especially up the middle. This is where the play in the middle from guys like Karl Klug, Christian Ballard, Mike Daniels, and Jeff Tarpinian, to name a few, is going to be important.
3. Come out ready to play
It seems the biggest fear from fans is that Iowa might come out flat in this game after last week’s letdown in Tucson, Ariz. One thing Iowa did well in its two victories this season over Eastern Illinois and Iowa State is jump out to a fast start. It will be important here on Saturday to do this, and not give Ball State any confidence going into the second half.
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