Iowa vs. Penn State (What to expect)
Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by admin in Iowa Football
By Brendan Stiles
HawkeyeDrive.com
To get you all ready for Saturday’s game between No. 17 Iowa and No. 22 Penn 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. 17 Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1, 0-0) vs. No. 22 Penn State Nittany Lions (3-1, 0-0)
Kinnick Stadium; Iowa City, Iowa
Oct. 2, 2010
7 p.m. Central
TV: ESPN (Mark Jones, Bob Davie)
Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Ed Podolak, Rob Brooks)
Weather: 53 degrees
Brendan’s Three Keys to the Game:
1. Establish a ground game
With a bye next week, the Hawkeyes can afford to give sophomore running back Adam Robinson plenty of carries Saturday night against a Penn State defense that will be keying to stop Iowa’s rushing attack. If Robinson can get it going, this should help set up some big plays down field for Ricky Stanzi and company.
2. Stop the run
Likewise, Penn State has a running back in Evan Royster that it will be heavily dependent on, keeping the pressure off true freshman quarterback Rob Bolden. Iowa will have to respect Royster, but getting to him early and often should create opportunities to put pressure on Bolden and force him into the types of mistakes freshmen quarterbacks tend to make, especially on the road in a hostile environment.
3. Execute, execute, execute
Penn State has a generally speaking weak offense when it gets into the red zone. Should this happen Saturday night, forcing the Nittany Lions into settling for field goals could frustrate them enough that Iowa could have a psychological advantage. Likewise, the Hawkeyes need to show an ability to not only capitalize when their offense reaches the red zone, but any time Penn State turns the football over. Iowa needs to come away with points any time possible, because you just never know with a game like this.
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