Iowa at Indiana: Grades

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The No. 15 Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday inside Memorial Stadium, 18-13. Iowa moved to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten, while Indiana fell to 4-5 overall and 0-5 in conference play.

Below are the grades I would give each group of players after Saturday’s game:

Quarterbacks — B+

Ricky Stanzi finished the game 22-of-33 passing for 290 yards, and he had one touchdown and one interception. Some of those incomplete passes proved to be costly because they came in the red zone, and the Hawkeyes had to settle for field goals as a result. But he did complete three enormous throws late in the game, including a 52-yard touchdown pass to Marvin McNutt.

Running Backs — A-

Considering that this group was without Adam Robinson, I thought Marcus Coker did a tremendous job of replacing him. Although Coker never found the end zone, he did rush for 129 yards on 22 carries, getting the bulk of that in the first half when neither team could muster any points.

Wide Receivers — A-

I liked what the receiving corps brought to the table in this game. Colin Sandeman made a couple of third-down catches, Keenan Davis was heavily involved, Paul Chaney, Jr., had a nice run on an end-around. Then of course there were the starters who shined. Derrell Johnson-Koulianos became Iowa’s all-time receptions leader in the first quarter. And last but certainly not least, Marvin McNutt caught six balls and scored the lone Hawkeye touchdown, which turned out to be the game-winner.

Tight Ends — B+

Good blocking from the tight ends in this game. Two reasons why I can’t give this group a grade in the ‘A’ range. First, the interception Stanzi threw was a pass intended for Allen Reisner, and something tells me that Reisner didn’t run the proper route on that particular play. Also, C.J. Fiedorowicz ended up returning a kickoff in this game, but didn’t fair catch it when he could have. Otherwise, I’m really nitpicking here, and I thought the tight ends made key blocks down field for Coker and for the wideouts when they did make catches.

Offensive Line — B+

I thought the O-Line looked good. It wasn’t as dominating a performance as what we had seen from them the past few weeks, and there were some penalties. However, Coker was able to get 129 yards on the ground and Stanzi was only sacked twice.

Defensive Line — B

This was not the D-Line’s best game. No one up front really had a performance that stood out, and aside from one sack by Mike Daniels, there really wasn’t much pressure put on Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell.

Linebackers — B+

Might have been a ‘A’ range grade had these guys got their hands on some of the throws they were able to tip. This group got a boost with Jeremiha Hunter’s return from injury. James Morris, once again, look stellar starting at middle linebacker as he finished with nine tackles. Shane DiBona also got his second career start and recorded three solo tackles.

Secondary — B+

Although Indiana got a lot of yards through the air, the secondary came up big. Micah Hyde and Shaun Prater continue to impress as both had 10 tackles each. And then there was Brett Greenwood, who had an interception on a tipped ball, and had two critical pass break-ups that helped tilt the outcome in Iowa’s favor.

Special Teams — B+

I’m gonna give Michael Meyer a pass for missing the chip shot field goal here because until the final three minutes of the game, he was the only Hawkeye who was doing any sort of scoring in this game with four field goals, including a career-long 42-yard kick. Donahue only had to punt twice. Iowa was able to get the ball in good field position for the offense more often than not, and the Hawkeyes had some chances to block punts in this game.

Overall — B

Not the most impressive performance, but it ended up proving to be enough. Again, I liked the character Iowa showed towards the final four minutes of this game, but there was a lot left to be desired. I don’t think playing like this is going to be enough for the Hawkeyes to win next week at Northwestern, and it certainly won’t be enough two weeks from now when Ohio State comes to Kinnick Stadium.

“BIG UPS”

My player of the game will get “Big Ups” from me (For those new to HawkeyeDrive.com, I’ll give these out on Twitter every now and then). After No. 15 Iowa’s 18-13 win over Indiana, I decided to give this week’s “Big Ups” to junior wide receiver Marvin McNutt.

At one point, I was considering kicker Michael Meyer after he made four field goals including a career-long from 42 yards. I also thought about cornerback Micah Hyde, who had 10 tackles (nine solo) and safety Brett Greenwood, who had an interception and made a couple of big hits. But in crunch time, McNutt delivered. He finished with six receptions for 126 yards. More importantly for the Hawkeyes, the St. Louis native caught what wound up being the game-winning 52-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ricky Stanzi, and a lot of those yards came after he made the catch. “Big Ups” to Marvin McNutt.

2010 BIG UPS TALLY:

9/4/2010: Iowa 37, Eastern Illinois 7 — Adam Robinson

9/11/2010: Iowa 35, Iowa State 7 — Ricky Stanzi

9/18/2010: Arizona 34, Iowa 27 — Jeff Tarpinian

9/25/2010: Iowa 45, Ball State 0 — Mike Daniels

10/2/2010: Iowa 24, Penn State 3 — Christian Ballard

10/16/2010: Iowa 38, Michigan 28 — Derrell Johnson-Koulianos

10/23/2010: Wisconsin 31, Iowa 30 — Adam Robinson

10/30/2010: Iowa 37, Michigan State 6 — Micah Hyde

11/6/2010: Iowa 18, Indiana 13 — Marvin McNutt