Buckle up, Iowa's offense is a white-knuckle game of patience

IOWA CITY — The Hawkeyes didn't have a ton of plays that worked last weekend against Penn State. When they did, you could see them coming.

Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz called running back Akrum Wadley's 35-yard TD run with 1:42 left. He saw Nittany Lions linebackers shift right with the intent to blitz. Iowa had a zone run called to the left.

'I remember coming up to the line on that and I saw what they were doing, I knew they were going to blitz and I knew it was going to be a good play,' guard Keegan Render said Tuesday. 'Someone even said that coach Brian on the headset said, 'Oh crap, we're going to score on this play.' Even from up above he could see it.'

You know No. 4 Penn State still won, 21-19. By the time PSU quarterback Trace McSorley hit wide receiver Juwan Johnson for a 7-yard score as time expired, nearly 8 million people were watching on ABC.

A pretty good portion of those 8 million missed a lot of unsuccessful running plays by the Iowa offense. It was a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse between Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry and Brian Ferentz.

Penn State blitzed relentlessly. Iowa kept banging and picked its moments almost perfectly, with all three scoring plays coming from 20-plus yards. It almost held up. It almost worked.

'Statistics are really important,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. 'You would love to win time of possession, yards per play, all those kind of things, but it's all about finding a way to win.

'That's the ultimate goal. It's easier if you can be consistent and sustain, but it's not always competition and the opponent has a lot to do with it sometimes.'

So does Michigan State (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) just rip that whole blitz page out of Penn State's defensive playbook and blitz the Hawkeyes (3-1, 0-1) into oblivion?

That is part of what the Spartans do. You might not be ready for another game of football chicken with the Hawkeyes sticking with a run game that has been stuck so far this season. But you'd better get ready for more of Iowa sticking to what it believes it does best.

'Every team is different, but we knew Penn State would blitz a lot, because coach Brian did a really good job with the game plan,' Wadley said. 'He told us, if you think they're not going to blitz, you're crazy.'

Iowa knows it can't do stupid stuff. That seems elementary, but at one point during the first half against PSU, Wadley had 10 carries for 0 yards. Sometimes, that sense of urgency gets a hold of a player and makes bad ideas seem like the solution.

'Maybe if the game wasn't as close as it was, maybe then you think you have to do something big and end up possibly making things worse,' quarterback Nate Stanley said. 'With the defense playing as well as it did (Iowa's defense), that builds some confidence that the game plan is working and we're doing what we want to do. The situation that we were in it was easy to stick with the game plan and execute.'

So, while you were pulling your hair out, sweating through your good Hawkeyes gear and/or drinking a case of Busch Light, Iowa was ...

'They're a great defense and they obviously made plays,' Stanley said, 'but you've just got to have trust in the coaching staff that they're going to make the right plays and we're going to go out and execute them.'

Last weekend was a white-knuckle ride. You're in for a few more of those.

Iowa's opponents know the Hawkeyes comfort zone is the inside and outside zone rush plays. They're going to do whatever they can to take those away. Penn State moved a lot of pieces, but the Nittany Lions' defense was quicker, faster, stronger than any defense Iowa faced so far this season.

The competition isn't going to level out. Iowa will face seven of the top 10 rush defenses in the league, starting with the Spartans this weekend. MSU allows just 3.65 yards per carry. Iowa right now averages just 3.79 yards per carry, 12th in the Big Ten.

On top of aggressive fronts, the Hawkeyes have had three injuries shake-up the starting O-line, with tackle Ike Boettger (Achilles) out for the season. Center James Daniels (knee) missed a game. Senior Boone Myers, a three-year starter, is battling an ankle injury and has been splitting time at guard.

Redshirt freshman Alaric Jackson is taking his first steps as left tackle. Senior Sean Welsh has gone from right guard to tackle. Junior Ross Reynolds is seeing the first real playing time of his career.

'I don't get too worried about statistics overall this time of year, other than turnovers,' Ferentz said. 'We're finally even. That's a good thing. That was a big concern. Hopefully, the worst is behind us, but there are no guarantees there. There are certain things that you watch at this point in the year, but we're still so early in the season that stats don't mean a whole lot right now.'

Two things to keep you hanging in there with an offense that — oh yeah, this too — is being led by a first-year starter and true sophomore quarterback:

1) When Wadley broke that outside zone play for the go-ahead TD last weekend, the key blocks came from Jackson, Reynolds and Daniels. Maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel for the running game and maybe that light isn't a train.

'It's nice for them to know that they did their jobs and it paid off,' Render said. 'We knew they were talented and experienced up front. That showed we can hit plays against these types of defenses.'

2) Wadley.

He's scored the clutch TDs this season. He is a tendency breaker because he can take a simple, well-blocked outside zone 35 yards for a go-ahead TD in the final minutes against the No. 4 team in the country.

'The pass that Akrum took the distance (70 yards for a third-quarter TD), that was on the blitz, so if you're not careful, he might just pop through there and get in open space,' Ferentz said. 'That's a dangerous thing for a defense. The run was a run that popped away from the blitz also, so it puts a little stress on you.

'That's one thing about him. He's that kind of player, and he can stress a defense. So, you have to weigh and measure what you do, and that's what every defensive coach does anyway, but that's why it's so good to have a guy like him who can hit a home run.

'That really gives you a different sense of things.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com