Wyoming ‘sputtered on offense’ against Iowa

IOWA CITY — The Iowa football team got to hear all about how good Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen is for months. They answered questions about it.

Allen got to hear all about how good he is, too. He answered questions about it.

Saturday's 24-3 Iowa victory brought with it plenty of frustration for a guy who could be a top NFL Draft pick. Getting an opponent's best already was something Allen was expecting. After Saturday, he knows it's something he should get used to.

'Defenses are going to play better; they're going to execute and game plan better, too,' Allen said. 'I wouldn't say there's a target on my back, but whenever an opposing team comes in with a player who's talked about a lot, you want to shut them down. Opposing defenses should thrive off that.'

Allen finished Saturday's game 23 of 40 for 174 yards and two interceptions. The Cowboys' (0-1) game plan was to work the sidelines and get Allen and their offense going with quick throws he's capable of making.

Ultimately what it amounted to was only one pass play of more than 15 yards — a 23-yard pass to John Okwoli that didn't lead to anything — and a per-completion yardage of 7.5.

Allen called Iowa the 'best defense we'll probably see all year,' and said the Hawkeyes (1-0) threw a few things at the Cowboys they didn't really expect.

'They played a little more (Cover) 2; more than we expected,' Allen said. 'They were playing the flat route, kind of our quick game, pretty well. I think that was kind of their plan, take away the quick game and they understood their safeties would be able to make some plays over the top. That was the most surprising thing.'

Wyoming scored 35.9 points per game and averaged 436.1 yards per game of total offense en route to eight wins last season. Much of the Cowboys season involved shootouts, with Allen averaging 228.8 yards per game through the air (3,203 yards in 14 games).

Saturday, though, was a struggle from the start to get the passing game rolling. Without much in the way of a rushing attack, either — Wyoming totaled 59 yards on the ground as a team — Iowa was able to play Allen and the passing attack the way it wanted, head coach Craig Bohl said.

The Hawkeyes held the Cowboys to 233 yards of total offense in 70 plays (3.3 yards per play), making for an inefficient day by the visiting team.

Highly touted quarterback or not, Bohl said after the game he knew his team would have to go back to the drawing board after what they saw Saturday.

'Iowa, we knew they'd be a good football team and they proved that today,' Bohl said. 'We sputtered on offense. … We wanted to get the ball out on the perimeter with short passing and we knew we'd have a difficult time starting two true freshmen on the offensive line. So to get movement at the point of attack, we thought we'd be better served getting the ball outside.

'There were a couple shots we had downfield … we probably didn't throw the ball vertical as much as what we have. We'll have to take a hard look at that next week.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com