Iowa Football Depth Chart Monday

IOWA CITY — The Hawkeyes appear to have gained some ground on health during their bye week.

Offensive tackle Boone Myers, tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle Nathan Bazata were listed as starters on the depth chart the UI released Monday.

The Hawkeyes (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) have a chance to have their best offensive line on the field for this weekend's matchup at No. 23 Penn State (6-2, 4-1). With Myers at left tackle, senior Cole Croston at right tackle, Sean Welsh and Ike Boettger at the guard spots and James Daniels at center, the Hawkeyes rushed 41 times for 179 yards at Minnesota, with the winning TD coming off Akrum Wadley's 54-yard run with 5:28 left in the game.

That line was together for that game. Croston sat out against Purdue with an ankle injury. In the second half of that game, Myers suffered an ankle injury and missed the Wisconsin game, pushing Boettger into his first action at left tackle since five snaps his freshman season.

Kittle, a senior and key cog in Iowa's struggling passing game, suffered an ankle/foot injury against Purdue. He played 22 snaps in the first half against Wisconsin, but had to come out of the game because of his injury.

Bazata suffered an ankle injury in the first half against the Badgers. He returned for goal-line defense in the second half, but was limited to 26 snaps.

True freshman wide receiver Devonte Young played just two snaps against the Badgers, but on this depth chart, he's listed as a backup at two positions (behind sophomore Jerminic Smith at the X spot and behind Jay Scheel at the B receiver).

For the second game, sophomore Jack Hockaday is listed as the lone backup at both inside linebacker spots.

In last week's 62-24 victory over Purdue, Penn State running back Saquon Barkley earned his second Big Ten offensive player of the week honor and was named CBS Sports national player of the week.

Barkley rolled up 277 all-purpose yards in the victory over Purdue. Barkley rushed for more than 200 yards for the second time in the last three games with a career-high 207 rushing yards. He also caught three balls for 70 receiving yards en route to personal-best 277 all-purpose yards, which is a Penn State sophomore record and ranks 14th in program history. Barkley had the most rushing yards and all-purpose yards since Larry Johnson had 279 rushing and 289 all-purpose yards versus Michigan State in 2002

Let's check some Pro Football Focus grades

Go to Pro Football Focus and totally dig into that site. Learn about football. Get smarter. Win arguments. That's the whole point of what they do and what I try to do (sometimes not as great as others).

Iowa's run blockers ranked by PFF (starting O-line, fullbacks and TE)

1. G Keegan Render

2. G Sean Welsh

3. T Cole Croston

4. (tie) TE Noah Fant and RB LeShun Daniels

5. C James Daniels

6. FB Brady Ross

7. TE Peter Pekar

8. T Ike Boettger

9. FB Drake Kulick

10. TE George Kittle

Throw this game out for Kittle, who played through an ankle/foot injury for as long as he could, which was a half. You could tell he wasn't himself when on the second play of the game, he ran into OLB Vince Biegel and had an ankle give. That was a bad omen for the Hawkeyes' running game. This was Render's best game as a Hawkeye. The sophomore guard and fellow guard Sean Welsh were Iowa's lone positive grades in the running game. Fullbacks Drake Kulick and Brady Ross were non-factors against the Badgers, just logging four plays apiece. Boettger, Kulick and Kittle were given negative grades. Again, this was Kittle at I'm going to guess 45 percent (that's down from my guess last week of 60 percent).

PFF's top pass blocker this week

Welsh edged James Daniels for the top spot this week. Of course, Wisconsin likes to get its pressure off the edge and tackles Boettger and Croston were challenged, with both scoring negative grades and allowing a sack.

Best PFF overall grades for the offense this week

1. G Sean Welsh

2. C James Daniels

3. WR Riley McCarron

4. G Keegan Render

5. RB Akrum Wadley

Iowa's inside trio of blockers scored well, but UW was missing massive NT Olive Sagapolu. Also, the Badgers just don't attack the middle as much as they do the edges. One big difference between 2015 and 2016 Iowa-Wisconsin was the way Iowa was able to exploit the natural bubble in the 3-4 defense. Iowa at least had some traction there last season (40 carries for 144 yards). This year, Iowa's only positive rushing lane was behind Welsh. Left tackle and center were neutral. Everything else was a negative. McCarron is continuing the tradition (a tradition of at least the last two seasons) of the slot receiver being the most targeted (nine against Wisconsin) and productive (six catches, 47 yards against Wisconsin) in Iowa's passing game. Of course, that comes with its own set of constraints and that played out vs. the Badgers, NDSU and Northwestern. Lots of east-west and not enough north-south in the passing game.

Offensive factlets

— I thought @Hawkeyegamefilm made a great point last week when asked about receivers running half speed in routes. If you're not the target, if you're fifth on a progression read of three, you still have to run your route at full speed to sell the defense on the fact that you might be a viable option. It's that kind of detail that keeps Iowa's passing game locked. If you're not taking care of that, your releases probably have shortcuts, you probably are struggling with site adjustments and your QB has crossed you off the list of viable options.

— Then again, McCarron and Jerminic Smith played 58 snaps from WR. Iowa's rotation is three with Jay Scheel. This is the smallest group of WRs rotating in and out since I can remember.

— Iowa's dependency on the slot position has to be a major tip for even the most clueless defensive coordinator. At least 25 of McCarron's 30 receptions have come out of the slot position. Matt VandeBerg hasn't played for four weeks and he's still Iowa's No. 2 WR with 19 receptions (Kittle would've caught him in the last few weeks if not for the injury). So, 36 percent of Iowa's receptions have gone to the slot.

— Iowa hasn't figured out Wisconsin's 3-4. QB C.J. Beathard's two worst games have come against Wisconsin. Last year, he had 3.7 yards per attempt. This year it was 4.6.

— Gotta give Beathard credit. It was a game where Iowa had zero margin for error and he didn't throw any stupid passes. Still, seven throwaways is a number that gets you beat. It's a symptom of an offense that scores 9 points. The thing is these were easy decisions for Beathard to make. There wasn't much going on as far as open receivers, not even 50-50 targets, which died on the vine after VandeBerg's injury.

Iowa's run defenders ranked by PFF (starting D-line and linebackers)

1. MLB Josey Jewell

2. CB Desmond King

3. OLB Ben Niemann

4. DT Faith Ekakitie

5. DE Matt Nelson

6. WLB Bo Bower

7. FS Brandon Snyder

8. DE Parker Hesse

9. Anthony Nelson

10. DT Jaleel Johnson

11. DT Nathan Bazata

Iowa was really, really good here. The run defense gives Iowa a chance in November, if it keeps up this sort of effort and efficiency. Jewell's grade is the highest I've seen this season. King, Niemann, Ekakitie and Matt Nelson earned positive grades. Iowa's only negative grade went to Bazata, who played only 26 snaps before suffering an ankle injury.

PFF's best against the pass

It was again King, but even he didn't score a positive grade. He came in with a neutral. SS Miles Taylor was the lowest grade. Jewell also was a negative grade here.

Best PFF overall grades for the defense this week

1. MLB Josey Jewell

2. DT Jaleel Johnson

3. CB Desmond King

4. DE Anthony Nelson

5. OLB Ben Niemann

Are these five Iowa's best defensive players? Probably. If this group grades the way it did against Wisconsin, Iowa could have an interesting November. Jewell was great against the run and is one Iowa defender who does his job and then starts looking for other ways to affect the play. Johnson was dominant in the pass rush, scoring his highest grade of the season. And now we're to King, whose run defense grade was tremendous. Iowa has hit on Anthony Nelson. He had four QB hurries and two QB hits this week. Niemann might've had his best game this season.

Defensive factlets

— The Badgers didn't run over the Hawkeyes. Only two UW players notched positive grades on offense (left tackle Ryan Ramczyk and RB Dare Ogunbowale).

— When Wisconsin QBs had time, they were deadly, completing 8 of 11 for an NFL passer rating of 102.5.

— Taylor's passing grade came from these numbers: 4 targets, 3 receptions, 86 yards, long of 57 yards and a TD.

— Hesse logged a negative grade in pass rush.

— UW coach Paul Chryst did an excellent job getting Ogunbowale open out of the backfield. He was targeted five times, caught four and converted two third downs.

— A touchback on a punt, a return and a net of 37.4 landed punter Ron Coluzzi a negative grade, one of the lowest he's had this season.

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