Iowa football rewind: Second TD drive against Northwestern showed potential of Brendan Sullivan-led offense

IOWA CITY — It would be hard not to be satisfied with what Iowa football accomplished in the third quarter of its 40-14 win over Northwestern.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Wildcats, 28-0, in what was easily their highest-scoring quarter of the season.

“That third quarter was awesome,” said Iowa’s Brendan Sullivan, who took over at quarterback earlier in the game. “It was fun being a part of that. … Grateful to be a Hawkeye today.”

The third-quarter fun began with a seven-play, 78-yard touchdown drive, which gave Hawkeye fans a glimpse of what a Brendan Sullivan-led offense could look like.

All seven plays — four runs and three passes — resulted in positive yardage, and several of the plays took advantage of the ex-Northwestern quarterback’s relative mobility.

The only play on the drive where Iowa did not gain five-plus yards was the first play — a two-yard gain by Kaleb Johnson where he was met immediately at the line of scrimmage by Northwestern linebacker Mac Uihlein.

Iowa followed that with a swing pass to Johnson on second down for a gain of five yards. Then on third-and-3, Sullivan kept it himself on a rollout to the right side for a gain of five yards.

Kamari Moulton’s six-yard run on the following first down set up play action as Sullivan connected to Jarriett Buie on a slant route for a quick gain of 14 yards.

Most impressively, Sullivan faked a pitch to the left side on first down, rolled out to the right side and lofted a short pass to tight end Johnny Pascuzzi. As Pascuzzi raced down the east sideline, Sullivan was sprinting with him and blocking for him. It turned into a 40-yard gain — the second-longest passing play of the season for the Hawkeyes.

On the seventh and final play of the drive, Sullivan faked a handoff and beat Uihlein and defensive lineman Sean McLaughlin in a footrace to the outside for a six-yard rushing touchdown.

One drive — or one high-scoring quarter for that matter — is hardly enough of a sample size to proclaim Sullivan as Iowa’s savior at quarterback, especially against a Northwestern team that has only one Big Ten win so far.

But if Iowa can put together more drives like the opening drive of the second half — one where it capitalizes on Sullivan’s mobility to create opportunities elsewhere — the Hawkeyes could see a level of quarterback play that they have not seen on Evashevski Drive in quite a while.

Quantifying Sullivan’s ability to extend plays

Pro Football Focus measured Sullivan’s average time to throw at a whopping 3.45 seconds. For reference, Cade McNamara this season has averaged 2.63 seconds to throw.

The only Power Four quarterbacks (with at least 20 dropbacks) who have taken more time to throw than Sullivan’s 3.52 seconds are Purdue’s Ryan Browne and Florida State’s Luke Kromenhoek.

Iowa’s defensive resurgence

On Iowa’s first defensive play of the game, Northwestern’s Frank Covey IV broke cornerback Deshaun Lee’s tackle with ease and gained another six yards for a first down.

Fortunately for the Hawkeyes, that was not a harbinger of what was to come for Phil Parker’s defense.

After missing 20 tackles against Michigan State, per PFF, Iowa missed only five tackles against the Wildcats. Better tackling unsurprisingly resulted in better overall production.

Iowa allowed a season-low 163 total yards, and Northwestern did not have any offensive touchdowns in the 40-14 rout. (One Northwestern touchdown was McNamara’s pick-six, and the other was a punt return for a touchdown.)

The Hawkeyes also forced three turnovers, including a Jay Higgins interception that should really be mutually attributed to Higgins and fellow linebacker Nick Jackson.

The pick happened on a third-and-11 late in the third quarter. Iowa blitzed both Jackson and Higgins as they pierced through the “A” gap. Jackson deflected Northwestern quarterback Jack Lausch’s throw, and it landed in Higgins arms for the interception.

Higgins tried giving the ball to Jackson after the play, only for Jackson to give it back to him.

“It’s cool when you have a play like that,” Jackson said. “And then your roommate, your best friend — he catches the ball, and you get to celebrate with him.”

McNamara’s most concerning throw

Starting quarterback Cade McNamara had some bright spots before being replaced in the second quarter, such as his 42-yard completion to Seth Anderson on Iowa’s opening drive. (He started the game 6-of-8 for 69 yards.)

He also had some forgettable moments, such as the pick-six he threw on the last play before Iowa made the switch to Sullivan.

A different throw — one that did not show up on the final box score because of a roughing-the-passer penalty — was arguably even more concerning than McNamara’s official interception throw, however.

McNamara, under pressure, heaved a throw on third-and-20 right before he was hit. The ball was far from a perfect spiral, with Big Ten Network play-by-play commentator Chris Vosters aptly describing it as a “wounded duck.”

It is unclear who McNamara was targeting on what essentially was a jump ball 25-30 yards downfield; three different receivers were roughly five yards away from where Northwestern’s Josh Fussell caught the pass.

When watching in real-time, it looks like the big hit could have impacted McNamara’s throw. But when looking at the replay, the ball already had left his hand by the time Northwestern’s Anto Saka made contact with him.

But if Sullivan keeps on making plays like the 40-yard completion (and accompanying blocking) to Pascuzzi or the six-yard touchdown run, McNamara’s mistakes will be a moot point.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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