First Sports Post

I enjoyed watching my beloved Iowa Hawkeye football team defeat an overmatched Maine squad this past Saturday by the score of 46-3. Next up, an equally bad team in Florida International. This will most likely be a lopsided affair as well. Even though I am a big fan of the team, I don't see Iowa having a great year. My prediction would be a final record of around 6-6 and a middling finish in a weak Big 10. We'll see. Thoughts on Saturday's game:

The good:

1. I thought both QBs looked pretty good. Jake Christensen threw some nice balls, although he also had an absolutely horrid interception. I thought Rick Stanzi also had some nice moments. After watching Christensen struggle tremendously last season, it's my hope that Stanzi eventually wins the starting job.

2. The running game seems to be in decent hands. Starter Shonn Green ran with good power and speed and true freshman Jewel Hampton looked really good in his brief action.

3. On the defensive side, I thought lineman Adrian Clayborn played a tremendous game. Linebacker A.J. Edds also impressed.

The bad:

1. The offensive line seemed to struggle quite a bit...against Maine of all teams. I look for this to be a weak spot this season and if your offensive line is a weak spot, everything on offense is then a struggle.

2. The wide receivers also disappointed me with quite a number of dropped passes.

3. Iowa's defense as whole wasn't all that impressive. That might be surprising given the fact that Maine only scored 3 points, but Iowa gave up big yardage on the ground and several promising Maine drives that ended were more the result of Maine's own mistakes (penalties, dropped passes) than anything Iowa did.