Bohnenkamp: Iowa-Iowa State Takeaways

A Rundown From Saturday's CyHawk Game at Kinnick Stadium

Iowa’s Reggie Bracy (7) is tackled by Iowa State's Myles Mendeszoon (6) on Sept. 10, 2022 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Iowa’s offense got its first touchdown of the season.

And then didn’t score again.

Where the Hawkeyes go after Saturday’s 10-7 loss to Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium is unclear.

Nobody could provide points for Iowa on a day in which the Hawkeyes had 150 yards of total offense and 11 first downs.

A week ago, the defense contributed two safeties and special teams provided a field goal in a 7-3 win over South Dakota State.

Coach Kirk Ferentz said after this game it’s not up to the other units to provide the scoring.

“Part of complementary football is the other people helping out when one unit is not going well,” he said. “But we're going to have to move the ball offensively. We're not going to sit around waiting on special teams and defense to win every game for us. We can't do that. That's not realistic.”

The biggest question is what happens with third-year starting quarterback Spencer Petras, who was 12-of-27 passing for 92 yards with one interception. Petras heard the boos from Iowa fans with every missed throw, and what happens next, Ferentz said, is up to the assessments that will be made this week in preparation for next Saturday’s night game against Nevada.

Ferentz pointed out that the offense is without several key players, including wide receivers Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini, who were expected to be starters this season.

“To me, in both these games he's still not getting enough help to really do a fair assessment,” Ferentz said of Petras. “He hasn't been perfect. Nobody has. We have a lot of moving parts right now on offense, and then we're shorthanded a little bit at a couple positions. We'll keep working through it and we'll talk about it tomorrow and see what happens moving forward.”

Petras played the entire game on Saturday despite his struggles. Pressed to say whether Petras would be the starter next week, Ferentz said, “ I didn't say that. I said today he played the whole game. In my judgment it was the best way to continue through this game, and I gave it some thought, but I felt like it was our best opportunity. We'll reassess everything tomorrow.”

Petras expressed confidence that the offense could get better.

“I think the biggest thing is going to work every day and working to improve, because I still feel this is not representative of our offense,” he said. “I’m sure that is not what people want to hear, because that’s what we have shown the last two weeks, but the process is kind of a long and winding road. I still have a lot of high hopes for our unit and for our team.”

The assessments, Ferentz said, are coming..

“Obviously the statement made about points scored, we're not going to win moving forward if we can't score more points than that, and we have a really good defense,” he said. “But you're not going to win a game (scoring) 7 points, 10 points a game, as a rule.”

MISSING MEN

Ferentz is hoping for good injury news in the coming weeks, especially when it comes to Johnson and Ragaini.

Running back Gavin Williams made his first appearance of the season, with two carries for 10 yards. Wide receiver Brody Brecht also played, but didn’t have a reception.

Of Petras’ 26 throws on Saturday, 13 were to wide receivers — 11 to Arland Bruce IV and two to Alec Wick.

It’s not something tight end Sam LaPorta wants to talk about.

“You guys can make an excuse for the lack of receivers,” LaPorta said. “But we are not going to make that excuse.”

VAN NESS’ BLOCK PARTY

Iowa defensive end Lukas Van Ness became the fifth Hawkeye to block multiple punts in a game with his two against the Cyclones.

The first, in the first quarter, led to the Hawkeyes’ only points of the game. The second one, in the third quarter, put Iowa into a position to get points, but fullback Monte Pottebaum fumbled at the 1-yard line.

Van Ness said the blocks came from preparation during the week.

“We noticed Iowa State had its two guys in a shield to protect the punter,” Van Ness said. “They were offset off the line a little, so they had me line up and it gave me a straight shot to run at the shield and block a couple of punts. I was able to get there a couple of times, but it wasn’t enough.”

THE DRIVE

Pottebaum’s fumble set up what would turn into a 21-play, 99-yard drive by the Cyclones for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown, an 8-yard pass from Hunter Dekkers to Xavier Hutchinson.

The Cyclones converted six first downs on the drive, which took 11 minutes, 49 seconds.

“It was simple — get the first first down and then it will come together,” Hutchinson said. “Boy, did it come together. It was pretty intense to have that happen in such a critical moment. It just showed how everyone was dialed in.”

“It’s just a lack of execution on our part out there on third downs,” Iowa safety Quinn Schulte said. “They had too many chunk plays that we gave up.”

DEJEAN’S BIG GAME

Defensive back Cooper DeJean led the Hawkeyes with a career-high 11 tackles. He also had an interception.

DeJean, a sophomore, has seen extensive playing time in the first two games of this season.

“It has been a big learning experience for me just getting out there and understanding the speed of the game and what all goes into different situations, and things like that,” DeJean said. “It has been a little bit of a change, but I am starting to get used to it.”