Blowouts can be fun and NFL Hott Reads

Most people think blowouts get boring and are not as fun as games that come down to the wire like last week’s nail biter against Pitt and while it’s true the game against North Texas wasn’t as exciting as the Pitt game it was still entertaining.  It has been a really long time since the Hawkeyes destroyed an opponent like they did the Mean Green and I have to say I enjoyed it.  It wasn’t that I took pleasure in watching the Hawkeyes run up the score on Dan McCarney or that I have anything against North Texas it was just fun watching the Hawkeyes be able to do whatever they wanted to do and be successful at it.  It has been way too long since Iowa dominated any team like this and it was nice to see they had it in them.  I didn’t even have to feel bad about running up the score because it was the defense’s two late pick-sixes that really did the final damage.

I’m sure if I poured over the game tape again I could nitpick a few play calls or some personnel issues (giving the 3rd string RB his first touch of the ball on a reverse that ended up being fumbled sort of sticks out in my mind) but that would just take the fun out of this win so I’m just going to note a few things I really liked.  The 81 yard TD pass from Beathard to Tevaun Smith was fantastic.  Finally the team went deep to the guy they should go deep to and it was a perfectly thrown pass, a beautiful over the shoulder catch and a fantastic play call at the right time.  Can’t beat that combination of things.  Jordan Canzeri was a machine and he was handsomely rewarded for his efforts with 4 TDs in the game.  Iowa did a nice job of getting the backups in once the game was in-hand and while backup QB Tyler Wiegers only threw 1 pass for no yards he actually got some game action.  The second string offensive line struggled a bit to start but eventually got it going and 3rd string RB Derrick Mitchell finally got in a game and did some good things after the unfortunate incident early (yeah that’s what I’m going to call it).

Finally, this game was just a step in the right direction and while ultimately meaningless it sets up this Saturday’s match up with Wisconsin in Madison.  The Badgers are ranked but they are beatable and Iowa had a nice tuneup against North Texas and didn’t get tripped up in the trap game.  Iowa is in the “receiving votes” category of both the Coaches’ and AP polls and if they can escape Madison with a win they will be ranked for the first time in far too long.

Go Hawks!

NFL Hott Reads

• The Patriots and Cardinals are playing great and are off to 3-0 starts but they need to pay a little closer attention to the happenings in the league.  Ben Roethlisberger is just the latest starting QB to go down with an injury joining Tony Romo, Drew Brees and Jay Cutler along with beat up starters Phillip Rivers and Matthew Stafford and yet Tom Brady and Carson Palmer were both playing in the 4th quarter of blowouts this week.  When you play with fire you get burned and those 3-0 starts could go south quickly if Brady or Palmer go down in a heap.
• Ben Roethlisberger suffered a knee sprain (it looked way worse than it turned out) and now the Steelers have Michael Vick starting for the next month.  They are lucky Le’Veon Bell is back and ready to roll and having DeAngelo Williams, who played very well in Bell’s absence, means the Steelers should run the ball about 85% of the time.  This is the time they really wish they could have developed Landry Jones into a competent backup.
• Sticking to the QB theme, Holy Moses is Colin Kaepernick terrible.  He threw 4 awful picks this week and Jim Tomsula still didn’t bench him.  That leads me to this question, just how bad is Blaine Gabbert?
• Tom Brady was in the game too long but Tom Brady is killing it this year.  Somebody better check the PSI.
• Tyrod Taylor has been pretty solid for the Bills and he made the Dolphins look bad this weekend.  He was aided by the fact that the Dolphins are bad.
• The Dolphins look completely lost and while I have an affection for Joe Philbin from his days as a Hawkeye assistant coach I think his days are numbered and unless they turn things around quickly he won’t make it to the end of the season.
• Chuck Pagano has a heck of an overall record with the Colts but he’s not on the same page with his GM Ryan Grigson and despite the Colts inexplicable win this weekend he too needs to turn things around.  He’s extremely lucky that at this point his division, the AFC South, is a dumpster fire.  All 4 teams are 1-2 and look terrible.  He has the best QB in the division but Marcus Mariota and Blake Bortles have enough talent that if their teams start playing better they could pull out a division title.  The Texans are floundering around with Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer at QB so let’s assume they finish last.
• Speaking of the Texans they played a game against the Bucs this weekend they may have set the game of football back 20 years.  I tried to find highlights of the game, they don’t exist.
• So after week 1 it looked like the Raiders were going to be the Raiders, 2 weeks later they look pretty good.  The 49ers looked great in week 1 running all over the Vikings with Carlos Hyde, 2 weeks later they look how we all expected them to look, terrible.  The Rams beat up the Seahawks in week 1 and now have lost two in a row.  Some people may be surprised but week 1 did not define the season.  Except that maybe the Patriots are fantastic.
• The Eagles finally got a win but it was because of Ryan Mathews, Darren Sproles and Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick who threw 3 picks.  Sometimes you need a little help.
• I watched most of the Bengals/Ravens game and it was fun watching Old Man River Steve Smith and Young Buck AJ Green stage a game of “Anything you can do I can do better”.  Smith went for 186 yards on 13 catches with 2 TDs and Green had 227 yards on 10 catches and 2 TDs himself.  Smith didn’t look like a guy who is going to retire at the end of the season but then again days like this are few and far between for him now.  By the way Julio Jones didn’t want anyone to forget he’s still trying to stake his claim to “Best WR in Football” so he had 12 catches for 164 yards and 2 TDs.  Throw in players like Antonio Brown, Larry Fitzgerald, Julian Edelman, Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins, Demaryius Thomas, Odell Beckham and so many more and the WR position in the NFL is absolutely stacked.
• New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit are all 0-3.  Baltimore and Detroit could turn it around and I wouldn’t be surprised.  New Orleans and Chicago look terrible and if Drew Brees’ shoulder is an issue throughout the season the Saints are toast.
• Cincinnati, Carolina, Atlanta, New England, Arizona, Denver and Green Bay are all 3-0.  New England, Arizona and Green Bay don’t surprise me while Cincinnati always had the potential.  Denver is doing it with defense and an offense that is doing just enough.  I’m not buying in on Atlanta and Carolina because there is no way their suspect offensive lines hold up all year.  So far they are doing fine (especially Atlanta run blocking for Davonte Freeman this week) but eventually I think it will cost both teams.  It helps they are in a division with New Orleans and Tampa Bay.
• Monday news from the league was that the Bears finally realized they have some absolutely horrible fits on their roster and decided to cut bait.  First the big name trade was Jared Allen being sent to the Panthers.  He was a horrible fit in the 3-4 defense and now he gets to go to a traditional 4-3 team that will use his last remaining miles appropriately as a pass rushing DE.  Then the Bears sent another Phil Emery mistake packing as LB Jon Bostic heads to the Patriots.  The Bears got 6th round picks for each guy and in both cases everyone wins.  The Bears clear out bad roster fits and the Panthers and Patriots get decent players now for 6th round picks that wouldn’t make their rosters next year anyway.