Iowa Bleeds Black and Gold, or Does It?

Saturday, September 10th in Iowa City marks the 68th meeting of the Iowa State Cyclones and Iowa Hawkeyes rivalry football game. 

Iowa has dominated the series, having a 46-22 record against Iowa State, and recently Iowa has won 6 games in a row. Iowa State looks to change the streak on Saturday. To fans, this game means more than any other game this season, Sophomore Avignash Ganti said “This is the game most Iowans care most about.” Nobody, however, wants it more than the players and coaches. The Cy-Hawk game, as it is commonly referred to, is so important because not only do the winning team’s fans get bragging rights, the team wins the coveted Cy-Hawk trophy.

Iowa State is coming in extremely hot, beating Southwest Missouri State a whopping 42-10. On the contrary, the Hawkeyes only beat South Dakota State 7-3 without scoring a touchdown. They scored one field goal and two safeties. Even with all of that, Iowa comes into Saturday’s game being favored to win. In recent history one of the main contributors to the Cyclone’s losses seem to be their lack of forcing turnovers, and in turn, giving up more turnovers. Coach Matt Campbell stated in a recent pre-game press conference, “Taking care of the football and creating takeaways, it’s been a key to success, you know you hear me talking so much about winning in the margins.” One thing the Cyclones do have on Iowa is the Quarterback game, Iowa State’s freshman Quarterback Hunter Dekker played against Southeast Missouri State University for an impressive 25-31, 293 yards, and three touchdowns with one interception. On the other side was Iowa Senior Spencer Petras, who threw a pitiful 11-25 and racked up only 109 yards and threw one interception. He ended the game with a Quarterback rating of 1.1. 

It seems that the only way Iowa wins football games anymore is from their defense, and that is definitely not gonna change on Saturday. Coach Kirk Ferentz stated, “If you’re playing defense, you’ve got a shot. I don’t care what sport it is.” He does practice what he preaches as the Hawkeyes defense has forced nine turnovers in five years, compared to the zero Iowa State has forced. A glaring problem throughout the years has been the stagnant offense that Iowa runs, nearly all of their touchdown drives come after a defensive turnover. Iowa was one of the best defensive teams in the nation last year, and yet was ranked 99th in the nation offensively, all of their losses were a result of a lack of offensive production. On the other hand, Iowa State’s offense is very rarely stopped, being ranked the 43rd best offense in the country, while scoring slightly over 31 points per game. Most of Iowa State’s losses come from a lack of defense putting pressure on their offense.