Ahem.

Well that was fun. To recap:

-Darryl Clark is not good.

-Evan Royster is not good

-Iowa's defense IS good

-Iowa's freshman RBs ARE good

-Ricky Stanzi can throw a mean checkdown to his RBs.

Here are the facts: Iowa is good, yes. Beating Penn State in their

own house at night is a big accomplishment no matter how you do it.

But, if you look at the stats, the fact is this team is weak for the exact

same reason that PSU is weak. Their defense is incredible but the

play of quarterback Ricky Stanzi is inconsistent at best. Iowa has

an RB tandem with a red shirt freshman and a true freshman. Iowa's

best wide receiver was recruited as a quarterback. And remember,

they almost lost to Northern Iowa!

...

...

...

But fuck the stats.

Here are facts:

-The game last night was played in a rainy mess. The reason Stanzi's

line looked so bad is because 1) His wide receivers couldn't catch the

ball in the rain, 2) His two interceptions were both tipped balls off of

easily completable passes, and 3) He, unlike Darryl, played according

to the conditions, throwing checkdowns and swing passes instead of

risky long passes in a monsoon.

-Robinson and Wegher are both very good RBs. They may be young

but the tandem of the bruising Robinson and the slippery Wegher is

potent. Why the hell did Paki start this season as the number 1 back?

-The pass catching talent is deeper than just wide receivers. Tony

Moeaki and Wegher can both catch very well. Marvin McNutt is

having a great season aside from dropping a few last night in the rain.

DJK and Trey Stross are viable options, though certainly not great

wideouts.

-The offensive line is always good. It's Iowa. And we've all seen how

good the entire defense is.

Now am I saying Iowa will go undefeated? GOD NO. They have a

great team and a great gameplan: for the NFL. The sad truth is that

in college football defense doesn't win championships, and even

though Iowa's offense is underrated, it isn't in the top 20 in the nation.

Even if they go undefeated they WILL lose to Texas or Florida or

Alabama, and odds are they'll lose to Ohio State or Michigan before

that. But they do deserve respect: more respect than they have been

given (Ranked #22 to start the year... and they win their first 3 games...

but drop out of the top 25 not to return until after they beat #5?). The

rest of the Big Ten season should be interesting.