I always enjoy the three way Wisconsin-Iowa-Minnesota rivalry games, but aside from that, this game might annually be my favorite Big Ten West matchup. It's two teams that are going to play a style I love to watch. Iowa was able to write some offensive struggles off to playing Penn State and Michigan State, two of the best defenses in the conference. But after scoring only two offensive touchdowns in three quarters against a miserable Illinois team, and clinging to a 24-16 lead, legitimate concerns were creeping in. The Hawkeyes squashed those by outscoring the Illini 21-0 in the 4th quarter. But even still, they took advantage of a short field for one score, and for the game, were outgained by a team that probably isn't going to win a Big Ten game this year. Northwestern's offense has been a legitimate mess all year, but they seemed to turn a corner against an admittedly awful Maryland defense last week. Clayton Thorson's 293 yards and 62.5 raw QBR were his best in a Big Ten game since Purdue last year. Granted that Maryland secondary is so bad that the adjusted QBR drops below his very shaky game against Wisconsin earlier. More importantly, Justin Jackson had 171 yards on 6.1 ypc after TOTALLING 91 yards on 3.6 ypc in Northwestern's 0-2 Big Ten start. You'd think Iowa would be a much stiffer test, but the Hawkeyes' run defense has been subpar by their standards, 10th in the Big Ten at 4.8 ypc, actually one spot BELOW Maryland there. That's where it has to start for Iowa's defense. Clayton Thorson threw the ball 49 times last week, second most in his career, and six times more than he ever had in a win. That's not their recipe, but if Jackson is running wild, and the play action is working, Northwestern will continue to drink from that well. Nathan Stanley is going to get his splash plays, but when Iowa is tough is when he's accurate on the short throws. He was 12-26 (46%) when Iowa was struggling to put Illinois away, but completed 5 of his final 6 passes and Iowa scored touchdowns on 3 of 4 drives. He's not throwing picks, but he's not hitting his guys enough either. It may not matter though, because when Akrum Wadley sees purple, his eyes light up and he finds paydirt. In 2014 he had 106 of his 181 rushing yards and his lone touchdown against the Wildcats, along with his season long run. In 2015 he had his season high 204 rushing yards, and 4 of the 7 rushing touchdowns he had on the year. Even last year, when they held him to his lowest per carry output of the year, he scored twice. In his three previous seasons, he's scored 18 rushing touchdowns, and SEVEN have come against Northwestern, plus his season high outputs in 2 of the 3 games.
IOWA 27, NORTHWESTERN 20
