Ohio State Football 2010: 5 Reasons OSU Should Worry About Iowa
Ohio State has been on a roll since their defeat at Wisconsin in October. They have gone on to win three games in a row, all against Big Ten rivals. Tomorrow, however, could prove to be a major road block to the Buckeye's quest for an at-large bowl bid and Big Ten record.
Here are five reasons Iowa should give the Buckeyes and their fans some anxiety.
No. 5 Iowa Is Looking For a Win After Last Year's Close Game
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Last year, when OSU and Iowa faced off in Columbus, the game went into overtime, with OSU winning 27-24.
The Hawkeyes, especially after coming off of a loss last weekend to Northwestern, will be hunting for a win tomorrow.
This mentality, on top of their advantage of being at home, could make them a stronger, more focused team.
If the Hawkeyes are on top of their game, they will be a strong force that will given both the Buckeye offense and defense some trouble.
No. 4 It’s a Road Game
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The Buckeyes haven’t had much practice playing road games this season.
Of their 12 season games, the Buckeyes only had four away games scheduled. So far they have played three, and all but one of them has either proven to be a scare or devastation for the team.
At Illinois, OSU almost let a team they should have crushed, beat them due to sloppy mistakes.
In Wisconsin, the Buckeyes seemed like the walking dead version of the team that they had already shown they could be.
Iowa is not a second rate team. In order to secure a win, OSU will need to show up and play hard from the moment they step on the field to the moment the final seconds of tick off the clock. They are already starting at a disadvantage by playing at Iowa instead of at home.
No. 3 A Sleepy Start
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Several times this season OSU has seemed slow and mistake-ridden in the first half of play while miraculously finding their true selves at half-time.
This happened once again last weekend against Penn State, where OSU went into half-time trailing the Nittany Lions only to come back and win in the second half.
If OSU wants to be competitive in this game, they are going to have to come right out of the gate playing hard.
If they start like last weekend, they'll have a hard time coming back against a much stronger Iowa team.
No. 2 Iowa Quarterback Ricky Stanzi
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Last year Ricky Stanzi wasn’t much of a threat.
This year, however, he is.
Each year Stanzi has played, his passing game has gotten better and better, accumulating more passing yards while simultaneously improving his accuracy.
Even though his team lost to Northwestern last Saturday, Stanzi was able to throw for a total of 270 yards and one interception—only his fourth pick this season.
While he may not be the No. 1 quarterback in the Big Ten, he can still throw the ball well. If he can get the rock to someone in front of the defense, Iowa may be able to take off on one of those long run drives OSU has struggled to stop this season.
No. 1 Interceptions
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Keeping possession longer than Iowa will be crucial to the success of OSU in this game.
While that may seem like a very elementary statement it seems, looking at statistics from ESPN.com, that OSU has given up quite a few interceptions this season.
Overall as a team, the Buckeyes have had 10 of their passes intercepted this season, but the more alarming trend is that in every game since Wisconsin, Quarterback Terrelle Pryor has had at least one if not two of his passes intercepted in every game.
This will likely already be a close game, so making good clean passes and working to keep them from being intercepted will be key to the Buckeyes success in Iowa.
