Iowa Hawkeye Football: 10 Things We Learned in Win over Pittsburgh Panthers

Little did I know when I left the house for the three-hour drive from Madison to Iowa City, that I would be witness to the biggest comeback in Iowa football history.

Even when Micah Hyde picked off Pitt's last offensive play, I didn't realize how momentous a game it was, at least historically speaking. 

On the other hand, I did realize just how much Iowa needed this win at this time. If they had lost, it could have begun a slide similar to last year, except with nowhere near the talent that last year's team had.

As it is, the previous week's debacle against Iowa State left a good amount of the Hawkeye fandom with serious doubts about their coach's ability to lead this team to a bowl, let alone a truly successful season.

Many of those questions still remain, and this team is not without its problems.

Nonetheless, I can safely say that the three-hour drive and the four hours I spent in the visitor's section of Kinnick surrounded by Pitt fans that talked continually from 15 minutes before kickoff until the final interception, were well worth it.

Bernstine Added a Ton to the Defense

Jordan Bernstine made his presence felt on Pitt's first offensive play.

The Panthers ran a sweep to Ray Graham. Bernstine sniffed it out and delivered a hit to the nation's at-the-time leading rusher.

He also blew up a third-down option play late in the second quarter.

The fifth-year senior finished his first career start with eight tackles and two tackles-for-loss. He also brought a measure of physicality to the defense that we haven't seen yet this season.

I admittedly have been hoping Bernstine would make his way to the top of the depth chart, as he has done what Hawkeye upperclassmen need to do—he has been patient in the face of a number of bad breaks and young players passing him on the depth chart.

This is something that far too few Hawkeyes have done in the recent past, and we are seeing the effects of that this season.

Now, Bernstine has his opportunity and he is ready and making the most of it. Hopefully, that pays off for him and the Hawks.

Hyde Is Better at Cornerback

This surprised me a bit, as I have been very high on Hyde as a safety since before the spring.

However, there is no getting over the results. Hyde may physically bear more resemblance to a safety, but he has a cornerback's instincts.

To whatever degree, that resulted in two interceptions for the true junior.

This is unfortunate for the now-supplanted Greg Castillo who is, by all accounts, a hard worker and a great teammate. After all, it is no coincidence that Castillo has been named to the team leadership group two years in a row.

Still, Castillo is physically limited and without a dominant defensive line forcing the quarterback into mistakes, Iowa needs very good, very athletically gifted corners.

Unfortunately, Castillo doesn't fit the bill.

Alvis Is a Huge Step Up from Daniel

Perhaps the biggest disappointment on the Hawks this year has been the defensive line, and perhaps the most disappointing defensive lineman has been senior Lebron Daniel.

He had multiple whiffs against Tennessee Tech and he disappeared at times against Iowa State.

Yes, we had to expect a substantial step down from Adrian Clayborn, but Daniel lost contain on a number of plays against the Cyclones. That is a mental breakdown that a senior can't make.

Due to this, sophomore Dominic Alvis was the new starting weak-side defensive end against Pitt, and the improvement was evident from the Panthers' first drive.

Daniel did wind up seeing a good deal of playing time, but it is notable that he, and not Alvis, was on the field for at least 14 of Pitt's 27 points. It is unfair to pin that on Daniel in any way, as it was during the stretch when the offense was laying eggs and the crowd was slowly trickling out of the stadium. Still, it is worth keeping in mind. 

Overall, the reshuffled D-line played much better than they did against ISU, though it remains to be seen how much of that was the line, and how much of that was a Pitt offensive line that is still getting used to the scheme change.

Coker Is a Five-Yards-a-Down Back

In many ways, Marcus Coker's 219-yard, two-touchdown performance in the 2010 Insight Bowl might have been the worst thing that could have happened to him.

This was especially true of the longest run of his career—a 62-yard scamper in which he ran, untouched, past the Missouri secondary and into the end zone.

The fact is Coker is not really that kind of back. He doesn't have the explosiveness that will allow him to break many 20-plus-yard carries.

Rather, he is consistent. He falls forward, usually gets positive yardage, and can be depended upon to get five yards-per-carry if he is not facing a box full of nine defenders. He is also a good receiver and has become a decent blocker.

If he can learn to be more trustworthy with the football, he can be a solid, productive back for the Hawks.

But he is not Barry Sanders. He is not Walter Payton. And he is not Shonn Greene.

If you want to compare him to a back, think of former Hawkeye back Nick Bell, who had a career long of 47 yards in 311 carries.

JVB Still Has a Way to Go

Right now, the biggest difference between James Vandenberg and senior-year Ricky Stanzi are JVB's pre-snap reads. I counted two audibles by JVB against Pitt. I may have missed a couple and there may have been silent audibles, but last season, Stanzi was visibly active at the line.

Due to this, JVB missed a number of opportunities and mismatches that a more experienced quarterback would have taken advantage of. On the other hand, maybe Ferentz and O'Keefe just don't trust Vandenberg enough to call those audibles.

One can certainly see where Ferentz and O'Keefe might still be reticent to fully trust their junior signal-caller. At this point, he is still a one-read quarterback. He stares down his primary receiver ala junior year Ricky Stanzi.

Hopefully, he will learn to look off defenders before the end of this season.

Finally, JVB needs to wait just an extra 1/2 second on some plays. He seems afraid of taking a hit or sack. This leads to him throwing the ball prematurely, instead of waiting for receivers to get open.

Due to this combination of things, the Hawks left a lot of plays on the field early in the game, especially multiple post and corner routes to all three of the Hawks' top receivers—plays that could have gone for six points.

McNutt Is the Most Complete and NFL-Ready Receiver to Wear Black and Gold

Admittedly, that's not saying that much. Iowa has hardly been Michigan in regards to producing receivers.

In fact, the highest-drafted Iowa receiver in the history of the program was Quinn Early, who the San Diego Chargers took 60th overall in the 1988 draft.

If McNutt remains as much of a force as he's been, he will surpass that benchmark.

Consequently, anytime he is in single coverage, quarterback James Vandenberg should audible him into a deep route, throw up the ball and let McNutt take advantage of his physical superiority over almost every cornerback he'll go up against this season.

This is something wide receiver coach Erik Campbell is familiar with. It is the direction Campbell's former team, Michigan, went in 2004, when true freshman Chad Henne was under center and future-first rounder Braylon Edwards was their No. 1 receiver.

I'm not saying McNutt is quite as talented as Edwards, but JVB is further along in his development than Henne was.

Either way, Iowa rarely has this kind of polished talent at wide out. The coaches would do the team a disservice by not taking advantage of it.

This Offense Needs to Pass and Pass a Lot

Speaking of which, the final quarter of play was evidence that this Iowa team needs to pass and pass a lot.

When breaking down the Iowa-Pitt matchups, I noted that Iowa would never win if Marcus Coker ran the ball 30 times or more.

Through the first half of play—during which Iowa scored a total of three points—Coker had 15 carries to go along with two catches. Obviously, had the Hawks kept going that route, that would have equated to 30 carries and 34 touches. Needless to say, fate forced Ken O'Keefe and Kirk Ferentz's hands.

As previously mentioned, Coker is a solid back and JVB was way off his game through the first 40 minutes.

However, during the final 20 minutes, Vandenberg was not only allowed to get into a rhythm, but the quickfire, stay-in-the-pocket offense played to JVB's strengths.

More than that, I also previously mentioned how well McNutt is playing.

Keenan Davis is also playing great football and the third receiver, Kevonte Martin-Manley, more than proved he is ready for a major spot in this offense. On top of that, after two weeks of lousy play, the tight ends—notably Brad Herman and Zach Derby—stepped up as pass catchers, finishing with a combined total of zero drops, four catches and 67 yards.

As Iowa goes through the season, they will play a number of teams with much better pass defenses than Pitt.

Nonetheless, if teams continue to shade their safeties over to McNutt's side the way Pitt did throughout much of the game, that should leave Davis and KMM with favorable and exploitable matchups—matchups that were there all game against Pitt.

Matchups that Iowa shouldn't have waited until the fourth quarter to exploit.

Interior of Offensive Line and Blitz Pickup

Iowa surrendered four sacks to a Pitt team that had a total of five sacks on the year (against Maine and Buffalo).

One of the sacks was a coverage sack and could be hung on JVB, who held on to the ball too long and didn't throw it away when he had the chance.

The other three were wholly on the blockers. Two of them were on the line, while the third saw tight end Zach Derby get smoked.

Overall, the interior of the line has been less-than-stellar this season.

The starting left guard has been junior walk-on Matt Tobin, but he shared snaps with redshirt freshman Brandon Scherff, starting midway through the second quarter against Pitt.

In my opinion, this is for the better. Though Scherff also struggled, there is much more upside with him than Tobin.

Once Scherff gets his feet wet, hopefully the play of the interior line will improve.

There Were Still Some Questionable Coaching Decisions

It was early in the third quarter and Iowa was down 10-3 facing 4th-and-9 from the Pittsburgh 32. The Hawks were kicking into a decent wind. Kirk Ferentz decided to send his field goal kicker out to attempt a 50-yarder.

The other options were punting it or going for it.

The worst potentiality with a punt would have been a block. The best potentiality would have been if it had been downed inside the five. The probability is that it would have been downed between the 10 and 20.

The worst potentiality with going for it would have been a sack followed by a fumble. However, with a quick timing play, that possibility could have been minimized. The best potentiality would have been that Iowa converted the first down. The probability, given how poorly JVB was throwing at that point, would have been a failed conversion, leaving Pitt with the ball at the 32.

The worst potentiality with going for the field goal was a blocked kick and a run back for a touchdown. There was nothing the Hawks could have done to have minimized this possibility. The best potentiality was three points, still leaving Iowa down by more than a field goal. Given the situation, the probability was a missed field goal, leaving Pitt with the ball at the 32.

Decisions in football, like decisions in life, are about weighing risk and reward. Some people that tend to risk a lot in going for the big rewards are called aggressive. Some, who do everything in their power to avoid risk, are called conservative. Most people consider Kirk Ferentz conservative.

Nonetheless, his decision to go for the field goal was not the least risky decision under the circumstances. In the end, punting would have been the most conservative decision and going for it would have made the most sense.

Whether the field goal had been good or not—it wasn't—Kirk Ferentz made the least sensible choice.

And consistently running into the teeth of eight-and-nine-man fronts when there are other fairly safe plays that are available—I just don't get that.

Conservative Is Not Always a Bad Thing

On the other side of the coin, the game against Pitt was proof that conservative is not always a bad thing.

I'm not saying this because Iowa stayed the course and pulled out the win. The fact is Ferentz's and O'Keefe's hands were forced, and they opened up the playbook and consequently pulled out the win out of necessity.

I say that because Pitt coach Todd Graham is extremely aggressive, and his aggressiveness played a part in his team's loss.

When Pitt was up by 21 with less than 20 minutes to go, Graham still had his offense snap the ball with 20 seconds left on the play clock. I understand that the nature of his offense is up-tempo, but they could have gotten to the line and sat on the ball for an extra 15 seconds.

In the end, there is no reason why Pitt's last substantial drive—which took place at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth and consisted of 11 plays—only took about four minutes and change off the clock.

A similar drive by Iowa under similar circumstances would have taken at least six minutes off the clock. 

Mind you, I do agree with Graham's decision to go for it on 4th-and-3 from the Iowa 36 with 10 minutes left in the game and Pitt leading 27-10.

Their punter had shanked his only two punts on the day, and up to that point, the Iowa defense had looked shaky for much of the second half. In the end, they called the right play and their receiver was open. The quarterback just overthrew him.

The point is people (and by extension, coaches) are what they are, but there is a time to be conservative and a time to be aggressive, no matter what one's nature.