Iowa 41, WMU 10: 5 Takeaways

The beginning of the game looked like the seeds of a disaster for Iowa -- and yet a few hours later, the Hawkeyes were able to cruise to a 41-10 blowout victory.

What went wrong early? What went right after that? Here are our five takeaways from the win.

For the first time all season, the Iowa running game was able to dominate an opponent. The running game had a few flashes against Utah State and Iowa State, but was very inconsistent. Against Western Michigan, the run game thrived -- officially, Iowa finished with 254 yards and three touchdowns on 43 carries (5.9 yards per carry), but that total includes Cade McNamara's lost sack yardage. Taking out that sack yardage, Iowa ran for 295 yards and averaged 7.6 yards per carry.

More impressively, the Hawkeyes did it without Kaleb Johnson, their top running back entering the season. Johnson missed the game with an ankle injury; Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz described his status as "week to week" after the game.

In Johnson’s place, last week’s leading rusher Jaziun Patterson got the start, but he ran for only 20 yards on six carries before sustaining a minor injury (Ferentz called it a "tweak" after the game) and missing much of the game.

The star of Iowa's potent rushing attack on Saturday was thus Leshon Williams, who had become a bit of an afterthought in the Iowa run game through the first two weeks of the season.

Williams gashed Western Michigan for 145 yards on 12 carries, as well as a pair of receptions for 27 yards and a touchdown. Williams looked good getting those numbers too -- he hit holes decisively and ran with a lot of aggression.

This was a much-needed breakout game for Williams -- and one that solidifies him as a crucial part of Iowa's running back rotation, especially while Johnson remains sidelined.

The entire running back room got opportunities in this game -- and they all made the most of them. True freshmen Kamari Moulton and Terrell Washington, Jr. both made their college debuts in the game, with Moulton especially shining in the second half as he had 8 carries for 50 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Moulton's running looked a lot like Williams: decisive, physical, and punishing for would-be tacklers. Washington showed some nice wiggle on his runs (6 carries for 31 yards) and Max White ran hard in his action at the end of the game.

Of course, there was a consistent factor in Iowa's success in the ground game: the offensive line had its best run-blocking effort in a very long time. The line consistently got good push against the Broncos defenders and opened up gaping holes for Williams, Moulton, Patterson, et al. to gallop through.

Iowa's receivers and tight ends did their part in terms of downfield blocking as well; running the ball gets a whole lot easier when the blocking is as good as it was in this game.

Obviously, Iowa will play a lot of defensive fronts with more size, strength, and talent than WMU the rest of the way, but this still looked like a performance that the Iowa OL can use as a springboard.

We don't yet know the full extent of Luke Lachey's injury or how long he'll be out of action -- but it looked dreadful. After the game, Kirk Ferentz said it looked like a "significant" injury, and everyone who saw the injury would agree with that assessment; Lachey's legs fell awkwardly during a tackle and his right leg appeared to get trapped, leading to his ankle and foot bending in a very awkward direction.

Lachey was not able to put any weight on the foot as he was helped off the field, and he immediately got on crutches and was taken to the locker room. He was later seen on the sideline in a boot.

More definitive updates will be available later this week, but it looked much worse than the sort of injury that a player returns from quickly.

That’s not only tough news for Lachey, it’s also a clear blow for the Iowa offense; entering today Lachey not only lead the teams in receptions (10) and yards (131), he had as many or more than the players with the second- and third-most in those categories.

The presence of Erick All gives Iowa a ready-made replacement at TE1, but losing a player as good as Lachey -- especially given the strong early rapport he's shown with McNamara this season -- will be a definite hurdle to clear for Iowa's offense.

The backbone of Phil Parker's defense at Iowa is its ability to prevent big plays and force teams to try to move the ball down the field methodically. Under Parker, the Hawkeye defense has been among the best in the country at preventing opponents from hitting splash plays that gain big yards (or points) in one fell swoop.

So it was startling to see Iowa give up a 64-yard touchdown pass, a 43-yard pass, and a 29-yard run in the first 20-odd minutes of the game. Those plays directly led to 10 Western Michigan points and put Iowa's defense on its heels for a moment.

But those big plays were also the only thing WMU could do on offense.

Those three “chunk plays” accounted for 136 yards in the first half; the Broncos' other 28 plays went for 68 yards, or 2.4 yards per play. And the Iowa defense only got stingier in the second half, holding WMU to 35 yards total. WMU had just one first down and averaged just 1.5 yards per play.

After holding the Broncos to a field goal that gave them a 10-7 lead, the Iowa defense forced five consecutive three-and-outs*, set up a safety, and forced a fumble.

*Not including a one-play possession, a 2-yard run, to end the first half.

What changed? Iowa did a better job of containing QB Treyson Bourguet and preventing him from scrambling for big gains. The secondary avoided the individual errors that WMU exploited for big plays early in the game.

Most importantly the pass rush started to get more pressure on Bourguet; officially, the Iowa defense finished with two sacks and three QB hurries, but they did an effective job of making Bourguet's day miserable after the midpoint of the second quarter.

One player in particular really seemed to stand out on defense in this game -- Nick Jackson. He was flying around the field against WMU all game. He finished the game with a team-high 9 tackles, including a sack and a forced fumble.

Jackson’s ability as a pass-rusher provided a key boost for Iowa's defense and his big hits in the third quarter played a key role in Iowa turning a 14-10 game into a 31-10 blowout.

The first came on a first down blitz when WMU took over at their own 22-yard line. Jackson shot through the line, got to the quarterback, and blasted him. His hit forced a fumble (that rolled out of bounds) and lost the Broncos 13 yards. That put WMU well behind schedule on offense; two plays and 11 yards later, WMU went back to punt -- and Anterio Thompson happened.

The next time the Iowa defense took the field, Jackson again made a big play. A personal foul and two incomplete passes put Colorado State in a 3rd-and-22 hole deep in their own territory. On third-and-very-long, Bourguet tried to scramble out of a broken play -- only to become the filling in a Nick Jackson-Jay Higgins sandwich. Once again, a big hit involving Jackson forced a fumble, this time recovered by Jeremiah Pittman.

Three plays later, Kamari Moulton scooted into the end zone to give Iowa an insurmountable 31-10 lead. Those offensive scores were both set up by strong sequences by Iowa's defense -- and Nick Jackson was at the heart of the biggest plays in those sequences.

If Nick Jackson stood out for having an excellent game, another Iowa defender stood out a bit for his struggles. Jermari Harris made his return to the Iowa lineup for the first time since the 2021 Citrus Bowl and, well, he had some shaky moments.

Harris seemed to be at least partly responsible on Western Michigan's touchdown in the first quarter; Iowa was in quarters coverage and it looked like Harris was passing off Anthony Sambucci to S Xavier Nwankpa, but miscommunication left a big gap for Sambucci, who raced down the sideline and into the end zone.

Harris also appeared to fall down on a play where Jehlani Galloway got wide open for a 60-yard touchdown. Fortunately, an ineligible receiver downfield penalty (on the center) erased that score; three plays later, Iowa forced another WMU punt.

The good news for Iowa is that this was an ideal situation for Harris to shake off the rust of not playing in a game in over 20 months. It wasn't much of a surprise to see that it might take him a minute to get caught up to the speed of the game again. Better to have him making these errors against Western Michigan in a game Iowa had a very large margin of error than against Penn State in a game Iowa will have a very small margin of error.

The biggest cause for concern for Iowa on Saturday? The passing game looked very out of sync pretty much all game. Cade McNamara rarely looked comfortable in the pocket and his timing seemed off for most of the game.

On both of the interceptions he threw, McNamara threw the ball late and into thick coverage; both plays still required the WMU defensive backs to make athletic plays to haul in the interception, but they only had those opportunities because of poor decisions by McNamara.

A week ago, Western Michigan gave up 343 yards in the passing game; this week, Iowa struggled to eclipse 100 yards passing (McNamara finished 9/19 for 103 yards, while Deacon Hill went 2/3 for 30 yards). At times McNamara forced the ball to receivers that weren't very open; at other times he got his timing wrong and underthrew receivers. It seems likely that McNamara will find a lot of throws he'd like to take back or re-do when he watches the film of this game.

The other problem for McNamara and the passing game was the pass protection provided by Iowa's offensive line in the game.

This game ended up being a mirror version of the line's performance in Weeks 1-2; the OL thrived in pass protection in those games and did an excellent job of keeping McNamara's clean, but struggled to find consistency in the run game. In this game, the OL dominated in run blocking, but had multiple breakdowns in pass protection, allowing McNamara to be sacked four times and pressured and hit a few other times as well.

Those miscues and miscommunications will need to get cleaned up in a hurry with Iowa heading to Happy Valley next week.

There were also a few plays where McNamara seemed to hold onto the ball a little too long. McNamara's willingness to extend plays and wait for a receiver to get open is admirable, but with his mobility still visibly limited, sometimes it's better to just eat a small loss on a broken play.

Iowa's offense did a few good things in this game (especially in the run game), but a key factor that set Iowa up for success all game long was success in the "hidden yards," things like return yards, field position after punts, and penalties. Iowa had massive advantages on Western Michigan in all of those categories.

Iowa finished with 165 yards in the return game -- 77 by Cooper DeJean on five punt returns and 88 by Kaden Wetjen on three kick returns. All told, the returns by DeJean and Wetjen set Iowa up with field position near midfield (or in WMU territory) four times; two of those possessions led to Iowa touchdowns a few plays later (or one play later, as in Leshon Williams' 25-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter).

It's not great that Iowa ended up punting on two of those possessions that began near midfield -- wasting those opportunities didn't matter against Western Michigan, but it might against stronger opposition -- but the fact that the return game was able to set Iowa up with strong field position on multiple occasions was a definite positive.

Likewise, if it wasn't the return game helping Iowa win the field position battle, it was the punting -- and the punt coverage units, in particular. Tory Taylor had three punts downed inside the 20-yard line on Saturday, including two inside the 5-yard line. Iowa did squander one of those chances, however, conceding a stunning 4-play, 96-yard drive to Western Michigan in the first quarter.

The second try went exactly according to script. The coverage unit downed an early third-quarter punt at the 1-yard line, the defense forced a quick three-and-out, and the special teams (specifically Anterio Thompson) made a big play to block the punt. That led directly to a safety, which led to another short field, which led to another Iowa touchdown a few plays later.

And, finally, Iowa had a significant advantage in penalties and penalty yards; WMU got hit for 8 penalties for 64 yards, while Iowa was penalized just once, for five yards, on an unusual call for a lineman touching a pass late in the game.

WMU’s offense was flagged for most of the team’s penalties. That put the Broncos off-schedule and into very unfavorable down-and-distance situations; the Iowa defense feasts in those situations, which is exactly what they did in this game.