Pro Football Focus Grades: Iowa Offense

Iowa scored on their first drive for the first time since the opening game of the season and two big plays really fueled the attack and those were made by Charlie Jones and Keagan Johnson, who continues to rise as a star in the Big Ten.

Iowa put up those 27 points despite only having the football for 20 minutes and running just 50 plays. Overall, Iowa had 277 yards of total offense, including 71 yards rushing and 206 in the air.

Let's take a look at the grades on the offensive side of the ball.

QUARTERBACK

	PASS	RUN	OVERALL

Alex Padilla	53.1	67.1	57.9

It certainly felt like it could have been a potentially even better day for Alex Padilla if not for a couple of drops. There were three graded drops by Pro Football Focus on Saturday. It is worth noting that Padilla also was fortunate that he didn't throw a pair of interceptions to the Gophers.

One thing that certainly jumps out is the growth in the number of deep shots being taken by Padilla vs. what happened earlier this year. SIx shot plays of more than 20 yards is a new development and there's also three more passes beyond ten yards.

Some other interesting numbers:

Kept Clean: 9-15 for 100 yards and one TD

Under Pressure: 2-9 for 106 yards and one TD

Not Blitzed: 9-20 for 166 yards and two TD's

Blitzed: 2-4 for 40 yards

Play Action: 4-10 for 84 yards and one TD

Non-Play Action: 7-14 for 122 yards and one TD

Overall, a good first start for Padilla.

RUNNING BACK

	SNAP	RUN	PASS	OVERALL

Monte Pottebaum	4	N/A	N/A	59.9
Gavin Williams	6	59.6	57.7	58.4
Tyler Goodson	43	56.0	58.2	56.5
Turner Pallissard	17	N/A	28.8	43.1

Not a great day for the Iowa backs. Goodson played most of the snaps and he was able to grind out 59 yards rushing and 3.3 yards per carry. Unfortunately the stretch play is still really inconsistent at best for Iowa, but the straight ahead attack seems to be much better. Limited work this week for Gavin Williams, but that's not a surprise given the overall limited snaps for the Iowa offense.

RECEIVERS

	SNAP	PASS	RUN BLK	OVERALL

Charlie Jones	16	90.2	60.7	91.7
Sam LaPorta	36	83.4	52.9	77.7
Arland Bruce	19	62.7	60.8	63.2
Tyrone Tracy	16	56.7	53.6	60.2
Luke Lachey	30	51.4	68.7	60.0
Keagan Johnson	43	57.3	57.3	56.0
Nico Ragaini	20	49.1	60.1	48.4

Some really good in here and then some really puzzling grades.

Let's start with the good, while playing a limited number of snaps, Charlie Jones made two massive plays. One a diving highlight reel reception and the other a long touchdown. Career high grade for Jones as a far as a receiver.

On the other end, it's hard to understand Keagan Johnson's grade. Sure he had a couple drops and that will impact his grade, but he had a huge touchdown reception and that play was totally him making that play. Johnson once again had a team high 8 targets.

Sam LaPorta led the team with three receptions on five targets.

OFFENSIVE LINE

	SNAP	RUN	PASS	OVERALL

Tyler Linderbaum	50	83.6	81.8	88.8
Nick DeJong	50	65.0	59.2	64.8
Jack Plumb	50	58.0	73.3	62.9
Kyler Schott	50	61.3	64.7	62.5
Connor Colby	50	59.7	68.5	61.7

For the first time this season, Iowa stuck with their starting five offensive lineman and didn't do any substitutions. Some of that could have been the result of the limited amount of snaps and perhaps it also is due to the injuries up front.

No surprise, Tyler Linderbaum was at the top of the list. He had a terrific game in both run and pass blocking and will probably be the top center grade by PFF this week.The rest of the offensive line graded out pretty well with everyone over the 60 threshold, which is a positive.