Takeaways: Iowa State vs Iowa

This past Saturday left a mark on the college football world, especially in the state of Iowa. The first Top 10 matchup between the two was the biggest anticipated game of the rivalry ever. With Iowa winning the last 5, the pressure was on for the home team in Ames.

Iowa State was coming off a rocky start in the first week, while Iowa was coming off a dominant performance in their's. Both of those narratives continued into this game. Both teams got off to somewhat slow starts with both defenses playing well. The Cyclone offense progressively got weaker as the game went on, while Iowa didn't slow down on defense. Brock Purdy struggled in one of his weaker performances with three interceptions, going 13/27 on passes. Breece Hall also added to the turnovers with a fumble lost for the Hawkeyes to capitalize with a scoop-and-score. Turnovers were the biggest story of the game as the Cyclones tallied up four of them. The game did a complete 180 in the second half once the fumble recovery occurred. Iowa State continued to start in bad field position, which also did not help the struggling offense. Iowa's offense wasn't all that though, as Iowa State's defense held them to only 173 total yards. The problem was the Hawkeye offense started in prime field position for most of the game, while capitalizing on the turnovers. Both teams didn't play to their best as Top 10 teams, but Iowa capitalized on Iowa State's mistakes more than anything to win the game.

To takeaway from the game, we can look at a few aspects of both teams. For Iowa, they have to keep up their strong defense and continue to force turnovers the way they have been to begin the season. On the offensive side of the ball they will have to pick up pace because they can't rely on their defense to get that many turnovers every game. Petras will have to be on his best game in order for them to keep winning games, as they have Goodson running the ball fairly established. As for Iowa State, the defense for them will also have to keep up their intensity. At the beginning of the season, the defense has clearly been the strong spot and kept them in games. The offense will have to continue to get more creative on the play calls to help step up on that side. Another big point going forward will be catching the ball and keeping possession, which cost them turnovers in the game. Limiting turnovers will clearly have to be something to improve as it changed the entire game. The run game will have start getting more established like last season, and Purdy will have to make sure to be more accurate. It's just some small kinks that have to be looked at here at the beginning of the season, but if addressed correctly, the team can be right where they left off last season.