Iowa Football: 3 takeaways from shutout of Northwestern in Week 9

EVANSTON, ILLINOIS - OCTOBER 26: Nate Stanley #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes huddles up with his team during the first quarter in the game against the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field on October 26, 2019 in Evanston, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

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EVANSTON, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 26: Nate Stanley #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes throws a pass in the game against the Northwestern Wildcats during the second quarter at Ryan Field on October 26, 2019 in Evanston, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

2. Iowa’s offense isn’t looking all that impressive

Nate Stanley is one of the more veteran quarterbacks in the Big Ten, but he hasn’t looked that great over the past few weeks. He looked pedestrian, at best, yet again versus the Wildcats.

In fact, Stanley was just 12-of-26 for 179 yards and a touchdown. Her didn’t make any monumental mistakes but he wasn’t very accurate and he looked fairly average. That’s not what you want from your senior quarterback.

The Hawkeyes have also been known as a run-heavy team over the years and they had just 123 yards and a touchdown on 40 carries. Averaging about 3.0 yards per carry against a 1-5 Northwestern team isn’t what you want to see.

Iowa is still looking for its identity on offense and it might just be too late in the season for that issue to come up. If the Hawkeyes are going to make a run at the Big Ten West title and an appearance in the conference championship game, it needs to be able to put some points on the board and have more than 300 total yards against clearly inferior opponents.

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