Iowa Football: 3 Bold predictions for Hawkeyes and Wisconsin Badgers

Graham Mertz will be up and down

In his debut for Wisconsin football, Graham Mertz was spectacular, throwing five touchdown passes and only throwing two incompletions.

But since then, he’s been up and down. It’s hard to blame Wisconsin for having some rust after missing a few weeks, but since the return, Mertz hasn’t reached 60 percent completion percentage in a single game.

Iowa is allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete just 58.6 percent of their throws, which doesn’t bode well for Mertz. Neither does the fact that Iowa has intercepted 10 passes in seven games and has more picks than touchdown passes allowed.

The Hawkeyes are also allowing opposing running backs just three yards per carry and I think Jalen Berger will find tough sledding against this defense.

If that happens and Iowa gets the lead early, as I expect it to, it will put pressure on Mertz. He will end up throwing the ball 30-40 times and that will lead to an interception or two. He will have some bright spots too but this Iowa defense is very opportunistic.