Michigan Football: 3 Takeaways from road win against Iowa

3. Jim Harbaugh had a masterful game plan against the Hawkeyes.

It is no secret that the Iowa offense is woeful. The defense carries the Hawkeyes. Iowa scored two defensive touchdowns last week against Rutgers. The clever play for Harbaugh and the Wolverines was to make the Iowa offense score to beat them. Harbaugh and his staff did two things extraordinarily well against Iowa this afternoon.

First, Michigan kept the Iowa offense on the field. It might seem counterproductive when the offense is so bad, but Michigan did an excellent job wearing out Iowa’s offense. Michigan winning the time of possession battle meant two things: the Wolverines’ offense did not turn the football over, and Iowa would not score.

Michigan did a great job of running the football when Iowa kept two safeties deep. J.J. McCarthy did not make the critical mistake of not throwing to the wrong jersey.

Defensively, Michigan dared Iowa to beat its defense, throwing the football, and Iowa could not. The Wolverines took away the running game, and when they were up two scores, Iowa did not have the offense to come back to make it a game. When Iowa attempted to make it a game, the pass rush got to Spencer Petras.