Can't-miss clashes: College football Week 2's premier matchups

Last Matchup: Iowa won 20-13(2023) All-Time Series: Iowa leads 47-23 Location: Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa

The annual Cy-Hawk Rivalry gets renewed in Kinnick Stadium, where the Hawkeyes host the Cyclones. Both teams are coming into this game after winning their season-opening contest. The visiting Iowa State Cyclones defeated North Dakota 21-3. The hosting Hawkeyes ended up demolishing Illinois State in their first game by a score of 40-0.

Iowa State, despite handling their FCS opponent, was challenged more than they would have liked. Both sides of the ball need improvement in certain areas. For the offense, quarterback Rocco Becht continued to show improvement and is looking like one of the best young passers in the country. Last week, he threw 267 yards and two scores.

He completed 77 percent of his throws and his connections with Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins look good. Even though the passing game was cooking, the running game was non-existent, which is a concern. Not a single rusher ran for 50 yards and Iowa State only gained 86 yards on the ground. If they had a hard time running against North Dakota, they might be in for a long day against Iowa.

Also. the Cyclones' defense didn't look great either. They did get a pick off of North Dakota passer Simon Romfo. But, the defense couldn't find a way to stop the run. They gave up nearly 200 rushing yards. So they didn't run the ball and they couldn't stop it. The defensive line and linebackers need to sharpen this up for this Saturday.

Iowa State is having issues in this regard mainly because of injuries to their defensive front. Linebacker Caleb Bacon sustained a lower leg injury after only five snaps last week. He is now ruled out after getting surgery.

Iowa State also continues to be without another one of its best linebackers, Will McLaughlin, who is week-to-week. It also doesn't help that Carson Willich is out for the year with a torn ACL.

Luckily, the linebacking group has good depth and will get the services of freshman Cael Brezina, who didn't play last week. Another starter, Jack Sadowsky, is healthy as well. Iowa State had a good overall defense. They're going to have to crank it up against one of the nation's most experienced offensive lines.

Meanwhile, for the hosting Hawkeyes, everything went right in their first game. Iowa has had one of the worst offenses in the country over the last several years. Now, it seems like things are looking up for the unit. The unit nearly had 500 yards of total offense against Illinois State Cade McNamara threw for 251 yards and three scores.

One of the reasons this unit performed poorly was because he wasn't fully healthy. Now he is. The running game, led by Kaleb Johnson, racked up 241 yards. The defense continues to look like the usual Iowa unit. They only allowed 189 yards and held Illinois State to 4-of-15 on third-down conversions. They also forced three turnovers and added four sacks.

When it comes to what to look for in this game, expect Iowa to continue applying pressure to Iowa State's run defense. They can run the ball, especially behind a front five that's great. It's tough to say how good their offense is with the small sample size but it's clear they can be special. Iowa State has a chance to pull the upset and they will give their rivals a challenge.

It will be hard to run against the Iowa defense but they need to try and get production. Rocco Becht will be able to throw the ball a bit. However, this won't be a high-scoring game. Expect this to be close, low-scoring, and highly competitive.