McMaster’s Keys to the Game: Nebraska Football at Iowa

Matt McMaster offers his three keys for the Huskers to see success in Iowa City.

Stop the pass 

You read it right, stop the pass. Iowa is a running team with a great back in Kaleb Johnson. There is no stopping Iowa’s elite running operation. 

However the pass is a completely different story. The Hawkeyes are down to their third quarterback, Jackson Stratton. On the year the Hawkeye passing attack ranks 131st out of 134 teams in passing yards per game. 

The Blackshirts can not allow Iowa to gash them in the pass game. If the corners can play well NU can stack the box with eight or maybe even nine players to give themselves as best of a chance of stopping Johnson in the backfield. 

Tempo Tempo Tempo 

My favorite thing Dana Holgorsen has done with the offense is pick up the pace. We saw this team have success with a tempo offense under Marcus Satterfield a couple of times but that was his style. 

Satterfield wanted to always get into a huddle, slow the game down and play an offense that produced but also gave Nebraska’s defense some time to recover. 

Holgorsen has abandoned that style completely. The Huskers are moving fast and are at the line of scrimmage with upwards of 15 seconds left on the play clock. 

This adjustment is allowing Dylan Raiola to get into a rhythm and letting the offense line have more favorable matchups against tired offensive lines. 

Out of the four noticeable changes to this offense, this one has made the most improvement and needs to continue against the Hawkeyes. 

Protect The Ball

This is how Kirk Ferentz wins games. He lulls you to sleep with his team perfectly executed 4-2-5 defense and forces you to take risks that lead to turnovers. 

Iowa is averaging two takeaways a game, ranking eighth in the country, and their opponents average turnover margin is -.8 per game. 

Nebraska has to recognize that their defense is good and has the ability to shutout Iowa’s offense. But what’s going to stop that from occurring is short fields and costly offensive turnovers. 

Dylan Raiola and Dana Holgorsen will need to recognize that taking yards in front of you and playing the field positioning game is more valuable than taking risks and potentially putting your defense in tough spots.

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