Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How bad is Northwestern this year: Why Tyler Goodson is in for a big performance and Noah Shannon will be important

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

This isn't your same Northwestern program as in years past. This team is less 2020 Northwestern and more 2019 Northwestern, which is why it presents a perfect opportunity for the Iowa Hawkeyes to get back on track. With a putrid rush defense, Tyler Goodson could be in for a career day, and with only the rushing attack to keep this lifeless offense moving, Noah Shannon will be a big factor as he tries to stuff the middle against Evan Hull. We break down everything there is to know about Northwestern in this game and give you a little hope as we look to break a two-game skid.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Thursday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I want to thank you all for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at, and also on YouTube Monday through Friday for free.

for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube Monday through Friday for free. And on today's episode, we are going to be breaking down everything you need to know about Northwestern football. And let me tell you, I have some things I think are going to be pretty positive for this Iowa football team coming into this game. Before we get to that, though, a big shout out to our women's field hockey team. Lisa Salucci, named unanimous Big Ten Coach of the Year for the women's field hockey team, and Anthony Zell, named Big Ten Co-Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Phenomenal stuff, ladies. I'm going to be watching all of your games on the Big Ten Network.

It is super exciting to see how amazing this women's field hockey team is playing right now, and the fact they have an opportunity to win a national championship this season, claiming that for the Iowa Hawkeye athletic program. Also this episode covering the, the Iowa Hawkeyes versus Northwestern and giving you an inside look at to what to expect from the Northwestern Wildcats is all brought to you by McDonald's proudly serving communities since 1965.

McDonald's has always been more than just a place to get tasty, affordable food. It's an unofficial community center. A big thank you to our friends at McDonald's for always being there. I am loving it. So let's get into it, though. First and foremost, before we get to the Northwestern stuff, there was a quote made by Iowa's director of recruiting, Tyler Barnes. And I want to talk about it a little bit because it does make me a little upset.

Here is what he said. He was talking about recruiting, and it was asked, do the losses have an impact on recruiting? And he kind of went in, talked a little bit, and he said, luckily our recruits don't react to losses the way some of our fans do. All right, so we're two for two now, or two for two in terms of days where there's a controversial quote. We talked about Kirk Ferentz's quote yesterday.

It was without a doubt taken out of context. This quote, not taken out of context. I don't understand where people get off thinking that the fans don't deserve to be a little bit upset. people get off thinking that the fans don't deserve to be a little bit upset. Yes, calling for people's heads, wanting people fired, saying all these guys should be benched and that we're the worst program in the country, overboard. But we as Iowa fans have a right to be upset after two back-to-back disastrous performances.

After getting stomped by Purdue in a game where all we had to do was stop David Bell, and we couldn't come up with a game plan to stop him, followed by Wisconsin literally holding him to 40 yards. We didn't double-team David Bell. We didn't make a lot of adjustments on the offensive side of the football. We have a bye week. We go up against a Wisconsin team that has not been that good this year. And we don't do anything on the offensive side of the football for the first half. We do not get better. They know what plays we're running. We as Iowa fans can be a little bit overzealous, but we have a right

to be upset and saying that luckily recruits don't react as the way the fans do. Yeah, that is good. I agree. It's good that recruits are looking at this and saying, look at the longevity of this program, the stability of this program, the future of this program. But at the same time, there's no reason to be throwing the fans under the bus here when the on-field performance has been nothing short of disastrous the last three weeks. It's been ridiculous, downright almost embarrassing to an extent. And because of these last two weeks, Minnesota got ranked ahead of us. Again, these college ball playoff rankings

will not matter today as much as they will matter in four or five weeks. All Iowa has to do is win out, but it's getting a bit ridiculous when you see stuff like this and there's no respect for the fact that fans have a right to be a little bit upset about the on-field performance. upset about the on-field performance. Without the fans, there isn't as much notoriety to the program. Without the fans, you don't have a performance like you did against Penn State. The players in the field are the most important piece, right? They're the student-athletes going to school and playing football.

But let's not discredit the fans as if we don't matter at all. We do have a right to be upset. It's okay to be upset. It's also okay to turn around and still love and support your program. It's never okay to recruit or to tweet at recruits or players, but come on now, that's a little bit ridiculous. I've always had a lot of respect for the coaching staff and the program itself, but some of these digs are getting a bit ridiculous, in my opinion. Let's turn our attention to something happy.

So we know it's been a rough go for Iowa the last couple weeks. I'm here to bring you a little bit of happiness. When you look at the teams that Iowa has faced the last three weeks in which their offensive struggles have really been compounded, here's what I'm going to tell you. Here's the yards allowed, points allowed, and sack percentage, and also rush defense. Penn State, 22nd in yards allowed, fifth in points allowed. They would be second if you remove Ohio State. Now the 22nd in yards allowed is also removing Ohio State. That was a rough game. Ohio State has one of the best offenses in the country. They are 106th in sack percentage and 45th in rush defense.

Again, did not account the rush defense, though, for Ohio State. Purdue, 15th in yards allowed, 9th in points allowed, 69th in sack percentage, but teams typically do a better job of handling George Carl Aftis than what Iowa did. 63rd in rush defense, and we saw that Iowa could run the ball against Purdue. They just weren't doing it consistently. Wisconsin, first in yards allowed, fifth in points allowed, ninth in sack percentage, and first in rush defense. Iowa has gone through the ringer the last three weeks. Now let me give you an insight into the teams we're facing. Northwestern, and I'm going to go yards allowed,

points allowed, sack percentage, rush defense. 111, 82nd, 93rd, 123rd. Minnesota, they're going to be a solid team. 10th, 16th, 61st, and 18th. Illinois, 70th, 45th, 72nd, and 70th. Nebraska, 40th, 33rd, 73rd, and 38th. So we have faced the gauntlet of defenses to this point. We have a rebound opportunity here against Northwestern, a Northwestern team that I know a lot of people are sitting there saying, oh gosh, we're going to find a way to lose Northwestern.

This is not the same old Northwestern team. They have struggled. They cannot figure out a quarterback. They are terrible on defense. The one positive is their rushing attack. We saw what Iowa could do against Wisconsin. Wisconsin, after putting up over 300 yards rushing, was not as effective against Iowa. They had one or two good plays, but for the most part, Iowa did a pretty good job of holding Wisconsin and not allowing Wisconsin to Wisconsin against Iowa, essentially. So you look at this Northwestern game again. One of the worst teams across the board they faced this entire season.

After two losses, and we've seen this happen before. Look at last year. Two losses. Iowa rattles off six straight wins. The year prior, in 2019, they lose to Michigan. They lose to Penn State. They go on mostly a winning streak. They did fall to Wisconsin there as well, but they played well against Wisconsin.

This is the opportunity to turn the season around. They are 6-2. All of their goals are on the table. 10-2 is still a possibility. A Big Ten championship game is still a possibility. The college football playoff is probably out, but we'll be honest, no one coming into the season thought that was a possibility. And we have a New Year's Six Bowl still as a possibility.

It starts with Northwestern. It starts with a Northwestern team that is not your same old Northwestern team. This is a 3-5 Northwestern team. They lost to Minnesota 41-14. They lost to Minnesota 41 to 14. They lost to Michigan 33 to seven. They lost to Nebraska 56 to seven. They lost to, or sorry, excuse me. Yeah. They, they lost to Duke 23 to 30. They lost to, oh man, I'm getting all confused on my, on my numbers here. They lost to Michigan State 38-21. They beat Indiana State. They beat Ohio.

And they beat Rutgers. So, again, they lose to Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, Duke, and Michigan State. They're 3-5. This is not your same Northwestern team. And coming up, we're going to tell you all about why this is not your same Northwestern team. We're breaking down everything to know about this Northwestern squad, including the fact that they still don't know who their starting quarterback is.

When Northwestern doesn't have a consistent signal caller who can just be average, look at what Peyton Ramsey was able to do with this Northwestern squad last year. Just being average, there's not a lot to love about a Northwestern team when they can't do that. And then their staple, their defense, it is not looking good. So we're going to be talking about all that here in a few short moments. I do want to remind you that this episode is brought to you by McDonald's, proudly serving communities since 1965.

McDonald's has always been more than just a place to get tasty, affordable food. It is a place where friends and family can come to reconnect. Literally in every stage of my life, McDonald's has been a very important piece of that. When I was in high school, after baseball games, after dodgeball games, we would always go to McDonald's, grab ourselves some burgers. You know, dollar quarter pounder was the deal back in that day. It was awesome.

In college, after bar closed, we'd always go to McDonald's, meet up with our friends, see what we're going to be doing for afties or during studies or during big, you know, test times, we'd be going to McDonald's, meet up with our friends, see what we're going to be doing for AFTIs or during studies or during big test times. We'd be going to McDonald's. When I was training for my Ironman, I was always going to McDonald's after every single long ride because I needed to get some fuel in me. And now my wife's pregnant. We go to McDonald's like three to four times a week because she's just absolutely craving it. McDonald's is the place to be. And it's more, again, than just food. It's a community center as well. So head over to your local McDonald's to refuel and reconnect. And did someone say Locked On Hawkeyes watch party?

Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. I am loving it. All right, y'all. I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at

and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. Get it there Monday through Friday. Thank you all again for making us the first listen. Now, before we took a break, we're trying to give you some hope. We broke down the last three games and the fact that Iowa was facing arguably their toughest defensive test of the entire season. Now, scaling back a little bit, they have an easier way to close out the season.

Minnesota is going to be difficult. Nebraska is going to be – it is not cakewalk by any means, but this is an easier schedule than what we had previously gone through the last three weeks. Now, when you look at Northwestern, in past years when they've defeated Iowa, they've done it by dinking and dunking their way down the field and staying committed to the running attack. Well, it's going to be tough toinking and dunking their way down the field and staying committed to the running attack. Well, it's going to be tough to dink and dunk their way down the field

when they don't know who their quarterback is. They've had three different quarterbacks play a significant amount of time. Former five-star Hunter Johnson started off early. They moved to Ryan Helinski. They then played Andrew Marty, but Marty got injured, so they went back to Ryan Helinski, a transfer. Last week, we did see Marty come in and have some solid production, so it will be interesting to see who plays in this game. Is it

Ryan Helinski or Andrew Marty? Personally, I'm rooting for Ryan Helinski. Look at these statistics. A 48.2 PFF passing grade. He has seven turnover-worthy throws compared to just two big-time throws. He's had seven balls batted down the line of scrimmage. To this point, he has completed 53.7% of his passes and he's only averaging 5.7 yards per attempt. On top of all that, the guy can't run. 14 rushes, minus 50 yards and minus 3.6 yards per average. And he likes to target just the middle of the field, zero to 10 yards, or the right side of the field from five to 10. This is a guy that Iowa defenses feast on. A guy who doesn't like to take shots, a guy who even when he doesn't take shots,

still can't throw the ball accurately, and is immobile in the pocket. This is going to give Iowa some big opportunities. The only thing I can say about Ryan Helinsky is immobile in the pocket. This is going to give Iowa some big opportunities. The only thing I can say about Ryan Helinski is he does get the ball out of his hands relatively quickly. 2.41 seconds to throw the ball. Now turn to Andrew Marty. In his playing time, he has a 79.5 passing grade, significantly above Helinski. Two big-time throws, only one turnover-worthy play, four touchdowns, and one interception with significantly less passing attempts. He has a quarter of the passing attempts as Holinsky and more touchdown passes. He also can run the ball. 14 rushing attempts for

72 yards. This is a guy who can scramble, get out of the pocket, and make plays with his legs. And because of that, he has actually had a ridiculous 3.04 seconds to throw the football. He makes plays. And he targets the middle of the field at all four levels. He's not dinking and dunking. He's taking shots. With Iowa on their fourth string cornerback, or their fourth cornerback,

number four corner, I should say, Andrew Marty is more dangerous than Ryan Helinski. So if Ryan Helinski is starting this game, you better believe I am looking forward to this Iowa football team absolutely feasting on him. It is going to be a rough day for Northwestern if Ryan Helinski is the quarterback. If Andrew Marty is the quarterback, whoo, buddy, this is going to be a little bit tougher. It's going to be a little bit more difficult because when he has been in the game, it has been tougher for teams to handle him.

The one thing to note is that Northwestern hasn't been that good at pass blocking either. They've allowed 72 pressures and 11 sacks. They've had also 13 penalties on the offensive line. Now, granted, they are 45th in sack percentage allowed, but pass rush has been getting there and Iowa's defensive line, as we talked about this week, has been struggling. What's really going to be huge is Lucas Van Ness, Noah Shannon, Owyai Black even, because this interior is bad. In pass protection, the three starting interior offensive linemen

have all graded under 50, according to PFF. 45.2, 40.3, and 49. There are opportunities to get pressure up the middle. As long as our edges contain, we should be able to get to the quarterback all day. Or even throw in a few blitzes with Seth Benson, or even Jack Campbell or Justin Jacobs right up the middle. There are going to be opportunities for this Iowa team to make the quarterback

make bad plays, and Iowa will then have a golden opportunity. Interestingly enough, receiving-wise, this team isn't that bad. They're pretty consistent. They don't have a lot of drops. They're one of the most sure-handed teams in the entire country. And not only do they have three relatively quality receivers, Evan Hull, the running back, has been getting plenty of catches out of the backfield. 16 catches total to the season out of the backfield, good for two to three a game. Their primary target is Steven Robbins Jr.,

48 targets, 30 receptions on the year. He has one-third of Northwestern's receiving yards. 48 targets, 30 receptions on the year. He has one-third of Northwestern's receiving yards. Malik Washington, their slot receiver, has 40 targets and has 20% of the receiving yards. So right there, over half the receiving yards are collectively between just two wide receivers. That slot is going to be covered by Dane Belton. That is going to be a big opportunity for him, and especially, again,

it depends on who's going to be a quarterback. If we see Ryan Alinsky, expect Malik Washington to get the ball a bit more as he operates out of the slot, tries targeting our linebackers or getting away from Dane Belton. If we see Andrew Marty, look for Steven Robbins to have a bit more of an impact there, or even Bryce Kurtz, the other outside wide receiver who has 34 targets and 19 receptions. This is not a team that's going to drop a lot of footballs. They're going on crisp routes, but it really depends on who is that quarterback and who's getting them the football from that quarterback position.

Is it Andrew Marty? Is it Ryan Helinsky? That's what I'm going to be watching for in this game. Finally, the running attack. It is a good running attack, but there are some areas to really be focusing on. As a team, they are averaging over four yards per run everywhere on the field except for outside of their left tackle. Pretty strong. Evan Hull, though, their main starting running back, has 465 yards between the left guard and the center, And he's forced 34 missed tackles. This is a guy who forced not just one, but two Northwestern running backs to transfer out of the program.

Isaiah Bowser and Drake Anderson. Evan Hall is legit. Evan Hall is a guy to watch out for. And he is the only thing on this offense that truly scares me. Now, if Andrew Marty is starting, that also concerns me as well. Watch out for a lot of read option plays that could throw Iowa off, as we saw it happen early on in the game against Iowa State. That hurt us quite a bit, so be on the lookout for that, but Northwestern's rushing attack is very strong. That is the strength of this offense. If Iowa can shut that down, we should be in a good spot. I thought the same thing about Wisconsin.

And honestly, outside of that first drive where they scored a touchdown, we did that for the most part. Iowa does need to do a better job of stopping teams like that, forcing them to throw the football, and then capitalizing on those decisions and making them make mistakes. Again, the pass blocking is subpar at best. It's suspect. Iowa has opportunities to get to the quarterback against Northwestern

as long as they can stop the run. Look for Northwestern to obviously operate primarily in the shotgun, though, in these situations and keep Iowa on their toes a little bit, do a lot more read option, especially if Andrew Marty's there. That could keep this Iowa defense a bit more honest. But the rushing attack is the main primary catalyst for this Northwestern offense that hasn't been that good to this point. So if Iowa can stop the run, Iowa should be in a very good spot going into this game.

Now coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be talking about the line. It's over 10 points. We're going to tell you how to bet it. And I also want to give you some interesting information later on in this show that can help you bet some of the quarters and halves for this Iowa football team. And you can do that at betonline.ag. Betonline.ag is back and better than ever. With a new web interface for the start of basketball season,

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Don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. BetOnline is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports. BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. And we are going to be talking a lot about how to bet on this game on tomorrow's show. I do want to continue talking about Northwestern, though. We're going to give you some lot about how to bet on this game on tomorrow's show. I do want to continue talking about Northwestern though. We're going to give you some interesting stuff in regards to Iowa's defense, but first let's talk about Northwestern's defense because

it has been bad. They have allowed a significant amount of yards. They have not done a very good job to this point. However, they have been doing a pretty good job of forcing takeaways or turnovers. They are 34th in takeaways with 1.6. For an Iowa team that has turned the ball over a little, you know, the last couple weeks has struggled with that against Purdue and Wisconsin losing that turnover battle, that is concerning to me. That's how you keep a team like Northwestern in the game is by making dumb mistakes, putting the ball on the ground, or putting the ball in their hands through the air. However, this rushing defense is atrocious, as we talked about earlier. They are 111th in rushing yards allowed. They are 123rd, or sorry, 111th in total yards allowed, 123rd in rushing yards allowed. Their rushing defense, according to PFF, is 53.6. This is an opportunity for Iowa's

offense to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. Tyler Goodson should get 150 yards this game. If he's not, there's a problem there. Overall, this team should get around 200 yards rushing. If I'm Iowa, and I want to get back to the fundamentals, I want to get my offensive line some hope and some confidence, I'm ramming the ball down Northwestern's throat because I can. And then I'm taking shots deep against a team that has not been that good in the secondary. They are 111th in completion percentage. Now, they're not allowing a lot of passing yards per game, 28th in passing yards per game. But this is a team that has allowed so many rushing yards.

Teams don't need to throw the ball against them. They don't need to do it. Why would you if you can run the ball against them? But there are opportunities to go deep, and there are opportunities for our tight ends to get a lot of involvement in this passing attack. Now, I know Kirk Ferentz said he wants to get Tyrone Tracy Jr. involved, but when you look at these linebackers, they are atrocious in coverage. Peter McIntyre has a 47.6 coverage grade, Bryce Gallagher a 60.9 coverage grade, and Chris Bergen a 51.6 coverage grade. These linebackers are not good in coverage. Peter has allowed a 91.7% completion percentage, Bryce has allowed an 88.2, and Chris Bergen a 74.3% completion percentage. Bryce has allowed an 88.2% and Chris Bergen a 74.3% completion percentage. That means our tight ends have an opportunity over the middle and also our slot

receiver, which usually is Charlie Jones, has an opportunity over the middle as well. If he can go under there or run some drag routes, slam routes, you name it. Iowa has some opportunities against this secondary. The one guy they have to worry about, the one guy that could cause issues, and I'm going to butcher this name, is Ado Timua Adobori. An AD pass rushing grade, he has been the catalyst for this Northwestern pass rush that has gotten 20 sacks and 98 pressures on this season. Going up against an Iowa passing pass blocking unit, that's a little bit scary to me, but that's why you run the ball,

run the ball, run the ball, and set up some opportunities for your passing attack by doing that. Now we said against Wisconsin, I thought I would need to open the game up by passing the ball and they did. And then they very, very, very quickly went away from that against Northwestern. It's running the ball and stopping the run. Those are the keys. That's what you got to do. You do that. You win this from that. Against Northwestern, it's running the ball and stopping the run. Those are the keys. That's what you got to do. You do that, you win this football game. Now, before we end the show, I want to tell you about one thing I noticed. We've talked about this, but Phil Parker's defense

usually takes at least a quarter to adjust. And the statistics tell us that as well. In the first quarter, Iowa is 70th in points allowed in the first quarter. That's not good. In the first quarter, Iowa is 70th in points allowed in the first quarter. That's not good. In the second quarter, Iowa is 27th in points allowed. But in the second half, Iowa is first in points allowed. We're going to talk more about this tomorrow, but if you want to make some bets, I would probably take Northwestern to cover that first quarter, and I'm taking Iowa to cover that second half.

Or at least take the Northwestern team total under in that second half and maybe take the over in that first half because they might score some points. It very well could be a first quarter where Northwestern's winning. I don't think it will be, but it could be, considering the fact that Iowa's defense does struggle the first possession of most games. That does do it for our show today, though. I want to remind you all to listen to the Locked On Big Ten podcast hosted by Nate Dickinson as he breaks out everything across the Big Ten, including the college ball playoff rankings.

I saw three Big Ten West teams in there, including Minnesota, which I was not expecting at all, but that just goes to show you the college ball playoff committee is absolutely garbage and trash, but that's just my one-man. Thank you all for tuning in though. Have a phenomenal Thursday and I will talk to you all tomorrow. And as always Hawkeye nation, let's go Hawks.