IOWA CITY, Iowa – Don Patterson saw improvement from the much-maligned Iowa offense during this past Saturday’s 27-0 victory over Nevada at Kinnick Stadium.

The former Iowa offensive coordinator made his usual Monday appearance on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast and Patterson used the word “progress” to describe Iowa’s performance on offense.

The game took nearly seven hours to play due to three lightning delays, but Iowa led 17-0 at halftime and had 197 yards by halftime.

The first two quarters of the game were played without any weather delays.

Iowa finished the game with 337 yards, which is a drastic improvement from the first two games against South Dakota State and Iowa State when Iowa combined for just 316 yards and one touchdown.

Patterson also saw improvement from Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras against Nevada.  Petras completed 14-of-26 passes for 175 yards and he also threw his first touchdown pass of the season, a 21-yard yarder to sophomore receiver Arland Bruce in the first quarter.

Freshman running back Kaleb Johnson also had a breakout performance against Nevada as he rushed for 103  yards and scored touchdowns on runs of 40 yards in the first quarter and 55 yards in the fourth quarter.

His second touchdown came approxmimately five hours after he scored his first touchdown.

Iowa (2-1) now face Rutgers in the Big Ten opener this coming Saturday in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Rutgers is 3-0 under head coach Greg Schiano and similar to Iowa in that its defense, and its punter, are considered the two biggest strengths on the team.

The over/under for the Iowa-Rutgers game is 35.5, which says a lot about the lack of respect for both offenses.

Patterson’s segment lasts for approximately one hour and starts at the beginning of the two-hour podcast.