Northwestern vs. Iowa; which team has the advantage at each position
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – One team hasn’t won a game in the United States this season, while the other hasn’t won a game since September.
One team is only averaging 18.7 points per game, while the other team is even worse at scoring points, averaging just 14.0 points per game.
Northwestern (1-6) versus Iowa (3-4).
A team with a six-game losing streak versus a team with a three-game losing streak.
A team with a problem at quarterback versus a team with a serious problem at quarterback.
The only sure thing heading into Saturday’s game at Kinnick Stadium is that one team will finally get to experience the joy of victory again.
Iowa will have home-field advantage, which you would think is a positive except that Northwestern has won the last three games at Kinnick Stadium.
Even with that success, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald joked during the week about trying to change the starting kickoff time from 2:35 p.m. to a much earlier time to beat the crowd.
“I requested to the Big Ten that we played this game at 6 a.m.” Fitzgerald said.
The over/under for Saturday’s game started at a historically low 31.5 points, which doesn’t speak well for either offense.
Iowa’s defense, on the other hand, might be the strongest unit on either team.
Here is a look at which team has the advantage at each position:
Quarterback: Both teams have struggled with quarterback play to where it’s uncertain who will start for Iowa between Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla, while Northwestern already has switched quarterbacks.
Fitzgerald benched Ryan Hilinski after the 42-7 loss against Wisconsin and made sophomore Brendan Sullivan the starter for last Saturday’s game against Maryland.
“It’s as much to try and give us a spark, try to get some things going,” Fitzgerald said. “I made a decision at some point probably late last week that that was what we were going to do.”
Sullivan is more elusive than Hilinski as Sullivan showed by rushing for 53 yards in the 31-24 loss at Maryland.
Northwestern rushed for 229 yards overall against Maryland.
Sullivan also passed for 143 yards, but he also threw two interceptions against Maryland, including one late in the fourth quarter.
For the season, Sullivan has completed 29-of-41 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns, and he has rushed for 86 yards on 23 attempts.
Hilinski has completed 141-of-244 passes for 1,576 yards and six touchdowns. He threw for 435 yards in the second game of the season against Duke, but his numbers have continued to decline since then.
Iowa, meanwhile, only has two passing touchdowns this season, and is coming off a 54-10 loss at Ohio State in which it committed six turnovers, including a pick-six and two other interceptions.
Petras performed so poorly in the first half against Ohio State when he committed three turnovers, including the pick-six late in the second quarter, that Kirk Ferentz benched for the second half.
Padilla wasn’t any better, however, as he mishandled his first snap from scrimmage that resulted in a lost fumble, and he threw an interception on his second series.
Kirk Ferentz declined to say who would start at quarterback when he met with the media on Tuesday.
“We’re not planning on rotation at this point,” Kirk Ferentz said. “But anything’s possible. Not going to rule it out. But preferably wouldn’t want to do that. And whoever starts hopefully not looking over their shoulder. We also have to get it going offensively and show some production, too. So hopefully whoever is in there can help us do that. That’s the team goal.
“And there’s I guess a balancing act that goes on with it because you don’t want to make a decision based on one play. Something like that. We’ll kind of see. Make a decision and ride with it for a little bit.”
This is like picking a winner by default.
Advantage: Northwestern
Running back: Northwestern running back Evan Hull has rushed for 527 yards and scored three touchdowns, and he averages 4.4 yards per carry. He also has 40 catches for 436 yards and two scores.
Backup running back Cam Porter has gained 197 yards on the ground and scored two touchdowns.
Iowa’s leading rusher is sophomore Leshon Williams, who has 267 yards on 73 attempts, but is averaging just 3.7 yards per carry.
True freshman Kaleb Johnson has seen more playing time as the season progressed and he has 260 rushing yards on 61 attempts.
Sophomore Gavin Williams has 108 rushing yards on 33 attempts, but is being used now more as a third-down back in passing situation. He has six catches for 40 yards.
Iowa only has five rushing touchdowns this season, while Hull and Porter combine to have that many.
Advantage: Northwestern
Receiver: Senior Malik Washington leads Northwestern with 448 receiving yards and he and Evan Hull are tied for the team lead with 40 catches.
Illinois transfer Donny Navarro has 28 catches for 224 yards and two touchdowns.
Iowa’s top three receivers, on the other hand, have combined for just 363 receiving yards and one touchdown.
Sophomore Arland Bruce leads the Iowa receivers with 15 catches and 158 receiving yards, and he also has the only touchdown catch by an Iowa receiver.
Senior Nico Ragaini has 14 catches for 157 yards in five games, while redshirt freshman Brody Brecht has four receptions for 48 yards.
Sophomore Diante Vines is now healthy after missing the first six games with a broken wrist. He is listed as Brecht’s backup on the depth chart.
Vines had one catch for five yards against Ohio State.
Advantage: Northwestern
Tight end: Iowa senior Sam LaPorta still hasn’t scored a touchdown this season, but he leads the team with 36 catches for 334 yards.
The fact that LaPorta doesn’t have a touchdown catch this season shows just how much Iowa has struggled in the red zone.
LaPorta is part of a solid one-two punch for Iowa at tight end with sophomore Luke Lachey, who has 10 catches for 163 yards and one of Iowa’s two touchdown catches.
The 6-foot-6, 252-pound Lachey also excels as a blocker.
Marshall Lang leads the Illinois tight ends with 12 catches for 121 yards.
Advantage: Iowa
Offensive line: Northwestern’s offensive line dominated Nebraska in the season opener, but it has been up and down since then.
Junior left tackle Peter Skoronski is considered one of the best players in the country at his position, and he is among four returning starters on the offensive line from last season.
Skoronski and his cohorts in the trenches were very impressive against Maryland as evidenced by Northwestern’s 229 rushing yards.
The Iowa offensive line, on the other hand, has struggled with both run and pass blocking throughout the season.
Iowa has started the same five offensive linemen – Mason Richman at left tackle, Nick DeJong at left guard, Logan Jones at center, Beau Stephens at right guard and Connor Colby at right guard – in each of the seven games this season, and they now have combined for 63 starts. And yet, their performance level as a group still hasn’t improved.
Advantage: Northwestern
Defensive line: Iowa’s four starting defensive linemen – John Waggoner, Logan Lee, Noah Shannon and Joe Evans – have combined for 71 starts and have appeared in 131 games overall.
Sophomore defensive end Lukas Van Ness isn’t technically a starter for Iowa, but he might have the most potential of all the defensive linemen in this game.
Van Ness has 22 tackles, six tackles for loss, three sacks and four quarterback hurries. He also tied a program record with two blocked punts against Iowa State.
All four of Iowa’s starting defensive linemen have at least 20 tackles, led by Lee with 29.
Evans is coming off a game at Ohio State in which he had a sack and forced a fumble that he returned for Iowa’s only touchdown in the game. He also had two sacks and a safety in the win over South Dakota State in the season opener.
Senior defensive end Adetomiwa Adebawore leads the Northwestern defensive linemen with 25 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and four sacks.
Junior defensive end Sean McLaughlin has 21 tackles, including three for losses.
Advantage: Iowa
Linebacker: Iowa’s two leading tacklers are senior linebackers Jack Campbell and Seth Benson with 71 and 57 stops, respectively.
Northwestern’s two leading tacklers are junior linebackers Bryce Gallagher and Xander Mueller with 70 and 55 stops, respectively.
So, from a statistical standpoint, the teams are pretty even at this position.
But Campbell is considered one of the top linebackers in the country and his 71 tackles leads the Big Ten and ranks 11th nationally.
Campbell was also named a midseason All-American by multiple news outlets, while Benson has had double-digit tackles in eight games, including 14 against Michigan this season.
Advantage: Iowa
Secondary: Iowa is ranked 11th nationally in passing yards allowed per game (174.0) and 12th nationally in passing efficiency defense (108.95) and that’s a tribute to these guys.
Sophomore Cooper DeJean has been terrific in his first season as a starter while playing both safety, cornerback and the cash position.
He is tied for third on the team with 42 tackles and he has three interceptions, including a pick-six against Rutgers, and six pass breakups.
Junior Quinn Schulte is tied with DeJean for third on the team with 42 tackles in Schulte’s first season as the starter at free safety.
A former walk-on from Cedar Rapids, Schulte has six pass breakups and two interceptions.
Fifth-year senior cornerback Riley Moss will make his 34th career start for Iowa on Saturday, while senior strong safety Kaevon Merriweather will make his 20th career start on Saturday. Moss and Merriweather have appeared in 48 and 40 games, respectively.
Senior cornerback Jeremiah Lewis ranks third for Northwestern with 44 tackles, and he also four pass breakup, while juniors Rod Heard II and Cameron Mitchell have 32 and 31 tackles, respectively.
Advantage: Iowa
Special teams: Iowa junior punter Tory Taylor leads the Big Ten, and is ranked fifth nationally, with a 45.6 average on 46 attempts. He has had 15 punts travel at least 50 yards and 21 have been downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
Iowa freshman kicker Drew Stevens has made 7-of-8 field-goal attempts with a career long of 51 yards against Rutgers.
He also handles kickoffs and has 19 touchbacks on 25 kicks.
Northwestern punter Luke Akers is averaging 40.88 yards on 26 punts, while Northwestern kicker Adam Stage is 4-of-6 in field goal attempts.
Advantage: Iowa
