By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa and Northwestern don’t always play the most entertaining football games, and that’s mostly because both teams usually lack explosiveness on offense.

Their games are usually competitive, however, as six of the last eight meetings have been decided by seven or fewer points, including Iowa’s 10-7 victory last season at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

But even with all those close scores, Iowa still is favored by 13.5 points heading into Saturday’s homecoming matchup with Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa has a vastly superior running game, is better on special teams and will be playing at home where it has a 27-12 all-time record against Northwestern.

The Wildcats, under second-year head coach David Braun, still shouldn’t be taken lightly, though, as they have shown a knack for rising to the occasion against Iowa.

“They’re tough,” said Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. “They’re well-coached. That really hasn’t changed over the years. If you look at it a year ago, they went through a transition in the summertime. I thought Coach Braun did an unbelievable job with their team throughout the year, and we had a really tough ballgame as you remember with them. It was a hard-fought game.”

Iowa and Northwestern are both coming off disappointing losses as Iowa fell at Michigan State 32-20 last Saturday, while Northwestern lost to Wisconsin 23-3 at home.

The Hawkeyes (4-3, 2-2)  have been eliminated from playoff contention, but they still have a chance to win nine games in the regular season.

But you can’t win nine games without winning five and that will be the challenge for Iowa on Saturday against the pesky Wildcats.

Here is a look at which team has the advantage at each position:

Quarterback: This is sort of like picking the lesser of two evils, or in this case, picking who’s best between two mediocre quarterbacks.

Northwestern starter Jack Lausch is only completing 50.7 of his passes for 808 yards and four touchdowns, while Iowa starter Cade McNamara is completing 61.0 percent of his passes for 944 yards and six touchdowns.

McNamara has slightly better passing statistics, but Lausch is a much better runner as he ranks second on his team with 196 rushing yards.

Laush became the starter after Mississippi State transfer Michael Wright struggled in the first two games with his accuracy. Wright has completed 38-of-66 passes for 354 yards this season.

Iowa ranks 128th out of 133 FBS programs in passing yards, averaging just 136.9 yards per game, while the Wildcats aren’t much better, averaging 166.0 passing yards per game.

Iowa has played two quarterbacks as Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan has been used exclusively in goal-line packages. There is speculation he might have an expanded role in Saturday’s game.

Advantage: Northwestern 

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Running back: Both offenses want to stay ahead of the chains and control tempo by running the ball effectively.

Iowa leads the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 210 yards per game, and features the nation’s second leading rusher in junior Kaleb Johnson, who has gained 1,035 yards and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in 6 ½ games this season.

Johnson has 17 rushes of 20-plus yards, five of 40-plus yards and six touchdown runs of 25-plus yards. The Hamilton, Ohio native is also averaging a whopping 7.8 yards per carry.

Iowa has two dependable backups in redshirt freshman Kamari Moulton and sophomore Jaziun Patterson. They have rushed for 162 and 160 yards, respectively, this season.

Cam Porter leads Northwestern with 320 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

However, there isn’t much proven depth at this position, which helps to explain why Laush is Northwestern’s second leading rusher.

Advantage: Iowa

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Wide receiver: Assuming A.J. Henning is healthy enough to play on Saturday, he and Bryce Kritz form a productive one-two punch at receiver for the Wildcats.

Henning, who transferred from Michigan, leads Northwestern with 34 catches and three touchdown catches, while Kritz leads the Wildcats with 414 receiving yards on 27 receptions. Henning has 357 receiving yards and is dangerous with gaining yards after the catch.

Northwestern transfer Jacob Gill leads the Iowa wide receivers with 16 catches for 169 yards, while true freshman Reece Vander Zee leads the Iowa wide receivers with 176 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 14 receptions.

Iowa has eight wide receivers that have at least one catch this season, but Gill and Vander Zee are the only receivers on the team with more than 50 receiving yards.

Advantage: Northwestern

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Tight end: Thomas Gordan leads the Northwestern tight ends with 14 catches for 155 yard, while backup Marshall Lang has four receptions for 46 yards and one touchdown.

Fifth-year senior tight end Luke Lachey leads Iowa with 21 catches and 192 receiving yards, but he has yet to catch a touchdown pass this season. Lachey has 59 career receptions for 800 yards and four touchdowns.

Iowa will be without No. 2 tight end Addison Ostrenga for a third straight game due to an injury. His loss is significant as Ostrenga has 11 catches for 63 yards and one touchdown this season. He also excels as a run blocker and helps to take away some of the pressure on Lachey to produce.

Advantage: Iowa 

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Offensive line: The fact that Northwestern is only averaging 120.6 rushing yards per game is due largely to its struggles on the offensive line where the run blocking has left much to be desired.

Iowa, on the other hand, has rushed for at least 200 yards in five of seven games this season.

Kaleb Johnson has seized the spotlight as the nation’s second leading rusher, and he has made it a point to praise his offensive line for helping to pave the way.

The five offensive linemen listed as starters for Iowa this week have combined to make 148 career stars, led by Mason Richman’s 46 starts at left tackle, including 37 straight.

Richman and his offensive line cohorts had struggled up until this season with both run and pass blocking.

But in five of the seven games this season, they have controlled the line of scrimmage.

Advantage: Iowa

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Defensive line: Aidan Hubbard and Anto Saka both have shown that they can be disruptive for Northwestern as each has 3.5 sacks and 4.0 quarterback hurries.

The Wildcats are also allowing just 103.4 rushing yards per game, and the guys up front in the trenches have had a lot to do with that success.

Iowa is coming off probably its worst defensive performance of the season in last Saturday’s loss at Michigan State. Iowa had too many missed tackles and failed to put pressure on Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles as the Spartans controlled the line of scrimmage.

Iowa has a veteran defensive line featuring four starters that have combined to make 56 career starts, led by senior defensive end Deontae Craig and senior tackle Yahya Black, both of whom have made 21 career starts.

The Iowa defensive linemen failed to meet the challenge last week, so look for a bounce-back performance on Saturday

Advantage: Iowa

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Linebacker: Both teams have productive tandems at linebacker

Northwestern linebackers Mac Uihlein and Xander Mueller rank first and second on the team with 46 and 43 tackles, respectively. Uihlein also has three tackles for loss and two sacks.

Iowa linebackers Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson also rank first and second on their team with 76 and 50 tackles, respectively.

Higgins, a fifth-year senior from Indianapolis, leads the Big Ten in tackles and will make his 24th career start on Saturday. He earned All-America honors last season after having tied the Iowa school record for single-season tackles with 171.

Higgins has led Iowa in tackles in each of the seven games this season.

Jackson, who played his first four seasons for Virginia, has 514 career tackles, which ranks third in FBS history, 31 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks.

The Atlanta, Georgia native also has 25 career 10-plus tackle games.

Iowa also has an experience third linebacker in graduate Kyler Fisher, who has played in 54 games with five stars.

Fisher usually plays when Iowa shifts to a 4-3 defensive alignment.

Advantage: Iowa

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Secondary: Northwestern’s top two tacklers are linebackers (Uihlein and Mueller), but its next seven leading tacklers are defensive backs, led by Theran Johnson and Devin Turner with 34 and 33 stops, respectively.

Johnson also has one of Northwestern’s six interceptions this season. All six of Northwestern’s interceptions have been made by defensive backs.

Iowa often plays five defensive backs and the five listed as starters for this week have combined to make 113 career stars, led by graduate Quinn Schulte’s 34 starts at free safety.

Graduate cornerback Jermari Harris will make his 26th career start on Saturday and the Chicago native leads Iowa with three interceptions and five lass break-ups. He has eight career interceptions, including a pick-six against Troy this season.

The other cornerback position has been a problem for Iowa this season as T.J. Hall, Deshaun Lee and John Nestor have all struggled, especially with pass coverage.

Iowa Assistant Head Coach Seth Wallace said Wednesday on a zoom call that freshman Jaylen Watson could see some action at cornerback in Saturday’s game.

Iowa will receive a boost with the return of graduate safety Sebastian Castro, who missed the Michigan State game due to an ankle injury. Castro had made 26 career starts and played in 47 games overall.

He had 67 tackles, eight tackles for loss and three interceptions last season, earning All-America recognition and second-team All-Big Ten.

Junior Xavier Nwaknpa will make his 20th career start at strong safety in Saturday’s game. The former five-star recruit from Southeast Polk High School had a career-high 10 tackles in the 40-16 win over Washington.

Advantage: Iowa

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Special teams: Both teams have a solid kicker/punter combination, but it’s uncertain if Northwestern kicker Nick Olsen will be healthy enough to play on Saturday. He didn’t play in last Saturday’s loss to Wisconsin.

If Olsen is unable to play, Northwestern punter Luke Akers will also handle the place-kicking duties.

Olsen has made 7-of-10 field-goal attempts this season, while Akers is averaging 42.4 yards on 33 punts.

Iowa junior kicker Drew Stevens has made 10-of-12 field-goal attempts this season and 44-of-56 attempts in his career. He is 4-for-4 from 40 to 49 yards this season and he also handles kickoffs.

Freshman punter Rhys Dakin, who is from Melbourne, Australia,  has punted 34 times for a 44.8 average with 16 of his punts downed inside the 20.

Iowa also features one of the top return specialists in the Big Ten in senior Kaden Wetjen, who has come close to taking one to the house this season. Wetjen, a former walk-on from Williamsburg, will be matched a Wildcat squad that ranks 69th on punt coverage (6.86 YPR) and 92nd covering kicks (21.15 YPR).

Advantage: Iowa