By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – My prediction for the Iowa-Iowa State football game was right in that Iowa was victorious.

But as far as how the game played out under the lights on Saturday at at Kinnick Stadium, I couldn’t have been more wrong about the new-look Cyclones, and about Iowa’s running game.

Iowa’s 16-13 come-from-behind victory over Iowa State didn’t play out anywhere close to how I thought it would as Iowa struggled to run the ball despite having two potential All-America offensive linemen in right guard Kade Pieper and left tackle Trevor Lauck leading the way.

Iowa running back Kamari Moulton only had 11 rushing yards in the first half, and there were times in Saturday’s game when Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester seemed more content passing than running as strange as that might seem for a Kirk Ferentz-coached team.

Finally, in the fourth quarter the running game started to click against what had to be a tired Iowa State defense.

Moulton finished with 57 rushing yards against the Cyclones after gaining a career-high 183 yards in the 40-0 victory over Northern Illinois in the Sept. 5 season opener.

I had picked Iowa to win 31-14, thinking that Iowa State, with 83 first-year players under new head coach Jimmy Rogers, would struggle to hold up against Iowa’s rushing attack.

But right away, it became abundantly clear that Iowa State’s run defense was vastly superior to Northern Illinois’ run defense, as it should be since Iowa State is from a power conference.

Those massive holes that were carved throughout the Northern Illinois game never really materialized against Iowa State.

Everywhere Moulton turned, it seems he was surrounded by defenders.

The inability to sustain a rushing attack is why Iowa fell behind 10-0 and why Iowa State nearly prevailed as a 14.5 underdog playing in a hostile road environment.

Hank Brown went the distance for Iowa at quarterback, and had some nice moments, especially his 56-yard pass to Tony Diaz in the second quarter. Brown then scored Iowa’s only touchdown of the game two plays later on a 1-yard run.

The offense had been in a major funk prior to Diaz’s catch.

Brown said Diaz’s catch gave Iowa some “mojo,” and yet, the running game would continue to sputter.

“Offensively, they clearly wanted to take the run away from us, and did a good job of that,” Kirk Ferentz said of Iowa State’s defense. “That was their plan set, and they made it really difficult.

“Good news there is we made some plays that kept us alive, kept us going. And then the run game got a little bit better in the fourth quarter. And, you hope if you stick with it, good things are going to happen. So, proud of the guys on that.”

The fact that Hank Brown had Iowa’s longest run in the game of just nine yards shows how much the running game struggled.

Moulton’s longest run against Iowa State covered just seven yards, which was drastic change from the season opener when he had touchdowns runs of 50 and 37 yards against Northern Illinois. On both touchdown runs, Moulton barely was touched by a defender.

And while it was easy to get carried away with the superlatives about the running game following the Northern Illinois rout, it’s now easy to think the worst about the running game after what happened against the Cyclones.

The truth about the running game is probably somewhere in the middle.

It certainly isn’t time to panic or to think the worst about the Iowa running game.

Moulton has shown that he can be highly effective when given some room to run, while Pieper and Lauck are considered two of the best offensive linemen in college football. That doesn’t change just because of what did or didn’t happen against Iowa State.

It was easy to believe that Iowa State would struggle to stop the run under the circumstances, but credit the Cyclone coaches for devising a game play that held Iowa to just 93 rushing yards on 29 attempts.

The challenge for Iowa is to learn from this game and then make the necessary adjustments because there are better defenses than Iowa State’s defense waiting to test the Hawkeyes.

Iowa strives for balance on offense, but that process almost always starts with establishing the run.

Iowa’s inability to run the ball is what usually leads to a loss because it seems to have trickle down effect.

Rarely does Iowa have a potent passing attack, which makes it easier for opponents to load the box.

Iowa State was determined to stop the run, and for the most part, was successful in doing that.

That is reason for concern, but Iowa is also 2-0 and that’s what matters more than anything else.

Iowa had to replace three All-Big Ten offensive linemen from last season, including Logan Jones, who was the recipient of the 2025 Rimington Trophy, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate center.

Iowa also won the Joe Moore Award last season as the nation’s top offensive line.

So when Iowa shredded Northern Illinois for 289 rushing yards, it was easy to get carried away with thinking that the running game would be the strength on offense.

It still could prove to be the strength on offense. But for now, the running game is a work in progress, and sometimes a slow work in progress as the come-from-behind win over Iowa State showed.