Last Saturday showed us a strong outing from the Iowa Hawkeyes. It may have been the most complete showing from them yet thus far in the season. There was the always outstanding defensive play contributing two touchdowns. The special teams once again performed as one of the best units in the country. More importantly, the offense had a little juice in the run game and downfield passing attack.
That performance showed enough to earn the Hawkeyes a respectable climb in the latest USA TODAY Sports NCAA 1-131 re-rank courtesy of Paul Myerberg. Last week the Hawkeyes were sitting at No. 48 in the rankings.
Their performance on all three phases this week has earned them an eight-spot climb up to the No. 40 team in the re-rank. The Hawkeyes’ upcoming opponent, the Michigan Wolverines, held steady at No. 4 in the rankings.
The performance was classic Iowa. They had turnovers offensively and took well-timed chances, played sound special teams by winning the field position game, and made the opposing offense have to drive long fields. Iowa bet on their defense and it paid off once again with a lights out performance.
The climb for Iowa was modest, but gives them their first step to working their way back towards the top 25. Should Iowa knock off Michigan, or even make the game interesting and hang tough, another climb up the rankings could be in store for the Hawkeyes.
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