Three Keys to a Michigan Football Victory Over Iowa in the Big Ten Championship

 

 

In what’s a rematch of the 2021 Big Ten Championship game, the Wolverines will play the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday to crown the champion of the conference.

Michigan (12-0) had its second consecutive undefeated season and Iowa is coming off a 10-2 campaign in which its defense was once again the big reason for the Hawkeyes’ success.

The last time the two teams met in Indianapolis in 2021, Michigan cruised to victory. The Wolverines defeated Iowa 42-3 and won their first Big Ten Championship game.

Michigan is looking to win its third B1G Championship in a row, and here’s what the Wolverines will need to do in order to make that a reality.

Iowa is far from being built to come back from deficits, especially if it’s a sizable deficit. The Hawkeyes have the 124th-scoring offense that averages 18 points per game.

Iowa is 10-2 because it allows just 12.2 points per game and the defense either scores points itself, or just suffocates the opposition to where they can’t put up points early.

The Wolverines, who average 37.7 points per game, theoretically would have a chance to put this game away fairly early if they could score at least 10 points within the first 15-20 minutes of the game.

 

 

Iowa has the 130th-ranked passing offense, the 104th-ranked rushing offense, and the 133rd-ranked total offense in the country. To put it simply, the Hawkeyes have one of the worst offenses in all of football.

Again, Iowa has a really solid defense that can make it tricky for opponents. But with that being said the only team that the Hawkeyes played that has a top-50 offense is Penn State. When Iowa played PSU, it lost 31-0.

Sherrone Moore will need to scheme some stuff up early, but if Michigan can just get the offense rolling early, it might be another long game for Iowa like it was in 2021.

Not to keep poking fun at Iowa’s offense, but another thing the Hawkeyes aren’t good at is converting third downs.

Iowa ranks 123rd in the country gaining just over 31% of its first downs when a third down presents itself. The Hawkeyes have converted just 54 times out of 174 attempts.

To make matters worse, Iowa is dead last averaging just over 13 first downs per game. And the Michigan defense is ranked second in the country allowing just over 13 first downs per game.

It seems obvious Iowa will try to run the ball on Michigan at first to control the time of possession and to attempt to stay ahead of the sticks. Junior running back Leshon Williams averaging a little over five yards per carry and expect a large dose of Williams.

But as long as the Wolverines can hold Williams and Co. to minimal yardage and then backup quarterback Deacon Hill will have to step up and throw the football.

Hill has really struggled since stepping in as the starting quarterback once Cade McNamara went out with a season-ending injury. He has thrown just five touchdowns and six interceptions this season and if Michigan can put Iowa in a position where it needs to throw the football to gain first downs, that’s going to be profitable for the Wolverines.

A ton of credit goes to Iowa star Cooper DeJean, who is injured for the year, but the Hawkeyes have a top-tier special team unit on both kickoffs and punt returns. Iowa is ranked 23rd in the nation in kick returns gaining over 22 yards per return and 43rd in punt returns gaining over 10 yards per return.

Wide receiver Kaden Wetjen, who has been the primary kick returner all year, has now shifted over to being the full-time punt returner as well since DeJean has gone down. DeJean was averaging 11.4 yards per return and Wetjen is gaining 7.5 yards per return.

On the other side of things, Iowa has arguably the best punter in the country in Tory Taylor. He averages 47.6 yards per kick and he usually starts opposing teams deep in their territory.

As long as Michigan is sound on special teams, this is another way the Wolverines can give Iowa little to no hope. Shutting down the returners, or gaining yards on Taylor’s punts will help Michigan while giving Iowa little belief it can win the game.