Michigan upset opens Iowa’s door to postseason possibilities

By Jibreel Bailey

As huge upsets happen across the college football league, the Big 10 has some major changes in rankings. Iowa still may not be ranked, but with a major upset against Michigan (14-13), the possibility of a bowl game is back on the table.

When freshman kicker Keith Duncan kicked a 33-yard field goal to win the game against Michigan, you could tell that the Hawkeyes hadn’t given up yet.

As all of Kinnick field was raided with Iowa fans, they not only left Michigan fans in shock and disbelief, they also shook up a lot of teams in the college football rankings.

Looking like a whole new team after falling to Penn State last week with a score of 41-14, this shows that their defense can really put up a fight, and the offensive output of Akrum Wadley, a junior running back, also took a step into the spotlight as he finished with 167 yards total — 115 rushing and 52 receiving yards.

After being run over for 600+ yards against Penn State, some expected that this would be the defensive line we will see against the Huskers, but maybe the Michigan game shows the Hawkeyes have learned their lesson to have a certain spark to show who’s best against Nebraska in two weeks.

To win against Nebraska they would need to kill their offensive line and open holes for Wadley. They also can’t allow 6’1, 220 pounds of pure muscle, Tommy Armstrong to make or find holes.

Armstrong is unpredictable with his playmaking skills. One minute it seems as if he’s scouting out a receiver, but then he finds a hole to slip through and goes 10+ yards.

If Iowa wants another win to go on their record, the team is going to have to work as a team, which means the outside linebacker and the inside linebacker will have to seal the ends and let no runs past them. So far outside linebacker (Ben Niemann) and inside linebacker (Bo Bower) have been doing a decent job burning the tips of the line and hitting low and hard.

Middle Linebacker Josey Jewell could improve with his tackling of his inside runs.

Iowa’s head was screwed on straight against Michigan.

It takes all the effort on the team to win football games, but only one player whose head is loose to mess it up for all.

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