This is a good topic that's left me perplexed after yesterday. What does Northwestern and Indiana do that is so different than us. I wouldnt say that either of those teams have more talent than ISU but they are able to give the Iowa defense fits with their spread attack.
One thing is for sure, our receivers drop way too many balls. AA is responsible for a lot of them (how many times did he throw bullets to guys 5 yards in front of him) but there were still some bad drops. Do we just need to ride it out a couple more years so we have everyone in the offensive system? Is that how Northwestern is able to do it with less talent?
Well...Northwestern also took out Shonn Greene and Ricky Stanzi out of the equation. :sad:
How they beat us (often by a close margin), is that they take what we give them. They usually take advantage of turnovers and a short field, along with surprisingly good dual-threat (white?) QBs, to eke out wins. They're tenacious, and aren't named the 'Cardiac Cats' for nothing.
They also have a coaching staff that has been with the system for some time now, who believe beating Iowa is important to Northwestern, as they have always felt that doing so was the first step in getting to the 'upper tier'.
2005: (28-27)
Iowa was ahead 27-14 with ~11 minutes to go. Northwestern scores two touchdowns in the final 2 minutes, by recovering an onside kick between the two. The run game for Northwestern was no real concern, but Brett Basanez was a passing machine (had like 300+ yards in the air)
2006: (21-7)
Northwestern's best game in the series, perhaps, as they had their most complete game. They dominated the Hawks in passing, rushing and on defense. Turnovers by both teams (often in the redzone), probably kept the game as 'low scoring' as it was.
2008: (22-17)
Northwestern scores three unanswered TDs to go up 22-17 (they miss a PAT and a 2 point conversion). Shonn Greene gets knocked out the game, and Stanzi isn't able to get Iowa into the endzone from the 8 yard line.
2009: (17-10)
Northwestern wills themselves past Iowa, after Stanzi is knocked out of the game. The Stanzi fumble in the endzone gave Northwestern their first TD. A Vandenberg interception set up a short field for their second TD. Thanks to Vandenberg's inexperience, Iowa isn't able to get any offense going. Murray misses a field goal, and a Wegher TD gets called back on a holding call.
As for Indiana, they've generally had a high powered offense, and tend to have very good QBs and WRs. In 2006 they had a last second TD to sneak past Iowa. In 2007 both offenses put up tons of yards, but Iowa couldn't convert that to points, while Indiana could. That included a 70 yard pass from Kellen Lewis to Kellen Lewis for the TD (yeah, you read that right...his receiver fumbled the ball, Lewis scooped it up and took it to the endzone).
To sum it up...
They have good, often dual-threat QBs, can often force Iowa to make mistakes AND capitalize off of them, and have a fair bit of luck as well.
