UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While many people who follow Penn State are asking the big question of whether the team is ready for Iowa this week, it's certainly fair to ask the question in reverse.
Are the No. 3 Hawkeyes ready for the No. 4 Nittany Lions?
First, this is a tremendous note:
Fun stuff.
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) October 3, 2021
According to @chrisfallica, this is the first regular season Big Ten game between two Top-5 teams WITHOUT Ohio State involved since 1997. https://t.co/3M4gAxEFiM
I have made no secret of the fact that I am picking Iowa to win this game. I liked Kirk Ferentz's team coming into the season, and the Hawkeyes have impressed me in their 5-0 start. In this matchup of No. 3 vs. No. 4, I'm going with the home team, which came to Beaver Stadium last season and pounded PSU, 41-21.
I've also pointed out that I'm still a little skeptical of Penn State because its win over Wisconsin doesn't look all that great right now with the Badgers falling on their rears. The Lions got a lot of respect from the pollsters for that win and moved up from No. 19 to No. 10, helping set the stage for the eventual move to No. 4 after also beating a decent but not great Auburn team.
OK, so turnabout is fair play. If I'm going to point out that Penn State's wins so far maybe don't look as great as we initially thought, then this question from NE_JOE in our comments section is certainly fair:
Well you can question Penn State's opponents so far but who has Iowa played that even approaches Auburn in order to be 5-0? Team with fewer mistakes wins next week.
Here's Iowa's schedule so far (with rankings at the time):
- vs. No. 17 Indiana: Won 34-6
- at No. 9 Iowa State: Won 27-17
- vs. Kent State: Won 30-7
- vs. Colorado State: Won 24-14
- at Maryland: Won 51-14
The blowout against the Hoosiers looked impressive, but Michael Penix Jr. and that Indiana offense are not very good this year. Penn State handed Indiana its first shutout loss in 21 years on Saturday.
OK, so the Indiana thing is a push between PSU and Iowa.
The Hawkeyes then went on the road against their in-state rival and beat what everyone thought was a really good Iowa State team. Now, I do still think Iowa State is good, but the Cyclones barely beat Northern Iowa (16-10) and lost at Baylor (31-29). They're not even ranked any longer, so again, it's fair to ask how good of a win was that really?
Penn State's win over Auburn didn't look great when the Tigers barely survived against Georgia State, but Auburn picked up a nice road win Saturday night at LSU.
So maybe PSU's win over Auburn and Iowa's win over Iowa State are kind of a wash to some people? The big difference for me is Iowa went on the road for that victory.
The Hawkeyes did just go to Maryland and destroyed the Terps, who looked absolutely terrible as Taulia Tagovailoa threw five interceptions. Maryland was 4-0 and only 3-point underdogs, which I felt was an insanely low number, and that turned out to be the case. I watched the Terps struggle to beat a bad Illinois team a few weeks ago (20-17), so I was not sold on them at all.
Anyway, you get the gist of all this. Trying to determine which team is better based on who they've played and how good we think those opponents are can lead to a lot of different conclusions.
It's fair to wonder how well Penn State will do against a team that has a really good defense and good offense.
And it's fair to wonder how well Iowa will do against a team that has a really good defense and big-play offense.
I'm taking Iowa for several specific reasons and will break down the game a good bit all week.
But what I'm most looking forward to seeing is which one of these teams truly is for real. Maybe both are, maybe only one is.
We'll find out soon enough.
POLL MOVEMENT
Iowa's blowout win over Maryland impressed voters enough to help the Hawkeyes overtake Penn State in the AP poll. The Hawkeyes moved up two spots to No. 3, while Penn State stayed at No. 4. That's also where both teams are in the coaches poll, behind No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia.
Alabama got 53 first-place votes to only nine for Georgia, which is a big disparity to me. I can make a case that Georgia is the best team in the country right now. We'll find out all about that when the two likely square off in the SEC title game.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
Vegas sees this as a very tight game, with odds ranging from pick 'em to Iowa by 1.5 points at various spots.
ANOTHER REVENGE GAME
Sure, the way Penn State lost at Indiana last year made that an obvious revenge game situation for the Lions this year.
This week's showdown has to be another revenge game, simply for how the Hawkeyes came into Beaver Stadium and pummeled the Lions a year ago. Sean Clifford was benched at the start of that game, Will Levis started and the Lions didn't have much offensive firepower in the first half. Iowa did, though, and scored 21 points in the second quarter for a 24-7 halftime lead.
FROM 0-5 TO 5-0
Penn State has not lost since that Iowa game last year. The Lions dropped to 0-5 with that defeat, becoming the first preseason top 10 team to ever open a season 0-5.
Here were are a year later, with Penn State 5-0 and riding a nine-game winning streak. There was talk in the preseason about how Penn State would be the most improved team in the country this year, and so far that absolutely has been the case.
BRUTAL SCHEDULE
Man, this is something else. With the new rankings in this week's AP poll, Penn State still has to play:
No. 3 Iowa
No. 7 Ohio State
No. 9 Michigan
No. 11 Michigan State
Wow.