Stock Talk: Stock up, stock down following Week 2 win at Iowa State
The Iowa Hawkeyes came away with a 20-13 road victory over the Iowa State Cyclones.
With the win, Iowa improves to 2-0 and extends it’s winning streak to six straight in Ames. The Hawkeyes have now won seven of the last eight, eight of the past 10 and 11 of the last 15.
“Yeah, I mean, none of them are easy. Was that ’15 maybe, where we made the couple plays in this end zone? I mean, like seriously. Sometimes you have to have, you’ve got to have a little good fortune, too, and just somebody makes a play, but it’s not easy. I can tell you that. It’s not easy,” Ferentz said of Iowa’s success in Ames.
With the win in tow, let’s take a look at which players and units are seeing their stock rise or fall coming out of the win in Ames.
Stock Up: Jaziun Patterson
Okay, now! Jaziun Patterson was fantastic against Iowa State. He’s one of the primary reasons the Hawkeyes won the game. The redshirt freshman from Pompano Beach, Fla., ran angry and violently. There also wasn’t any dancing around. See the hole, hit the hole. He finished with 10 carries for 86 yards and a touchdown. Is he suddenly Iowa’s No. 1 running back?
Stock Down: Wide Receivers
Iowa’s wide receivers didn’t catch a pass until the third quarter. The Hawkeye receivers finished with four combined grabs for 29 yards. It isn’t all on this group. There’s definitely some play-calling finger-pointing to go around. But, Iowa needs more from its receivers going forward.
Stock Up: Sebastian Castro
Sebastian Castro read it beautifully and broke on Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht’s pass and raced back for a 30-yard pick-six that put the Hawkeyes up, 17-0.
The senior CASH was a key contributor a season ago. He looks better than ever now, tallying nine tackles, two tackles for loss, a pair of passes defensed and the pick-six through a pair of games in 2023.
Stock Down: The 3rd drive and on
Iowa has to figure out the middle portion of the game offensively. It’s back-to-back weeks where Iowa comes out of the gates roaring offensively. Then, it frustratingly goes ice cold.
After Iowa’s first two drives netted a field goal and a touchdown and 150 yards of total offense, the Hawkeyes proceeded to punt six times, throw an interception and manage just the lone field goal the rest of the way. Iowa finished with 235 yards of total offense.
Stock Up: Deshaun Lee
Even though Jayden Higgins pulled in a touchdown pass over him, really, it was a perfectly thrown pass from Becht and a terrific grab from Higgins on pretty nice coverage.
Overall, Deshaun Lee had another terrific game in the Hawkeye defensive backfield. The redshirt freshman from Belleville, Mich., came away with nine tackles and a pair of pass breakups in a game where he was regularly tested by Iowa State.
He held up for the most part and that’s incredibly encouraging for the Hawkeyes’ defensive backfield depth.
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