There is nothing original about assigning grades to the team's performance, and I'm tempted to give everyone besides Tony Moeaki and field goal blocking unit a D-. Despite my cynicism, I tried to rank the units fairly.
The Offense
Running backs: D
When the best runs of the day are by a receiver and a fullback (who never, ever run in Iowa's offensive scheme) you know it was not a good rushing day. The running backs only accounted for 81 yards on 24 carries. Adam Robinson was the lesser of two evils as he averaged 4.2 yards per carry and scored a touchdown. Paki O'Meara did not have a good day. He didn't even average 2 yards per carry and fumbled the ball after appearing to give up on the play. It turns out all the people saying replacing Shonn Greene was going to cause Iowa majors problems was right. Somebody needs to step up, big time.
Quarterback: C+
Ricky Stanzi was not terrible yesterday. He had a somewhat shaky first half, and he admitted he was trying to do a little too much when the team went down early 10-3. After he settled down and decided to just keep throwing it to Moeaki, he had a good second half going 16 of 21 for 179 yards and 1 touchdown. He showed his ability to thread the ball between traffic and had nice tough on a couple of deep balls (too bad the one to Chaney was called back). If Stanzi hadn't fumbled in the first half, I would have probably given him a B. I still think he's going to have a good year.
Tight End: A
Tony Moeaki is the man. He led all players on the field Saturday with 10 receptions. He had 9 receptions in the second half alone and caught the game winning touchdown pass. Allen Reisner also had a nice game and pulled down one pass for 12 yards. The tight ends accounted for half of the total receptions (11 of 22) and 40% of the receiving yards (95 of 242).
Wide Receivers: B
I was very pleased with the receiver play yesterday. McNutt looked like he deserved the starting spot with 5 catches for 55 yards. Stross and Chaney also played particularly well getting past their defenders deep down the field. Chaney actually caught the ball in the long called-back TD pass late in the 3rd quarter (thankfully Iowa still drove down and scored on a great catch by Moeaki). DJK also got in a made a nice 22 yard grab. The down-field blocking was also pretty good (though not really necessary as the running backs rarely got by the first level of defenders) especially on that run by Chaney.
Offensive Line: D+
I should probably separate this out into the inside of the line and the tackles, because the tackles played pretty well...but as a whole unit, it was not good. The line gave up 4 sacks (though one was probably Stanzi's fault) and opened very few holes for the running backs. The line did look a little better in the second half, but still not great. Also, the only 2 penalties on the Hawkeyes (I was pleased to only see 2 penatlies) were on Doering for jumping early and Gettis for holding (that was the called back touchdown). We really need Calloway and Vandervelde to come back.
Offense as a whole: C+
It was mostly the running game that was lacking, but the offense just looked very flat in the first half (only 104 yards of total offense). The second half was better, but there is still a lot of work to do. I hope the coaches really light a fire under the players in practice this week, because this type of performance will not win many games.
The Defense
Defensive Line: B-
I thought the d-line looked pretty good, especially during the middle of the game. They were putting a lot of pressure on Pat Grace and got to him twice really slowing down UNI's momentum after scoring early in the second half to go up 13-3. However, the unit looked tired at the end of the game and were out matched by the Panther's all-senior offensive line. I think the d-line will be pretty good this year and UNI's o-line is probably better than 3 or 4 of the other teams we'll see this year.
Linebackers: C+
Early in the game the linebackers were missing tackles and letting receivers get open. The tackling improved as the game went on and sure they combined for 30 tackles, but the play overall was kind of rocky. I just did not have the general sense that they were flying all over the field making plays.
Secondary: C+
If it wasn't for Amari Spievey, the defensive backfield may be getting a D or worse. Castillo looked like a freshman out there and I'm surprised Grace didn't try to throw his directions even more. Hopefully with a game under his belt he'll be better against ISU. The safeties were okay today. Both got beat on the one long ball to start the second half. They did tackle very well however. UNI got very few yards after the catch, and the safeties were also good in run support and combined for 22 tackles. Spievey was a stud as expected. He had 6 solo tackles (8 total) and broke up 2 passes.
Defense as a whole: B-
It is certainly not the defense's fault that this game was close. They played okay as a whole giving up only 16 points. The one touchdown was an amazing catch UNI's tight end Mahaffey. The rest of the game the defensive game plan worked pretty well...bend but don't break.
The Special Teams
Special Teams as a whole: A-
Ryan Donahue gets an A+ with 4 of his 5 punts downed inside the 20. The field goal blocking unit gets an A+ for the two blocked kicks at the end of the game. The return game was fine...UNI's punt were so poor there really wasn't a chance to do much there, and the kickoff returns were fine. If it wasn't for Murray's missed 48 yard field goal there wouldn't be anything to complain about.