Me to my wife (minus any cursing):

"We're going to lose...we lost. Worse loss ever since Ferentz has taken over. This is so embarrassing. We lost."

"YES!!! WE BLOCKED IT!!! YES!!!!"

"WHAT!?!? No... That was clearly past the line of scrimmage. See, it went by the 23, then bounced back. Clearly past the 23. This is so stupid."

"We lost again. So stupid. I can't believe it."

"YES! YES! YES!"

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First off, let me channel my inner Kirk Ferentz and give major props to UNI and especially to QB Pat Grace. There's a team that going to win a lot of games in the FCS this year. Grace impressed me all day. He made good decisions, found open targets, and ran with the ball well when he had to. I, along with probably everybody else in the world, underestimated the Panthers, but good job to them....again major props.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...what the crap was that? Thank God for Tony Moeaki and for Broderick Binns (which I called last week: "I think there may be some more blocked kicks this year...Broderick Binns may be one of those guys with his long arms and his quickness off the snap.")and Jeremiha Hunter. Coming into today, I thought we'd get some questions answered at running back, at the backup quarterback, see some impact freshmen, and win rather comfortably. Boy was I wrong.

Nothing against Paki at all, because I like the kid, but he was obviously not the answer at running back. He did fine up until the fumble, but did not make any great plays. Robinson looked slightly better averaging 4.2 yards per carry, and did have the advantage of some better blocking as UNI's defensive line got worn down. Still, it is quite clear that we are going to have to run the ball better if we want a chance to win 8 or 9 more games this year (87 yards on the ground is not going to get it done). Maybe we should try handing it off the fullbacks again. Brett Morse, shockingly, got a carried and took it 16 yards right before half. Hopefully Brinson will work his way into the line up and Robinson will continue to improve. I also imagine the offensive line will get better next week with Calloway back...and even better when Vandervelde is back too. Gettis looked okay today, but the inside of the line in general was not too strong.

The defense was not spectacular today either. Castillo looked like a redshirt freshman and I was honestly surprised they didn't throw it in his direction more often. Why would you even try to throw it near Spievey. That guys is a ball hawk back there. He looked absolutely great today. Anyway, back to the negativity. Sash and Greenwood had mediocre games as well, getting beat deep once. The linebackers were nothing wonderful either. Overall just an okay effort by the defense...obviously good enough to win the game, and not to blame for the closeness, but not great.

End of rant.

Moving on. A win is a win and we won. There are some positive things that I saw today starting with Tony Moeaki. That guy is an absolute stud. Without him, I don't think we win this game today. He had 10 catches (many in traffic) for 83 yards and hauled in the lone touchdown pass from Ricky Stanzi. I sure hope he stays healthy. He will have a special season if he does.

Actually I was impressed with all the receivers today. McNutt looked very good in the first half with 3 catches on the opening drive. Chaney looked like he was much improved. He actually caught the ball on the deep touchdown that was called back. I was pleasantly surprised by that. DJK barely played but made a nice 22 yard catch. Stross also had a good day with 3 catches for 61 yards.

Stanzi looked pretty good too, in the second half at least. He made good decisions for the most part, and once he got warmed up (or perhaps after a talking to at half time) he was sharp. In the second half he went 16-21 for 179 yards and 1 touchdown. He was also not sacked in the second half after getting sacked 4 times in the first. He did still have a fumble that led to 3 points for the Panthers, but at least no interceptions. If he just cleans up him game a little I still think he'll be good this year.

On defense, I thought the defensive line looked pretty good at times. They looked gas on that last drive and were not getting pressure. However, they did get pressure throughout the game and tallied 2 sacks and 4 QB hurries. Ballard looked good at tackle and I saw Binns beat his guy pretty consistently.

The real star on defense though is Amari Spievey. He completely owned his side of the field. He finished with 8 tackles and 2 pass breakups. Nobody on the team is a surer tackler than Spievey. When someone in front of him does happen to catch a ball (which was not very often) he gets them down with no yards after catch. Very impressive today.

Last way to overly optimistic thought of the night. It may be good that this team faced a little (okay, a lot of) adversity today. It'll be good that they know they can win in close games (a problem the last couple of years minus the PSU game) and hopefully it'll make them practice even harder.

I plan on putting together a more analytical and better thought out post on this game later, so look for more to come. I also am still going to post on the Ken O'Keefe Challenge (I did pretty good today, around 65% correct I think). Then it's on to Iowa State.

I'm going to have a heart attack. Holy crap that was crazy...and that ball clearly cleared the line of scrimmage. Okay, well I'm WAY too amped up right now to blog, so more thoughts and analysis will come later. Right now let's just thank God that we won and avoided total embarrassment.

It's the first ever game day for Fight For Iowa, and I'm excited. I plan on doing a semi-live blog of the game today, updating every once in a while. I'm a fan first and a blogger second, so I plan on spending most of my time enjoying the game.

If you are looking for real live bloggin' or need more information because you don't have the BTN, here are some options for you:

• hawkeyesports.com is doing a live blog/chat
  
• hawkeyesports.com also has the Game Tracker to get play-by-play results
• The CR Gazette is also doing a live blog/chat
• The message boards are always swarming this time of year at Scout and Rivals
• The BTN also have a live blog/chat (it's super popular I guess)
• There's a new Hawkeye Tweets site that has a twitter feed of everything Hawkeye related (including all of my tweets...@FightForIowa if you want to follow me too).
  

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1st Quarter:
First drive - Stanzi looks pretty good. McNutt is great. O-line is not really opening any holes...run game looks just okay. Field goal is good for the first drive.
Defense - Pretty much as expected...good pass rush there on 3rd down.
Second drive - Not good Stanzi (bad blocking too). Hold on to that ball!
Defense - Good play by Sash on 3rd, and good penetration on each play.
***Note: the gold looks good. It looks like a lot of people actually wore gold today.
Third drive - O-line does not look good at all. Making lots of mistakes and not many holes. Vandevelde and Calloway cannot get back soon enough.
Defense - D-line in contrast looks really good. Ballard looks good a DT.
Fourth drive - Great block by McNutt.
***Note: I've been updating more than expected...don't be surprised if it slows down.
***Note: I can only do 2 things at once...watching the game is one and parenting is the other right now. Sorry for the lack of updates.

I'm getting this challenge out there pretty late (less than 3 hours to kickoff!), but I wanted to do this every week. Here's the idea...many Hawkeye fans claim Iowa's play calling is predictable, so can you guess what play Ken O'Keefe is going to run?

During the summer, when news was slow, I made the KOK Bot by analyzing every play call last year. I use Yards to Go for a 1st Down, Field Position, Time Left in Game, and the Score Margin to statistically predict whether O'Keefe will call a pass or a run play.

So, here's the challenge. Before each and every offensive play today, guess if Iowa will pass or run. If you get it right, that's a point, if you get it wrong, that's not a point. Pretty simple stuff, right? I will be playing along this week, and so will, of course, KOK Bot. For the fun of it, I'll also flip a coin, heads = pass and tails = run, and see how the coin does (hopefully I can beat a penny). I'll post the results later in the week. If you'd like to play along, you can go ahead and post your results in the comments. The winner will get, well...nothing. Sorry. But it should be an interesting exercise.

Tomorrow is game day! The long, long wait is finally over. All the speculation, anticipation, reading Hawkeye Nation, knee mutilation, private jets for vacation, QB deportation, months of preparation...and here we are, less than 24 hour away.

UNI: Quick Look -

• 2008 Record: 12-3
• Returning starters: Offense - 9, Defense - 5
• Starters by Class: Seniors -13, Juniors - 2, Sophomores - 4, Freshman - 3
• Key Returners: QB Pat Grace, C Austin Steichen, DE James Ruffin
• Key Losses: RB Corey Lewis, LB De'Veon Harris, CB Darrell Lloyd, P Brook Black, WR Johnny Gray
• Injuries: WR Josh Collins
• Suspension: RB Derrick Law, RB Taylor Brookins, QB Zach Davis, OL Evan Tecklenburg, OL Misha Danilov
• Previews: Offense, Defense, Special Teams
  

Game Info -

• Time: Saturday, September 5 at 11:01 AM
• Place: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, IA
• TV: Big Ten Network HD