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Big Ten Football: New Era Pinstripe Bowl Preview Iowa vs Boston College

By Collin Wieder

MADISON, WI - NOVEMBER 11: Nathan Stanley #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes drops back to pass during the second quarter of a game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
MADISON, WI - NOVEMBER 11: Nathan Stanley #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes drops back to pass during the second quarter of a game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /
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Big Ten football starts bowl season with a toss-up between Iowa and Boston College. The Hawkeyes were up and down all year. Can they come out on top?

Iowa gets the first crack at a Big Ten football bowl “W” Wednesday in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. The Hawkeyes face the Boston College Eagles with each team looking for their eighth win of the season. Iowa highlighted its season with a 55-24 drubbing of Ohio State but was plagued by inconsistency.

Sophomore Nathan Stanley looked the part of a starting quarterback at times, and not so much in others. He kept the ball out of harms way tossing a TD-to-INT ratio of 25-to-6. But, he also failed to complete the ball at times hitting only 56 percent of his passes and playing poorly in losses to Purdue and Wisconsin.

With all his ups and downs, he put up a decent year. He throws a frozen rope and when he’s on, he can ball. He has some productive targets in Nick Easley and Noah Fant. Easley led the team in receiving with 50 catches for 498 yards and four touchdowns. Fant played a

Paired up with a quality rushing attack, this offense has respectable balance. Akrum Wadley rushed for more than 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns in his first year as the lone feature back. The veteran back can break big plays at any moment and has been highly productive over his three years.

Iowa’s run game will have to get going in order for the offense to have success. BC’s pass defense is top rate allowing just 199.7 through the air. Stanley can get comfortable with a sound run game – just watch the result of a complete offense against Ohio State. (Video courtesy of Big Ten Network).

Ball-“hawking” Defense

The offense carries some nice playmakers but it’s a dominant defense that Iowa relies on. They are in the top quarter of the league and allow only 19.9 points per game. Leading-tackler linebacker Josey Jewell will try to shut down a run-heavy BC team.

The Eagles lost starting quarterback Anthony Brown for the year in-game 10 leaving the Eagles without a progressing, passing game. Instead senior QB Darius Wade will start and lead an offense that averages 224.7 yards per game on the ground. He’ll take on a game manager role

The offense begins and ends with the ACC Rookie of the Year A.J. Dillon. The freshman running back rushed for 1,432 and 13 touchdowns. He ran over defenses all year and created a thunder-thunder duo with Jon Hillman. They combined for more than 2,000 yards on the ground and wore defenses down.

The senior linebacking trio of Jewell, Bo Bower and Ben Niemann have done well against the run game all year and must do so again to come out with the win. If Iowa can limit the run game, it’ll force BC into uncomfortable situations – relying on its passing game.

Must Read: Big Ten Conference Bowl Games: Prediction roundtable

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