Since no one else has stated the thread I might as well get it going.
Two games into the season and I think it is safe to say most fans in Bison nation aren't nearly as confident about their team as we were at the beginning of the season. So far, this seasons team is not nearly as good as teams of the past. Iowa will be the toughest team we will have faced in the history of the program. They are coming off a great season and are returning most key players from last seasons Big 10 West championship team.
How will we fare in this matchup? Well, the good news is that the first two games of the season really won't tell us much about this particular matchup as Iowa runs a completely different offensive scheme as CS and EW. Actually, Iowa's offense plays right into the strength's of our defense. In essence, Iowa runs the same offense as we do (or at least what we used to). This will play into our D's strengths as we are more suited to stopping the run and short passing game as opposed to defending a pass happy offense like EW, however, Iowa is more than capable of throwing the football, which does not bode well for our young secondary. Because Iowa runs a more traditional offense, we should see a better effort from our D than last week.
When we are on offense, I don't think our traditional power run game will work well against Iowa's front 4, so we will have to come up with something else, which is probably for the best because our O line hasn't exactly been dominating the LOS so far this season. In what my be a stroke of luck for us this week, our O coordinator seems to have gone away from power football to an option/read short passing type of offense with the occasional deep ball. Quite frankly, most Bison fans don't really know what kind of offense we are going to run. Maybe this will be good thing for us, maybe not. It seemed like Iowa gave up quit a few yards and points to MO's option/read offense in week one which should give us hope. We do have talent and playmakers on that side of the ball so we should be able to move the ball and score some points.
I think this will be a lot closer game than most Iowa fans think it will be. The very nature of both teams offenses (ball control, ground and pound) combined with stout D for each, should make this game a low scoring affair. All and all, I think Iowa will be too much for us and our FBS win streak will end.
Hawkeye's 28
Bison 14
Edit: I forgot to add that I will never count the Bison out of any game. I know better. I have seen way too many big wins and come from behind victories to totally say we can't win any particular game. There is way too much winning tradition in this program to bet against them. So, while I think we lose this game, it would not surprise me in the least if we won. It would not surprise me at all..................