The Iowa football team beat in-state rival Iowa State on Sept. 12.

By Jordan Hansen
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Iowa scored three touchdowns in the second half to down Iowa State 31-17 in Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Sept. 12.

With that in mind, lets take a look at what we learned from the Hawkeyes victory.

Receiver reversal

Coming into the season, most thought senior wide receiver Tevaun Smith would be C.J. Beathard’s first option while Matt VandeBerg and possibly Jacob Hillyer or Riley McCarron would pick up the rest of the catches at the receiver spot.

However, through two games VandeBerg has 15 catches to Smith’s five. Even more telling is the yardage. Smith has just 47 yards on the season while VandeBerg has 173.

To be fair, Smith is spending significant amounts of time being smothered by defenses and VandeBerg is benefiting off of relaxed coverage. What’s impossible to ignore, however, is VandeBerg does have legitimate talent and an eye for the game.

Right place. Right time. Tie game!! #IOWAvsISUhttps://t.co/NgIklg8BvF

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) September 12, 2015

Canzeri can take 20+ carries, for now

Senior running back Jordan Canzeri rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries and added a 19-yard reception for good measure.

He scored a late touchdown to ice the game and generally was effective running the ball, outside of a costly fumble in the third-quarter near the Iowa goal line.

However, if LeShun Daniels, Jr.’s injury is something that will hold him out for a couple weeks, it’ll be interesting to watch how Canzeri holds up. The running back has a history of injuries and considering he’s a small back at 5-9, those carries will take a toll on him.

We kind of already knew this, but…

Defensive end Nate Meier is a good football player. He had seven tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and two quarterback hits against Iowa State.

Meier lessened the pain of losing Drew Ott a bit against Iowa State and he’ll have to continue to produce at a high level if Ott is out for an extended period of time. The signs point to him being able to, which should take some pressure off of the rest of the line.

In other defensive line news, tackle Jaleel Johnson played well, especially in the second-half. Iowa’s line got plenty of pressure down the stretch and, for the most part, kept Iowa State quarterback Sam B. Richardson contained.

C.J. Beathard has wheels

Iowa’s quarterback had runs of 44 and 57 yards and ended the day with 77-yards total (Hey, NCAA. Make sacks count as team losses).

It’s a quarterback rushing attack which hasn’t been seen by a Hawkeye quarterback since the days of Brad Banks. Few of Beathard’s runs looked planned and more often than not the play was breaking down, so he took off.

However, it also opens Beathard up to more hits throughout a game, so whether Ferentz wants him to keep running is something to keep tabs on. With that said, Beathard protected himself well against the Cyclones and seems to have a knack for knowing when to get down or out of bounds.

Punting with confidence

Punter Dillon Kidd is averaging a healthy 47.3 yards per punt this season and that’s nothing but good news for Iowa. Kidd averaged just 38.5 yards per punt a last year and already looks more confident than a year ago.

Even more important, he faced a good return unit in Iowa State and didn’t allow a single yard to a returner. In fact, no one has returned a punt for any positive yards against Kidd yet this season.

Follow @JordyHansen for news, updates and analysis of the Iowa football team