Football reporters Jordan Hansen and Ryan Rodriguez list four things Iowa must do in order to beat Pittsburgh.

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Get on top early. 

North Texas should be an easy gimmie for the Hawks, but we’ve seen the Black and Gold lose to teams they shouldn’t in the past.  Going for the throat early on and never letting the Mean Green hang around would most definitely be in Iowa’s best interest.

A. Not really a whole lot I can do to criticize the Hawks on this one. Canzeri went to work and the Hawks asserted their dominance early and often. The Mean Greene never stood much of a chance. 

Protect Beathard. 

CJ Beathard is more than capable of getting out of jams if the pocket collapses, but why put him in the situation?  Iowa should be able to handle the North Texas defense, so any chance there is to minimize injury to a key offensive player should be of the utmost importance in a game like this.

Win field position

 Iowa has been good at flipping the field position this year and punter Dillon Kidd’s huge uptick in punting average has been very helpful in this department. North Texas really isn’t a very good team, but if Iowa gives them a short field a couple times, they might stay in this game.

A. Iowa won this in every nearly way possible. Kidd and Koehn both punted well, and Iowa had little trouble moving the ball.

No emotional letdown

 This isn’t a game Iowa wants to come out sluggish in. The Hawkeyes have had two emotional wins the last two weeks and if North Texas was a better team, it might almost be categorized as a ‘trap game.’

A+. Iowa came back after a close win to completely annihilate the Mean Green. Can’t ask for much more than that if you’re an Iowa fan.

Check back after the game to see how Iowa graded out.