What we learned - Arizona

1.  Iowa may be a great team, but there isn't a team in the country that can give up a punt block inside their ten, an interception returned for a touchdown, and a kickoff return for a touchdown on the road and win.  Even with all of these things going wrong for Iowa, they still battled back and tied the game late in the fourth quarter, which could help show them that they can handle adversity. 

2.  A blueprint to beat Iowa has been created.  If you want to stymie the Iowa offense, blitz, blitz, and blitz some more.  I didn't count, but I will bet that more than 50% of the plays Arizona blitzed.  Now, Stanzi just missed on a couple of deep passes that could have changed the Arizona game plan pretty quickly.  Now he did hit on a couple of deep balls, but not enough to force Arizona to change.  My question would be, where was the screen?  A few years ago, Iowa was one of the best screen teams in the nation, now you never see them.  On offense, Nick Foles did exactly what you have to do to beat Iowa, be patient and find the holes in Iowa's zone defense.  He didn't try to force passes and didn't have to, the question would be, Coach Wilson appeared to be making defensive calls, did that take time away from him working with the linebackers on their zone drops?  Iowa's defense played well enough to win, they gave up one drive for a touchdown and even that one was the result of a deep ball by Foles that required a diving catch by the wide out.

3.  Iowa's special teams are a point of concern.  After the first game, I said that Iowa will not be out special teamed all year, my how the wheels have fallen off of that bus.  There have been some changes on the kick coverage unit since the first game and there will be some starters that will be required to play on this unit and risk injury.  The punt coverage unit, gave up a blocked punt and had a 15 yard catch interference penalty, which really overshadowed a great game by Donahue, who averaged just short of 47 yards per punt.  The field goal team let a kick get blocked that would have given Iowa the lead.  Alone any one of these things can be overcome, but all in one game spells disaster.

4.  Iowa fans need to calm down.  If you take the first couple of minutes out of the equation, Iowa dominated the game both offensively and defensively.  Yes Foles threw for a lot of yards, but aside from the first 8 yard drive, only scored one touchdown and two field goals.  Giving up 13 points on the road to a ranked opponent is good enough to win a majority of the times.  The offense moved the ball well and just missed a few plays, the opening drive had Stanzi miss McNutt by inches on a deep ball and later in the game, had a deep ball go through DJK's hands that would have been a touchdown.  Both of those drives ended in punts.  On the second drive, normally sure-handed McNutt had a ball go through his hands for a pick six touchdown. 

5.   I hate to throw a former Hawkeye under the bus, but Mike Stoops is an embarrassment on the sidelines.  ESPN did a great job of cutting to him after every penalty or call and he was always looking like a six year old in the toy aisle of Target throwing a fit.  It really makes you appreciate the demeanor of Kirk Ferentz, who if you see him yelling, it is usually a blatant call and garners more results, than a coach who complains about everything.

6.  Even though they claim to be the sports leader, ESPN had a giant failure Saturday night.  The Clemson and Auburn game went into overtime and that isn't something you can account for, but you have like six overflow channels and ESPNews that you could have started the Iowa game on.  To top it all off, after the conclusion of the first game, they show the interviews with both a coach and a player, while the Iowa game is in progress.  For that you get a big FAIL.