Seeing Red

Just four days ago I was at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, basking in the glow of an Iowa blowout over Purdue and an even more robust glow from the 82-degree sun. The left side of my face and the tops of my knees sunburned while the Hawks burned the Boilermakers interior defensive line. Oh, how quickly things change. This morning in Cedar Rapids there is a dusting of snow on the ground and temps are in the high 30's.

Also changed is the opponent for this week's game. Iowa travels to Indiana to face the Hoosiers. Indiana is one of three teams in the Big Ten (Illinois and Northwestern are the other two) that should be gimme wins for everyone else in the conference. Of course, that's what Hawk fans said two days before Iowa played Illinois and Syracuse -- both wins, but by the slimmest of margins.

This Iowa team is a tough one to figure out. They played a bad game against an outstanding Ohio State team. The played a great game against an above average Purdue squad. They were aweful against the two teams dressed in orange, and just fine in wins over teams of red (Iowa State and Montana -- I'll call Ohio State a silver team).

Maybe Iowa is a team whose performance can be predicted by color. Good on red, great on gold, suspect against orange. What about blue (Michigan) and purple (Northwestern)?

This week is a red team. Look for Iowa to come out and play a red game -- not too flashy, but gets the job done. Then, we get ready for a blue week (might be blue in more ways than one).

Iowa 27
The Red Team in Indiana 14