What to watch for in this week’s critical matchup between Iowa and Northwestern:

Blandenberg 

Calling senior quarterback James Vandenberg’s season bland is a bit of an understatement. Anytime you need your coach to give you the dreaded “vote of confidence,” you know you are in trouble. Let’s take a look into his numbers and see where he struggles the most.

–       Red zone: The most important area of the field is where Vandenberg struggles the most. While posting two touchdowns, his completion percentage is a dreadful 36 percent inside the 20 and only 15.4 percent inside the 10.

–       Trailing: The senior signal caller is susceptible to the interception when the Hawkeyes are losing, throwing 4 of his 5 picks during that situation. He also sports only an average 55 percent completion rate and, of his 11 times being sacked this year, 10 have come when the Hawkeyes were facing a deficit.

–       Third down: Almost half of Vandenberg’s sacks have come on third down (5) and completes only 51.6 percent of his passes.

Stats of a Weisman 

Sophomore fullback Mark Weisman has been a nice story for the up-and-down Hawkeyes this year. Let’s take a peek into his stats to see where he could potentially do damage against the Cats’ defense or struggle to make an impact.

–       Weisman has struggled on third and short. With two yards or less to go on third or fourth down, the sophomore only averages .7 yards per carry.

–       What’s potentially most impressive with Weisman is stats show he doesn’t wear down. He averages 6.8, 5.9, 5.9 and 5.8 yards per carry in each quarter, respectively.

–       Third down is where Weisman is capable of making a big play. He averages 8.64 yards per touch on third down this year with three touchdowns.

Quick hits:

In all of their losses, Iowa has lost the time of possession battle. Only one of their four wins this year had them losing that stat.

In the coach Pat Fitzgerald era, NU has only lost back-to-back home games  twice (2006, 2010)

Since 2008, NU has only lost to Iowa once (2011).

Iowa has not lost two straight games since 2010 when their streak began with a loss to NU.

In the past three games, NU has scored a grand total of 7 points in the fourth quarter.

Iowa has only given up 2 touchdowns in the fourth quarter all year.

If they lose, Iowa has not been at or below .500 this late in the year since 2007.

In the Fitzgerald era, NU has only won once when they have lost the previous game by a field goal or less.

— John Paschall