Iowa Football Stock Report: Hawkeyes Are a Buy After Wisconsin Blowout

It was a house of horrors inside Kinnick Stadium on Halloween. Not for the Iowa Hawkeyes, though. The Wisconsin Badgers were living out the horror of losing their fifth straight game to Iowa and were on the receiving end of back-to-back shutouts from the Hawkeyes.

Iowa bulldozed the Badgers on the way to a 30-0 win to keep the Battle for the Heartland trophy home in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes did it in all three phases too, taking care of business from the jump in this game. The performance raised Iowa's stock yet again as the Hawkeyes sit at 6-2.

Stock Up: Tim Lester and Hank Brown's chemistry

Tim Lester had it all going, and he was capitalizing on Hank Brown's strengths. The reads were easy. The play-action plays were timely. The shots were taken downfield. This was a combined effort from the two of them to sling it around the yard against a good defense.

Going 20-for-24 against any team is good, but doing it against a talented Wisconsin defense, while adding two scores and no interceptions, is another thing. This was a fine performance from Hank Brown and Tim Lester.

Stock Down: The run game isn't consistent enough

It didn't end up mattering much due to Hank Brown lighting up Wisconsin with downfield passing attacks, but the run game wasn't great today. Xavier Williams had 78 yards on 20 carries, an average of 3.9 yards per carry, while L.J. Phillips had 27 yards on 9 carries.

The Hawkeyes stayed committed to the ground game with 42 carries, but found just 140 yards (3.3 yards per carry) against Wisconsin. Some of that is a bit misleading, as Iowa was eating clock late, but there is still room to grow here,

Stock Up: Cam Buffington playing at an elite level

At this point, Cam Buffington's elite play is happening so quietly because it has become a standard. He is Iowa's next great linebacker and today proved he is ready. Putting together a day of 8 tackles, a sack, and 1.5 tackles for loss that flies under the radar tells you all you need to know.

Stock Down: Ball security and fumbling issues

There are some fumbling issues in the running back group for Iowa. It is something that could rear its ugly head at a horrible time if Iowa doesn't fix things. Xavier Williams, while running very hard, put the ball on the ground twice.

Tony Diaz, amid a great day, also had one punched out that fortunately trickled out of bounds. Still, Iowa put the ball on the ground three times against Wisconsin and is lucky only one resulted in a turnover. This has to be an emphasis moving forward.

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