As a fan, I'd say that the Indiana and Nebraska games should be the toughest for Iowa. Obviously, part of the equation is that they're both road games - so that makes it tough if the home team can gain some momentum. Largely, the biggest issue is that both of those teams have quality, balanced offenses ... and that makes them a bit more difficult to defend. Nebraska poses the additional threat that they're quite good at defending against the run.
The good news is that Iowa's D has the ability to make each of those teams EARN their points. Furthermore, we have an offense that is pretty good at both scoring points AND possessing the ball. It's harder for the opposition to score points if they don't have the ball. Furthermore, our D often is adequately well rested, so they can make things pretty difficult on the opposing O. Lastly, our special teams have been good - they've helped us to better control field position. That not only allows us to play a bit more aggressively on D ... but it also tends to give the O shorter fields to work with.
