Iowa’s winning streak has reached three games now since the hard loss to Wisconsin, and they’re looking good and feeling confident after Saturday’s 23-0 win over Maryland in Iowa City. It was another complete team victory for a 6-1 that still has title aspirations.

The win helped Iowa jump up a spot to No. 18 in this week’s Associated Press poll. The Hawkeyes are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten. The division is still up for grabs, with four teams (Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Purdue) all sitting with one loss. The Big Ten West is going to be one crazy dogfight over the next five weeks.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s what I liked — and didn’t like — about the Hawkeyes’ win over Maryland.

What I liked

Defense was completely suffocating once again

Totally dominating doesn’t even do it justice. Iowa never let Maryland off the mat Saturday, holding them to 68 yards rushing and 47 yards passing. It was Iowa’s first shutout since blanking Illinois 28-0 in 2016. Maryland’s 115 yards of total offense was 250 below its average. That yardage total was the lowest ever of any Big Ten opponent during Kirk Ferentz’s 20 years at Iowa. Maryland ran only 39 plays all day, also the lowest total ever during Ferentz’s time at Iowa. Yep, that’s complete and total domination.

Pride in getting shutout really mattered

Ending the game with that zero still on the board meant a lot to the Iowa defense. The Iowa defense had two chances for a shutout earlier this year, but the reserves gave up a touchdown with 2:12 left against Northern Illinois in the 33-7 season-opening win, and the following week Iowa beat Iowa State 13-3, allowing only a first-quarter field goal. This time the defensive starters played the entire game, because they wanted the shutout that bad. “We’d been fighting for one all year,” Iowa defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “We want to hold people down to zero if we can and kind of break their spirit.”

Running game starts to make an impact

We went from summer to winter on Saturday, and when the weather turns, it really matters to have a good running game. We saw that from Iowa  — finally! — on Saturday. It was nice to see Ivory Kelly-Martin healthy again. He ran for 98 yards on 24 carries, a 4.1 average. Iowa had a season-high 224 yards as a team and looked good doing it. It’s going to be important to run the ball going forward, so this was a positive sign. “I’m just trying to prove myself, I guess,” Smith said. “I could do those things in practice, I just needed to bring them to the game.”

What I didn’t like

Passing numbers were low and unimpressive

Nate Stanley has been red-hot lately, throwing 14 touchdown passes in the past four games, but he was just 11-for-22 passing for 86 yards on Saturday with one touchdown pass and an interception.  The weather and the score probably had a little something to do with the poor numbers, but it’s still not the only excuse. He was erratic at times, and there were a few drops as well. Even when it’s cold and windy, this group still needs to be productive.

Red zone offense needs to be better

Iowa made five trips into the red zone on Saturday and came away with only one touchdown. Settling for field goals didn’t really matter all that much against Maryland, but it could be an issue down the road. With two stud tight ends like Iowa has, this should never be an area of concern. They should be able to find their way to the end zone.