What a crazy game this weekend, I knew Indiana had a pretty bad defense coming in, but Iowa scored 28 in the first quarter, one of the touchdowns came on a Desmond King pick six. 28 is not a point total Iowa is used to this season in an entire game. They also had over 200 yards in the quarter. The offense slowed down a bit the rest of the game, but they held on for a nice 45-29 homecoming victory. Hoosier running back Tevin Coleman had a huge day with three long touchdown runs, he leads the NCAA in rushing. Other than those three runs and a big pass pass play the defense played well and they knocked QB Nate Sudfeld out of the game. Who knows if the defense could have shut down Indiana with Sudfeld in, but his backup Covington looked awful. Iowa improved to 2-0 in the conference and 5-1 overall.
1st Quarter
The game started like most Iowa games do, with the Hawkeyes on offense and a quick three and out. Indiana followed quickly with a three and out of their own, that's when the game got interesting. On the next drive Jake Rudock was really clicking and they had some nice runs by Jordan Canzeri sprinkled in as well. The drive was capped off by a touchdown pass to Jake Duzey for a 7-0 lead. Iowa again went for it on fourth down deep in the red zone and picked up the first down. On Indiana's next possession, King got his first interception and ran in back 35 yards to put Iowa up 14-0. The defense again came up big again with Indiana going three and out. On the first play of Iowa's next drive, Rudock hit the speedy Damond Powell for a 72 yard touchdown, 21-0! It was looking like a blowout at this point, but two plays later Coleman rushed for an 83 yard score cutting the lead to 21-7 and giving Indiana some life. The Hoosiers kicked a quick onside kick and recovered it, but there was an offside call so they had to re-kick, which gave Iowa great field position. The field position didn't matter, on the first play they called a jet sweep to speedy freshmen, Jonathan Parker, who took it 60 yards for a score, 28-7! Before the quarter ended, Sudfeld hit Shane Wynn for a big 62 yard gain to put the Hoosiers in great scoring position.
2nd Quarter
Indiana scored another touchdown cutting the lead down to 28-14, they once again tried an onside kick and recovered again, no penalty. With decent field position it looked like they were gaining some momentum until Sudfeld was sacked by Drew Ott and Carl Davis. Sudfeld was injured on the play and I've learned that he will be out for the year, which is a huge blow for Indiana. They brought in a freshmen QB who wasn't recruited as a QB. That play pretty much sealed the win for Iowa. Indiana punted away to Iowa and their next drive was a three and out. Indiana had great field position and on the first play Coleman took one 45 yards for another score, now 28-21. Iowa was going to experiment a bit more with the two QB system and C.J. Beathard got his first series of the game, but couldn't muster much of anything as Iowa went three and out once again. The Hawkeye defense held Indiana to a three and out and they came back with Rudock on the next possession. A big 31 yard pass to Tevaun Smith and a heavy dose of Mark Weisman runs led to a Marshall Koehn field goal, 31-21 now, giving Iowa a little more breathing room. On Indiana's next possession Convington's third down pass was deflected and intercepted by freshmen, Bo Bower, his second of the season. Iowa had 3:36 on the clock and were 37 yards away from another touchdown. With one second left on the clock at the one yard line, Ferentz decided to go for it and Weisman plowed through for another touchdown putting the score at halftime 38-21, a pretty nice cushion for the Hawkeyes.
3rd Quarter
The third quarter was nothing like the first half, the first seven possessions led to seven punts and only a total of three first downs. Iowa started a drive with 1:15 left in the quarter with Beathard at the helm. On the final play of the quarter Beathard, on third and nine, ran for 20 yards picking up a big first down.
4th Quarter
A few plays into the quarter, Weisman was again running into the end zone from a yard out, putting the score at 45-21. It felt like a comfortable lead until a few plays later when Coleman scampered 69 yards for another score. The point conversion made it 45-29. They traded a couple of possessions and Iowa had the ball with 7:23 left starting at their six yard line. They were able to pick up a couple of first downs and run some clock with some Weisman runs, a Dillon Kidd punt left Indiana at the 24 with 3:14 left needing two scores and two two point conversions. Covington was putting together a nice drive and had the Hoosiers down to the Iowa 11, but Jordan Lomax intercepted the next pass in the end zone, sealing the win for the Hawkeyes. Three more Weisman runs ended the game 45-29. It was nice to see Iowa's offense explode like that and get some big plays, which they've been really lacking all year. Parker is a speedster and I hope to see him more involved in the offense. Rudock clearly won the QB battle as Beathard only finished 2 for 5 with 9 yards. Iowa's defense held Indiana passers to 7 for 21 and had 3 interceptions on the day. If it weren't for Coleman, this game would have been a blowout.
QB: Rudock clearly played much better than Beathard completing 19 of 27 for 210 yards, great game for Jake.
RB: Weisman carried the ball 25 times, mostly in the fourth quarter running the clock. Canzeri had some nice runs early, Damon Bullock had a nice run that was called back on a penalty. And, of course, Parker had a huge touchdown run. Solid game for the backs.
WR: The WRs had a nice day, I think Smith is the best one on the team and Powell had a nice game, too. The group looked much better than the Purdue game.
TE: Duzey had a touchdown and caught four passes, Ray Hamilton had a catch as well.
OL: Jordan Walsh got injured on the first drive and Tommy Gaul came in at center, Austin Blythe moved to RG. I thought the line played great, possibly the best game they've had all year.
DL: Ott, LTP and Nate Meier combined for 21 tackles and I thought the DL looked pretty good. They were able to get some pressure on the QB and stuffed the run pretty well besides the three big ones.
LB: They're going to keep getting better, there's not much experience at all at LB. They're a big reason for giving up some of these big plays. In a couple of years this should be a strong unit, I really like Bower.
DB: King had his first career interception, he did have one miscue, but had a solid game as always and he's a great tackler. John Lowdermilk probably had his worst game, he was out of place on several plays and that cost the defense some points.
ST: Koehn has been real solid since the first two games, Kidd had an ok day punting.
IOWA AT MARYLAND
I watched Maryland play against West Virginia earlier this year and they can score points quickly, they can also give up points quickly, so this game could be similar to the Indiana game. Iowa would love to carry the offensive momentum into this road game, their first meeting ever with Maryland. The Terps offensive coordinator, Mike Locksley, was head coach down here at New Mexico briefly and did an awful job, he's better suited as an O.C. The Terps feature the best WR duo in the Big Ten, Stefon Diggs and Deon Long, I saw Long play at New Mexico as a freshmen and you knew he was going to be a good one. Iowa's LBs and secondary are going to have to come up huge in this game to shut these guys down, the DL will have to step up, too and get more pressure. I think Iowa will be able to shut down their run game, which could make Maryland one dimensional. Iowa should be able to have some balance on offense as Maryland's defense has struggled, I like Iowa to have the edge in this one, but it should be close. IOWA 28 MARYLAND 24
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