Iowa’s defense outplayed its counterpart and had two safeties in a 7-3 win over FCS South Dakota State.
Disaster preceded the game as we learned that Keagan Johnson, Gavin Williams and Mason Richman would not be ready for the game, leaving Arland Bruce as the only scholarship receiver with a career catch on the roster. This news moved the betting line 4.5 points, from 14.5 to 10 in some books, proving once again that bookmakers don’t love our Hawks as much as we do.
And then disaster struck for Iowa’s offense immediately, as it was forced to punt on its first drive despite converting an always elusive first down.
Iowa received a 17-yard punt from SDSU on the Jackrabbits’ first offensive possession of the year, putting Iowa in field goal territory for its second drive of the game.
Four plays later, Aaron Blom failed a 40-yard pass after Iowa’s offense mustered just 5 yards. He would redeem himself two series later, getting a 46-yarder after Spencer Petras failed to hit a wide open Leshon Williams on a screen that could have gone for a touchdown.
On the bright side, Iowa continued to feed the ball to their best offensive player, Tory Taylor, whose second punt of the day was a 57-yarder.
In the first quarter, Iowa had 15 yards passing while SDSU had 15 yards of false start penalties, turning the crowd into Iowa’s second best player early on. The teams traded points to start the second quarter. Taylor connected with Cooper DeJean to set SDSU up for a 3 of its own, making it the most accurate throw and catch of the day. It’s worth noting that the punt came from SDSU’s 37.
Joe Evans recorded his first sack of the season to force a driving punt, and another false start moved the SDSU punter into the back of the end zone, giving Iowa another short field to work with, which nine is meaningless.
Remember SDSU is an FCS team.
You’ll be surprised to know that on 3rd and ten with 3 minutes left, Petras threw the ball right into the chest of Caleb Francl, a guy who plays for the other team.
Leshon Williams and Arland Bruce were open, but he forced the ball to Sam LaPorta. Francl returned it 17 yards into Iowa territory.
Jestin Jacobs was hurt on a drive that ended with a 44-yard field goal by Hunter Dustman. Quinn Schulte broke up a pass on third down and Iowa sat on the ball for 15 seconds to go into the locker room tied at 3-3. Iowa finished the half with 56 total yards, 15 rushing. SDSU had 77 yards. Iowa had 4 first downs, 4 punts and 3 punts. Three of Iowa’s drives started in Jackrabbit territory.
SDSU started the half with the ball, and after two consecutive 12-yard runs by Isaiah Thomas, the Iowa defense stymied the Jackrabbits, forcing a punt at the Iowa 45.
Unsurprisingly, Petras trotted back onto the field to order another three-and-out for the offense. On third down, Brian Ferentz ran a crossing route that saw an open Alec Wick, but Petras forced him to a sideline in double coverage. Special teams recovered a crappy sandwich again.
SDSU QB Mark Gronowski got tattooed first, leaving … another guy to face the teeth of the Iowa D.
Despite connecting on a 26-yard pass to Bruce on the ensuing drive, Iowa scored just 4 yards on the next three plays, leaving Tory Taylor to build a house of desperation inside the Iowa 2-yard line for SDSU.
Jack Campbell found Isaiah Davis in the end zone on the first play of the ball, giving Iowa 2 points and making the score 5-3. Real sick shit.
Three straight Williams runs netted about 12 yards and Iowa’s sixth first down of the day. The next play Petras was sacked for a 10-yard loss, erasing Williams’ hard work. Petras nailed Bruce on a seam up the middle for 27 yards. The orientation was evaluated in Bruce’s matchup and was held strangely because it wasn’t the orientation.
Still, with Iowa’s best field position of the day, a jet sweep to Bruce netted 12 yards, putting the Hawks at SDSU’s 11.
Williams coughed up the ball on the next play.
The Jackrabbits held the ball early in the fourth quarter only to be blocked by Iowa’s defense once again.
With the ball at their 30, Petras overthrew Arland Bruce for what would have been an easy gain for at least 7 or 8 yards. The crew said a tray was missing. On the next play, Petras hit a double-cover Luke Lachey in the tightest possible window for 6 yards.
On 3rd and 4, did Brain Ferentz call a freak boot? I don’t know, Petras made an open Bruce and Tory Taylor added to his highlight reel, pinning SDSU back to its 8. The Jackrabbits were assessed a holding penalty, starting a potential layoff at their own 4.
Like a bunch of idiots, SDSU tried to go for it on fourth-and-inches at their own 11-yard line, but it false-started and the scoring drive fumbled again. Bruce just caught him in the middle of the field with about 8 yards of space. Two 2-yard runs by Williams set up a failed third-down scramble for Petras and Tory Taylor had a rare touchback.
A catch and a 1-yard run preceded an incomplete pass on third down. Iowa went three again and came away with the ball at midfield. On third and 9 Petras missed an open Wick. I’m going to throw up.
Joe Evans got Iowa’s second safety to give us an insurmountable 4 point lead with 4 minutes left.
On 3rd and 8, Iowa called a play call — a shotgun draw to Leshon Williams that gained 10 yards and ran the clock to 3 minutes.
Iowa couldn’t get another first down, and with 37 seconds left the Jackrabbits had a chance to win the game. With no timeouts and at their own 20-yard line, the Iowa D clamped down. Four plays in a row, a few yards. Iowa ball with 15 seconds left. kneel down
One and oh
the remaining
- NDSU committed 12 penalties for 67 yards. It would have been even more if many weren’t of the half distance nature of the goal.
- Iowa, meanwhile, was punted just twice for 15 yards.
- If the above write-up seems like I focused on offensive ineptitude while overlooking defensive dominance, that’s because I did. The defense was sensational today. Each player was spectacular individually, from new starters like Quinn Schulte and Terry Roberts, to rising stars like Noah Shannon and Cooper DeJean. Logan Klemp filled in admirably for Jestin Jacobs. This was not surprising. We knew the defense was going to be big. We also knew the offense was going to suck. I don’t think we knew he would do so much shit.
- Iowa turned the ball over twice and didn’t force one. This is simply not in the manual for this equipment.
- This offense was held to 57 yards against an FCS defense, and that is simply unacceptable. He also passed for 109 yards, but you know what I mean.
- Mark Gronowski returned to the game after being injured. I don’t know when, because it didn’t matter.