QUICK RECAP: Iowa Hawkeyes 49, Purdue Boilermakers 35

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Hawkeyes defeated the Boilermakers by a final score of 49-35, and as the subtitle says, it wasn’t that close. A couple of touchdowns surrendered by the second-stringers made this one look a whole lot closer than it really was.

Iowa jumped out to an early 21-0 lead in the first quarter, as CJ Beathard connected with Riley McCarron for a TD and ran one in himself. LeShun Daniels also ran for a touchdown in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Iowa continued to dominate the Boilermakers, driving down the field and letting LeShun Daniels run it in from four yards out. Purdue was quick to respond with a 25-yard TD pass, but on the next drive, Iowa’s Akrum Wadley ran it 75 yards to the house on the first play from scrimmage.

In the second half, Purdue scored two more touchdowns on Iowa’s first team defense while the second team defense also allowed two touchdowns. The main cause of concern would probably be that David Blough torched the Iowa defense in the second half. I wouldn’t buy too much into it, though, as the game was well out of reach by the time he started to burn the secondary. Still, giving up 5 TDs through the air isn’t something you ever want to do.

The Iowa offense destroyed a hapless Purdue defense, which is exactly what you’d want to see. Iowa finally took advantage of a team that it was supposed to take advantage of, with Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels running for 170 and 156 yards, respectively. CJB only threw for 140 yards, but he didn’t need to throw for many with the ground game manhandling the Boilermakers. The Hawks ran for 365 yards and gained 520 total yards on offense, which should give fans some hope moving forward.

The second-stringers did not do at all what the coaches were hoping for, as Ferentz and co. had to run the first-stringers back out to seal the deal. This did, however, allow for Desmond King to earn his first interception of the season, which he returned for a touchdown.

Again, Iowa only won by 14, but taking into consideration what Blough did with the second team in during garbage time, it wasn’t anywhere near as close as it appears in the box score.

Hawks are 5-2 now. Up next: Wisconsin.