Iowa Hawkeyes 42, Indiana Hoosiers 16: HOOSIER DADDY!?

Just as a reminder, I write all of this in real time and I don’t edit before posting because editing is for Monday’s. Be nice.

It’s a chilly, sleepy afternoon in Bloomington (and in the greater Philadelphia area if I’m being honest) and like me, the Hoosier faithful decided to stay home and watch this Beth Mowins special from their couches:

While Corso picked his head, Iowa won the opening coin toss and differed to the second half. I hope this doesn’t mean New Kirk was left in Iowa City. After a few quick hits from the Hoosiers, Iowa forced Indiana into a third and short when Peyton Ramsey fumbled the handoff. The ball ricocheted about on the turf and the Hoosiers recovered for a first down. The Hoosiers would then make all the way down to Iowa’s 14-yard line and before the Hawkeyes defense shut down a 3rd and four run play to force the field goal.

3-0, Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers.

On Iowa’s first drive of the game, you could see early that Brian and Kirk were ready and willing to take their shots and match the tempo against Indiana’s man-up defense. After two pass interfences and another HUGE Brandon Smith catch that got every single Iowa fan giddy, Iowa wound up with a first-and goal. Nate Stanley found TJ Hockenson (who killed a man earlier in the drive) in the end zone for the first touchdown of the day:

7-3, Iowa. What a throw. What a better catch. Also, didn’t it seem like Stanley checked out of that play to throw the seam?

After a Maui sack on Ramsey on third-and-long on Indiana’s second drive of the game, the Hoosiers had to punt deep in their own territory and pushed Iowa back to their own 30. After grinding their way to the Indiana 30-yard line behind a strong and shifty Toren Young, the Hawkeyes faced a sizable 3rd-and-2. Rather than running the football, Brian elected to take a shot down field to Brandon Smith that fell incomplete. And then New Kirk came out to play, and Iowa converted on fourth down.

After stalling out after a few more questionable passing plays, Stanley would eventually find a hobbled Noah Fant in the endzone for his sixth touchdown of the season:

14-3, everyone eats at Tight End U.

After a Nate Stanley pick on a drive that looked like it would be the knockout blow Iowa needed to get to next week before halftime, Ramsey finds Ty Fryfogle (which sounds like a made up name) for a 33-yard touchdown on, you guessed it, Riley Moss.

14-10, and I’m having Stanzi flashbacks.

On the pursuing kick off, I was on Twitter and was going to complain about this ongoing Riley Moss experiment when Ihmir Smith-Marsette went all human joystick and did this:

NO NO NO NO NO, YES YES YES YES YES!

A few plays later, including Mekhi Sargent using the circle button to gain some extra yardage on quick hitter, Stanley would escape what should’ve been a sure fire sack to find Nick Easley wide open in the endzone for six. I don’t know what world I’m in anymore with this Iowa team.

21-10, Iowa is a Big 12 team now.

Some other stuff happened, Iowa stopped Indiana on 4th-and-1 in their own territory, they tried moving the ball into field goal territory but took way to long and we enter the half 21-10, all Iowa.

---

Iowa got the ball back to open up the second half and took right back over where they left off. After driving the length of the field again, Stanley found Toren Young for his fourth touchdown to four different receivers in a game for the second week in a row.

28-10 and Iowa’s offensive line is controlling this game. If Iowa doesn’t give the ball away and the defense continues to play like they have, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Indiana to come back.

After some DOPE Romeo Langford highlights — because we got to that point in the game where the ESPN2 crew has said everything they can possibly say about Indiana football so they have to talk about Indiana Basketball — Nate Stanley found Hockenson for yet another long touchdown pass.

Dallas Clarky, no?

It’s amazing what happens when Iowa uses both of their tight ends as much as humanly possible. They create so many mismatches in the running and passing game, that Stanley should be able to flip plays based on what the defense is showing (like he did earlier on Hock’s first touchdown).

35-10, Iowa. Hock has two touchdowns. Stanley has five. This game is over. I’m opening up a Yuengling.

I shouldn’t have done that. After a defensive pass interference from Michael Ojemudia — who I thought was missing somewhere in Iowa City — Ramsey scampers for a 12-yard touchdown run. Indiana tried to go for two and the opportunity was no good.

35-16 with 5:55 left in the third and it would be awesome if we’d just pump Young and Sargent on a nice, long touchdown drive on this next Iowa possession. But at the same time (as the great @DaveCreagh said), it’s hard to eat up clock when you’re getting chunk yards and that’s exactly what Iowa’s been doing all game.

Minutes into the fourth quarter, Indiana found themselves in the redzone once again against an Iowa defense that looked as if they were already on the bus. On second down, Geno Stone followed Ramsey’s eyes as he made his progression and picked him off in the endzone. Ramsey was 7-7 on the drive up to that point. Iowa takes over at their own 20-yard line with a little over 13-minutes left.

Like they have done all game, Iowa moved down the field in large chunks (including another long pass to Fant) and eventually punched it in, only this time it didn’t go to a tight end for Stanley’s sixth TD pass of the game. No sir. Iowa got fullback Austin Kelly involved on a play action boot.

42-16, Iowa. They were only favored by 4.5 this morning...so disrespectful.

On what would be the last drive of the game for Indiana, Ramsey would drive down the field in front of the ultimate bend-but-don’t-break Iowa defense. Once the Hoosiers got into the redzone again, Iowa clamped down forcing them to go for it on fourth down. Ramsey had nothing but a wide open Jake Gervase.

Iowa wins.

On to Maryland.

Go Hawks.