Iowa 41, Penn State 21: Sargent, at Arm’s Length

Your Iowa Hawkeyes took a bleach hose to Penn State’s spotless 0-4 record and wiped a big ‘ol 5 on there in a 41-21 win over the Nots Nits.

The win made for Kirk Ferentz’s 100th Big Ten victory, moving him up to No. 4 in conference win totals all-time.

Penn State’s Will Levis got the ball to start the game. But Chauncey Golston and the rest of Iowa’s defensive line made sure he was going to have a very Bad Time. Penn State had to punt after some mild success and gave Iowa’s offense its first chance of the day.

The Hawkeyes moved the ball well enough to put Keith Duncan within striking distance, and Iowa was near an insurmountable lead of 3-0 early on.

State went 75 yards on 14 plays to take the lead on the ensuing drive, topped off by a six yard-scamper by Keyvone Lee.

Iowa answered and took the bull by the horns 2 ½ minutes later after Tyler Goodson juked it in for his first score of the game. Chunk runs from Mekhi Sargent, and nice gains from Sam LaPorta and Tyrone Tracy helped Iowa go 75 yards in such a short time.

Zach VanValkenburg recovered a fumble at midfield a couple drives later to give Iowa a short field again. A 26 yard catch and run for Nico Ragaini let Iowa’s offensive line will Sargent back into the end zone, 17-7 good guys.

What felt like the defining moment of the game happened with just 42 seconds left in the half. Recovering the ball at midfield after a turnover on downs, Iowa often just runs this thing away, even with three timeouts left.

Instead, a series of passes to Goodson, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, and Ragaini set up another short score for Sargent with 11 seconds left in the half. 24-7 good guys.

Iowa laid an egg on the opening possession of the second half thanks to back to back sacks taken by Petras, but Dane Belton forced a fumble on the first play of Penn State’s drive, giving Iowa’s offense a chance to put this thing to bed with over 25 minutes left to play.

A defensive holding call helped Iowa get the ball at Penn State’s 37. Chunk runs from Goodson and some nice short passes to Brandon Smith and Sam LaPorta set up a sexy little QB sneak on 3rd and 1 at the 4 yard line to give Iowa a 24 point lead.

Jack Campbell sacked Levis on third down of the ensuing Penn State drive, further solidifying this surly bloggers confidence in the game.

However, Petras fumbled the snap from Matt Millen’s favorite player two plays later, and Penn State got the ball back on its own 28 yard line.

Levis gave Sean Clifford the right to get his job back, annnnd well one pass to Brenton Strange and 8 seconds is all it took to keep the Nits optically alive.

A missed 50-yarder from Keith Duncan gave Clifford the ball back 4 minutes later. One 68-yard pass to Jahan Dotson left Iowa’s secondary in the dust and all of a sudden this became a 10 point game after a successful 2-point conversion.

At this moment in time, Clifford had a passer rating of 833.2.

But I never doubted Iowa you cowards.

Clifford eventually threw a ball that got tipped at the line and fell into Golston’s hands. Iowa scored three points off of that turnover, and was back to a 13-point lead with 7 minutes to play.

Penn State punted after running 8 plays to nowhere and one play into Golston. It seemed like a surrender punt from Penn State down 13 with 3 minutes to play, and that’s because it was. Even though Iowa kinda laid a turd on a drive where it could’ve put it away, going 3 yards in as many plays. But in Phil we trust for a reason.

Creative blitzes, nice coverages, a lack of timeouts and general football acumen wasn’t all the Nits were going against.

They don’t have themselves a Daviyon Nixon.

The rest of the game was without controversy, and your Iowa Hawkeyes are on a three game win streak.

• If you know how someone can weigh 330 lbs on a vegan diet, please explain in the comments.
• Give Monte Pottebaum the MVP already you cowards.
• Daviyon Nixon and Jack Heflin terrorized the middle today. Nixon also blocked a PAT, I believe.
• It felt like Iowa should’ve ran the ball even more than it already did. Still, Sargent had himself 101 yards on just 15 carries, while Goodson racked up 78 on 20 touched.
• Spencer Petras missed some guys. He also threw a pass right into a Penn State defender’s hands. But he didn’t give the game away when it really mattered. Though I got Padilla-related texts from across the country before the half.
• Jack Campbell, and really most of Iowa’s defense had itself a very nice game outside two big brain farts.
• And the podcast!