Iowa holds their own against Wisconsin

Deal tried to dive onto the ball, but Iowa recovered to end Wisconsin’s best chance to score in the fourth quarter.

“Once our offense couldn’t get anything done, we knew the game was going to be on our defense”, said King, the Iowa cornerback who had two interceptions and has five on the season. Rather than kick a 25-yard field goal attempt, the Hawkeyes passed on fourth down but quarterback C.J. Beathard’s attempt fell incomplete. In receiving, Tevaun Smith had 115 yards and one touchdown in four receptions while George Kittle added 62 yards and one touchdown in two receptions.

It wasn’t pretty, but with the 10-6 victory over the Badgers, the Hawkeyes served notice that they are a force to be reckoned with in the Big Ten West, and head coach Kirk Ferentz wasn’t quite ready to be shoved on his way yet.

These Hawkeyes improved to 5-0 Saturday with a no-frills-attached 10-6 win at No. 19 Wisconsin.

In a black-and-blue battle, Wisconsin turned the ball over four times, including twice over a span of a little more than two minutes in the second quarter that led the Hawkeyes to all of the points they would need. Iowa’s drive to start the second half went nowhere and Wisconsin took over, driving down to the Iowa 32. Stave threw a second-quarter interception that led to an Iowa touchdown, then promptly lost a fumble on the first play of Wisconsin’s next possession.

Wisconsin scored its only points on a pair of 46-yard field goals by Rafael Gaglianone in the first and third quarters.

After forcing an Iowa fumble, Wisconsin got the ball and drove into the Iowa red zone. Michael Caputo picking off Beathard ended in a Wisconsin field goal.

Starting almost at midfield on their own 47, the Stave drove the offense to Iowa’s 16-yard line in seven plays – including a huge 26-yard completion to redshirt junior wide receiver Reggie Love to move the chains to the Iowa 24. Erickson was injured after a catch at 13:08 of the third quarter, and went to the locker room to be put through concussion procedures. Defensively, Iowa yields 210.8 yards in passing and 84.0 yards in rushing. That’s something you can’t let happen down in that area, ” Stave said.

Stave said one of his linemen stepped on his foot just after the snap. “It was a disappointing play”.

In the second quarter, Iowa’s defense made two critical plays to gain momentum going into halftime. Koehn had a 57-yard field goal as time expired two weeks ago in Iowa’s 27-24 home win against Pitt. “Those are things that all help build a football team, if the team has the right attitude”. He also had five quarterback hurries.

Instead Iowa came away with the Heartland Trophy, collecting the bronze bull for the first time since a win at Camp Randall Stadium in 2009. The Badgers rushed for 86 yards and 2.5 yards per carry, and that performance won’t stack up well against league opponents. For the season, it is 13-for-15 on short third-down conversions and 13-for-48 on everything else. Wisconsin had not allowed a touchdown in 215 minutes, three seconds, going back to the fourth quarter of Wisconsin’s loss against Alabama on September 5…. Jim Oxley photo Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Joe Schobert holds up the football after he recovered a fumble on his own strip sack.