#16 Iowa 28, Nebraska 21: Black (and Gold) Magic

By RossWB on November 26, 2021 at 5:39 pm @rosswb
GO HEROES GO
© Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports
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Not gonna lie, friends: there were some moments today when I didn't feel great about Iowa's ability to make it seven straight wins in a row over Nebraska. The strongest moment of doubt came when Tyler Goodson fumbled the ball on a fluke play after running into Tyler Linderbaum when Iowa was mere yards away from -- maybe! hopefully! -- scoring their first touchdown of the day. Instead, Iowa's two best offensive players ran into each other, the ball squirted loose, and a Nebraska defense that had recovered only two fumbles all year picked up their third recovery of the season. That felt bad, but watching Nebraska drive down the field with ease on a 94-yard touchdown drive felt even worse. Logan Smothers' second touchdown run of the game gave Nebraska a 21-6 lead with 5:54 to play. The situation felt bleak. 

But then Nebraska remembered that they are, indeed, Nebraska. And it was time for them to start pissing all over themselves. Which they proceeded to do in glorious fashion. 

Iowa answered the Nebraska touchdown drive with a strong drive of their own, driving 57 yards on 10 plays and converting a pair of third downs before stalling out at the Nebraska 18-yard line. Caleb Shudak did what Caleb Shudak does -- coolly make field goals -- and Iowa chopped the Nebraska lead from 21-6 to 21-9. This decision didn't necessarily make a ton of sense at the time -- it took Iowa from a three-score deficit needing two touchdowns to... a two-score deficit that still needed two touchdowns. Granted, converting 4th-and-11 from the 18-yard line is not exactly a high percentage play, but it was unclear how many more scoring opportunities Iowa would have in the game.

But under Kirk Ferentz Iowa football has unshakable faith in the defense and special teams -- and this had also been a strange game in which Iowa had actually moved the ball reasonably well on offense. They only punted the ball twice for the entire game and their first five drives of the game all ended in Nebraska territory. The problem was their complete and utter inability to finish those drives with touchdowns; only two of those five drives even ended with points for Iowa, two other Shudak field goals. Of the remaining three drives, one drive (Iowa's first of the game) ended on a turnover on downs when a Sam LaPorta touchdown catch on fourth down was overturned on review*, another ended on a punt from the Nebraska 39-yard line, and the final drive was that aforementioned Goodson-Linderbaum fumble in the red zone drive. 

* Given that Iowa ended up winning, the officiating in this game can just be relegated to an awkward footnote. The officiating was, to put it mildly, not good; the overturn on the LaPorta touchdown was... controversial and the refs also completely missed what appeared to a pretty clear targeting call against Nebraska, as well as several seemingly obvious holding calls (including one where Jack Campbell was forcibly tackled to the ground). They also opted to only give a player a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for slapping a referee, when it would hardly have been controversial for that player to be ejected from the game. And that was all in the first half! Again: not a banner day for the guys (and gal) in striped shirts today. Given that all's well that ends well if you're a Hawkeye fan, though, we're not inclined to make much more of it than noting that it really would be nice if the Big Ten would get its shit together and hire some more competent officials. 

After seeing the offense stall out again and have to settle for another field goal, though, the defense and special teams seemingly decided that they were tired of waiting around and that they would just go ahead and make the game-changing plays that were going to be needed for a comeback to materialize. 

On the Nebraska drive following Shudak's third field goal, the Iowa defense finally stiffened and forced a three-and-out. And then, for the second week in a row, the Iowa special teams made a game-changing play. A week ago it was a 100-yard kickoff return for Charlie Jones to give Iowa a spark against Illinois. This week? A blocked punt by Henry Marchese that was recovered by Kyler Fisher and returned for a (badly needed) touchdown. 

BOOM. Give LeVar Woods #AllTheRaises. 

The defense kept up the pressure on Nebraska and Smothers, a true freshman QB who had calmly executed a very good Nebraska gameplan in the first half, began to crack. A bad exchange between Smothers and his running back put the ball on the ground, which Logan Lee fell on for a recovery. Unfortunately, the Iowa offense once again was unable to do anything to help the cause for an Iowa victory. They went three-and-out and lost two yards in a fairly pitiful display. But Iowa's special teams and defense teamed up for another big game-changing sequence. First Tory Taylor drilled a punt inside the Nebraska 10-yard line, putting the Huskers in rotten field position. Then, on second down of the ensuing drive, Smothers dropped back into the end zone, chased by Logan Lee. Smothers tried to get rid of the ball, but it was an easy intentional grounding call and an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone is an automatic safety. With little-to-no help from the offense, the Iowa special teams and defense had cut the Nebraska lead from 21-9 to 21-18. 

After the safety, Iowa got the ball at their own 38-yard line and put together a fairly standard drive for them in this game: good enough to move the ball into Nebraska territory, but not good enough to score a touchdown. This drive stalled out at the Nebraska 26-yard, but Caleb Shudak once again saved the day with his fourth field goal of the game, tying everything up at 21-21 in the fourth quarter. 

The defense came through again on the next drive, forcing another three-and-out for Nebraska and returning the ball to the Iowa offense with a tie game and the ball at the Iowa 24-yard line and almost six minutes to go. And then, wonder of wonders, the Iowa offense finished off a 15-point second half Hawkeye comeback by putting together a scoring drive that didn't end with a field goal -- it ended with an actual, honest-to-God offensive touchdown, scored by Spencer Petras on a 2-yard QB sneak. 

THE QB SNEAK IS BACK, BABY. 

That entire drive was set up by a 55-yard Tyler Goodson run, when he finally broke off the big run that he'd been threatening to hit for the entire game. 

The only downside to that drive was that Iowa actually scored a little too early, as they gave the ball back to Nebraska with three minutes to play. But Iowa's defense did some bending but no breaking, eventually forcing Smothers into a terrible decision that Jermari Harris gladly plucked out of the air for a game-clinching interception for Iowa. 

Game, set, match, Hawkeyes, for the seventh straight year in a row. What a beautifully dumb game. 

Additional thoughts: 

* This was a game of extremes for the Iowa defense. They had some of their worst drives of the entire season in the first 2.5 quarters, giving up touchdown drives that covered 75 yards (twice) and 94 yards. Nebraska's option-oriented attack did a superb job of spreading out Iowa's defense and picking up chunks of yards at a time. And when they weren't gobbling up 5-6 yards a pop on the ground, Smothers often had wide-open receivers to hit in the passing game. It's rare for the Iowa defense to look as lost as they did at several points during this game, but they didn't have good answers for what Nebraska was doing... until they did. After giving up that 94-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter, the Iowa defense forced two three-and-outs, a fumble, a safety, and a game-ending interception. That's the Iowa defense we know and love. 

* Iowa's offense was... I mean, we've watched 11 games before this, right? We knew what to expect. The one wrinkle was that Iowa was actually able to run the ball effectively today -- they finished with 186 yards on 37 carries, a 5.0 ypc average, and that included a pair of sacks on Alex Padilla. Tyler Goodson was a yardage machine, amassing a career-high 156 yards on 23 carries and consistently moving the chains for Iowa. The only mystery was why Iowa didn't run the ball more often; the run game looked consistently effective for Iowa today so it was bizarre that they passed the ball so often in the first half. 

* Alex Padilla made his third straight start for Iowa, but didn't finish the game for the Hawkeyes. Padilla went 6/14 for 76 yards (5.4 ypa) and no touchdowns and no interceptions and looked generally off. At least two of his passes could have been (should have been?) intercepted in the first half and even the passes he completed usually required the receiver to make difficult catches. A healthy Spencer Petras again took over at QB to start the second half, but he wasn't significantly more effective than Padilla -- he finished 7/13 for 102 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions, plus one rushing touchdown on the QB sneak. I don't think the switch was indefensible -- Padilla had struggled a lot against Illinois and those struggles continued in the first half today -- but Petras didn't exactly make an ironclad case to reclaim the QB1 job permanently. This debate should continue up to (and though?) Iowa's bowl game. 

* Thank God for Caleb Shudak.

* We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day

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BAH GAWD IOWA WON THE WEST AND IS GOING TO THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

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go hawks go
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