Northwestern Beats Iowa 17-10 in Historic Upset

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WOW.  Coach Fitzgerald notched his first "signature win" as the Northwestern Wildcats (6-4, 3-3) upended previously unbeaten and BCS No. 4 Iowa (9-1, 5-1) by a final score of 17-10 in Iowa City on Saturday, putting the Hawkeyes' Rose Bowl hopes in serious jeopardy.

It was a game dominated the the Wildcat defense, who finally met high preseason expectations, and featured a huge game-changing play by DE Corey Wootton as he sacked and stripped the ball from Iowa QB Ricky Stanzi in the end zone, which was recovered by NU for a touchdown.  Stanzi injured his ankle on the play and did not return, and the 'Cats took the momentum and ran from there, scoring 17 unanswered points and quashing Iowa's offense on the way to victory.

The game started off in ominous fashion for Northwestern football, with Iowa's third play from scrimmage going 74 yards for a touchdown (a Stanzi toss to WR Marvin McNutt) as NU's secondary coverage broke down.  On the Hawkeyes' second drive, they tacked on a field goal, and things didn't look promising for NU's upset bid.

Despite being down 10-0 with Iowa driving once again, NU took its fate into its own hands early in the second quarter.  CB Jordan Mabin grabbed an interception from Stanzi near midfield, and although NU didn't score on that drive, it allowed NU to punt and pin Iowa at their own six yard line and set up what would happen next.

After NU stuffed an Iowa run up the middle on first down, the Hawkeyes decided to run a play action naked bootleg on second down.  According to postgame interviews, DE Corey Wootton (who fully participated in all practices leading up to this week's game for the first time this season), recognized this play from film and knew the QB would be unprotected.

This knowledge directly led to one of the defining plays of the season, for Northwestern, Iowa, and the conference.  Wootton went directly after Stanzi, who was in the end zone, and made a solid, clean hit on him that forced a fumble and caused him to catch and sprain his ankle.  NU's Marshall Thomas recovered the ball for a touchdown and Stanzi would not return to the game due to his injury.

Northwestern cut the Iowa lead to three and Stanzi's loss put redshirt freshman James Vandenberg into the game at quarterback, a guy who had only played a handful of garbage-time snaps at the collegiate level.  He proved that on the next series as his very first pass attempt in the game was intercepted by NU LB Quentin Davie.
The Wildcats would then respond by driving in for a touchdown capped off by a Dan Persa touchdown pass to Iowa native WR Drake Dunsmore, giving the Wildcats a 14-10 lead.

Iowa would end a fourth consecutive drive in a turnover with a controversial Brandon Wegher fumble on the ensuing possession.  NU's Persa would throw an interception on the next drive, but the Wildcat defense would hold Iowa to a three-and-out as the 'Cats watched the clock tick down to zeros with NU holding a four point halftime lead.

As anyone who has followed college football in 2009 knows, Iowa has come back from deficits in eight of their previous nine games this season.  Those Hawkeye fans in attendance were eagerly awaiting another such comeback: One that would not come.

The Northwestern defense finally lived up to its preseason billing, holding Iowa to just 132 total yards after Stanzi's injury and allowed the Hawkeyes to enter NU territory just one time (which led to a missed 46 yard field goal in the third quarter).

Despite facing a team that prides itself on running the football and had done a good job of that on many occasions this season, NU held Iowa to just 65 net rushing yards (2.4 yards per carry) on the day.  This forced Iowa to try and pass the ball, something Vandenberg did not do very well, completing just one third of his 27 pass attempts.

Another wrinkle in the game came when Dan Persa injured his hand on a hit right after he made a throw in the second half.  Persa had been taking most of the snaps since Mike Kafka was playing through a hamstring injury and was obviously limited (Kafka had no QB runs outside of sacks and short QB sneaks).  This forced Kafka to come back in and either throw or hand off, taking a major piece of NU's attack (the QB run) away as NU looked to milk its lead.

But the 'Cats would put together one last scoring drive from the end of the third quarter into the early fourth, capped off by a 47 yard Stefan Demos field goal that put NU up by a more comfortable margin of seven.  The rest of the way, NU managed just two first downs, but that proved to be just enough to hold the lead until the clock struck zeros.

It might not have been pretty, but Coach Fitzgerald likely wouldn't have it any other way, as th

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