For the Iowa Hawkeyes, Eight Is Not Enough!

For the Iowa Hawkeyes, it was an ugly affair—traveling to East Lansing, playing in front of hostile fans demanding you go down to defeat. With all of that, you play poorly—in the sense that you cannot move the ball and you are unable to take the ball away from your opponents. 

The 15-13 Iowa victory on Saturday was one of those traditional Big Ten slugfests with “three-and-out” more often than not controlling the tempo of the game. The defense was suffocating and the offense sputtered—no matter who was controlling the ball.

In the first quarter, the Michigan State Spartans scored with a 34-yard field goal by Brett Swenson. Iowa answered in the second quarter with a 37-yard field goal by Daniel Murray. At halftime it was tied 3-3.  

In the third quarter, Swenson scored another field goal from 23 yards out, making the score 6-3. Daniel Murray equaled the challenge by kicking a field goal in the fourth quarter from 20 yards out and Iowa pulled even, 6-6.  

Then Murray put through another kick with 2:56 left on the clock—another 20-yarder, allowing Iowa to go up 9-6. The majority of the action for the entire game took place in the final three minutes, as Iowa took the lead for the first time.  

When Michigan State took possession of the ball after Iowa’s final field goal, all the Hawkeyes had to do was stop the Spartans from scoring. The Michigan State team needed a touchdown at this point to win this game—something they had been unable to accomplish for almost 60 minutes.

But it was exactly what the Spartans did with a bit of trickery. With a third down and 18 yards to go on their own 32-yard line, Kirk Cousins, the Michigan State quarterback, passed the ball 11 yards to Brian Lithicum, who then lateraled the football to Blair White. The stampede down the field ended as White was pushed out of bounds at the Iowa 20-yard line.

It was 1st-and-10 with 1:49 left on the clock. Michigan State took their last timeout. The first pass by Cousins was incomplete. On his second pass, Cousins found White in the end zone for a touchdown. With the point after, Michigan State now led 13-9. 

There was 1:37 left on the clock and Iowa took over on its own 30-yard line. Ricky Stanzi’s first pass to Marvin McNutt brought the team to the Iowa 45-yard line. After Stanzi picked up three yards on the ground, at 3rd-and-7, Stanzi threw downfield, finding Trey Stross for a 21-yard gain.

Standing on the Michigan State 31-yard line, on his second pass, Stanzi threw complete to Derrell Johnson-Koulianos on the Michigan State 15-yard line. It was a 16-yard completion.  

On the next play Michigan State seemingly intercepted, but flags flew and the Spartans were assessed half the distance to the goal for defensive pass interference for pushing Johnson-Koulianos.  

Stanzi threw three passes in rapid succession, all incomplete. With two seconds left on the clock, Iowa called timeout. On the last play from scrimmage, Stanzi threw a seven-yard pass completion on a slant pattern to McNutt, who hung on and scored as time elapsed. 

Iowa took a knee instead of kicking the extra point, winning the game by a 15-13 score.

"We got to the sideline and we figured we could beat them with this play," Stanzi said. "Marvin did a good job of getting inside. I was just worrying about that play. That's all you can really worry about."

This truly was a game of inches. It was highlighted by missed opportunities and rugged, aggressive defense. It was astoundingly error-free—no turnovers by either team.

"We have some resilient players on this team," Ferentz said. "What a great effort. It was a great drive by our offense. Our guys responded and they've been doing it all year. We've had some fantastic finishes, but the series of events the last two series...what a swing of emotions. Our guys always think there's a way to get it done. What a great play call by (offensive coordinator) Ken (O'Keefe)."

In total yardage, the Spartans held a 310-276 edge. Iowa had one more first down—18 to Michigan State’s 17. The Hawkeyes hung on to the ball for 32:02 minutes while the Spartans owned 27:58 minutes on the clock.

Iowa was dead even with 138 yards rushing and 138 yards passing, most of them in Iowa’s final drive. The Spartans gained 225 yards in the air and 85 on the ground. Iowa went 5-for-15 on third-down conversions while Michigan State went 5-for-14. Iowa had one fourth-down conversion—the final play of the game.  

True freshman running back Adam Robinson was the workhorse on offense, gaining 109 yards rushing on 27 carries—his longest of the evening was 14 yards.

Iowa moves to 8-0 on the season, 12-0 overall, making the school’s winning streak the second longest in the nation.

Iowa gets its next two opponents at home; first Indiana, then Northwestern. The opportunity to end the year undefeated looms large yet indistinct because, on Nov. 14, Iowa must travel to Columbus to face the Ohio State Buckeyes for all the marbles.

In the meantime, the Iowa team and the Iowa faithful need a week to recoup from that major effort in East Lansing, when the easiest course of action would have been to give up. But when you are standing toe to toe against a big guy with a large fist, your instincts tell you to duck and counter.  

Exactly. That is what you do when you know that lying on your face with your nose ground into the turf isn’t why you came to the party. You live to fight another day by standing up to opposition in the trenches and doing whatever it takes to win—whether folks think it looks pretty or not.  

Iowa, at 8-0, looks pretty—and darn impressive...

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Quotes taken from the University of Iowa's official athletic site @hawkeyesports.com—Final Play Fury