The flashback game was Iowa at Illinois in 1992 when the Hawkeyes beat the Fighting Illini 24-14.
Jim Hartlieb was the quarterback and he threw two touchdown passes, one to Harold Jasper and one to Allen Cross. Ryan Terry scored on a 12 yard run to start the Iowa scoring.
The defense was led by Doug Buch, who had interception against Illinois, Mike Wells and Bret Bielema, the current Illinois head coach.
The Hawkeyes would finish 5-7 that year.
I don’t know about you but I’m tired of night games.
Iowa plays three night games in their first six contests.
Especially when it’s on the road.
Last Saturday seemed like the longest day of the year.
I tried to watch Oklahoma-Texas until the Longhorns blew out the Sooners 49-0. Then I thought Northwestern would give Wisconsin a game…not, as the Badgers won 42-7 over the Wildcats. TCU-Kansas was a good game with TCU winning 38-31 and Michigan 31-10 over Indiana. Ohio State crunched Michigan State 49-20.
Finally it was Iowa at Illinois at 6:40.
Illinois 9 Iowa 6
To win ugly is one thing but to lose ugly is a whole different ball game.
Illinois lived up to its reputation of coming in with a good defense.
The Fighting Illini came into the Iowa game giving up 8.4 points per game which leads the nation. They were giving up an average of 70 yards rushing and 159 yards passing per game.
The Hawks scored six points, ran for 52 yards, and passed for 170.
I didn’t think the Illinois defense would be better than Michigan but the front seven put pressure on Iowa all night. Five sacks, six quarterback hurries, 11 tackles for a loss, and one interception is a good days work for the Fighting Illini.
Iowa Defense
The Hawkeyes have two preseason All Americans on their team.
Both Jack Campbell and Riley Moss played like All Americans.
Jack was all over the field leading Iowa with 13 tackles and he caught a ball after the Illinois punt returner coughed up the ball.
Riley Moss made a huge hit on the Illinois 14 on a pass in the flat and Seth Benson recovered on the Illini five.
Iowa couldn’t capitalize and had to settle for a field goal to tie the score at six going into halftime.
Quinn Schulte tied a career high with nine tackles and had his second interception of his career.
Illinois had a 2nd and goal on the Iowa four when Deonte Craig tipped a pass and
Quinn caught it going out of bounds on the Iowa one. The Hawkeyes didn’t have any sacks but John Waggoner, Noah Shannon, Kaevon Merriweather and Riley Moss all had tackles for a loss.
For the season, Iowa is giving up an average of 9.8 points, 111 yards on the ground and 154 yards passing.
The 9.8 points per game is third best in the nation.
Iowa Offense
I’ll tell you what…you can question Spencer Petras when it comes to his accuracy.
You can question Spencer when it comes to decision making but you can’t question Spencer’s toughness. The 6-5 senior from California was sacked five times and when he threw his first interception in three weeks, he was under big-time pressure.
Then, when he makes a nice scramble for a first down as he slid into the turf.
Illinois safety Sydney Brown took a cheap shot at Spencer knocking his head back while Spencer was on the ground. Not only was that targeting but I think Brown should have been kicked out for the rest of the season.
Okay, maybe for the remaining part of the game.
For the season, Spencer has been sacked 18 times for a minus 133 yards.
Against Illinois Spencer was 18-36 for 170 yards and one in interception.
Iowa only had three players catch passes last Saturday.
Sam LaPorta is playing like an All-Big Ten tight end leading the Hawks with nine receptions for 100 yards.
For the season, Sam has 30 catches for 278 yards with no touchdowns.
Nico Ragaini caught seven and Arland Bruce two, but no other Hawkeye caught a pass.
Arland and Nico are second and third on the team for the season with 14 and 13 catches, respectively. Four other Hawkeyes were thrown to, but none had a catch.
Iowa couldn’t get its running game going with Lashon Williams carrying seven times for 32 yards.
“Just a tough loss for us,” said head coach Kirk Ferentz. “Everyone in the locker room is disappointed right now. Both defenses played well but we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
Iowa scored on its first drive which is the team’s longest game opening drive of the season.
Iowa Special Teams
Drew Stevens picked a bad time to miss his first field goal, a 45 yard kick in the second quarter.
Drew had made six straight including going 2-2 from 40 or more yards.
Tory Taylor had seven punts for a 40.9 average including three inside the 20.
Kaleb Johnson had two kickoff returns for 44 yards.
Illinois had no kickoff or punt returns.
Iowa Wrap
The Hawks have a bye week but travel to Ohio State on October 22.
The Buckeyes might have the best overall team in the Big Ten.
Nobody said it would be easy.
