At this point, everybody knows about the crazy week that took place in Iowa City. All Big Ten left tackle Brandon Scherff had his knee scoped, and defensive end Drew Ott was involved in a scooter accident.
All week there were question in the air whether these two key contributors would be able to play against the Iowa State Cyclones, if at all for the Hawkeyes. At 2:40 pm Saturday, when the 70,858 fans in attendance at Kinnick Stadium saw those two take the field to Back in Black, that crazy week tuned into optimism.
The Hawkeye offense lead by quarterback Jake Rudock were moving the ball, scoring two first half touchdowns and controlling the ball for over twenty minutes. The Hawkeyes had a 14-3 lead at halftime over the Cyclones, but anybody who knows this rivalry acknowledges Iowa State wasn’t going away easy.
In fact, the Cyclone defense came out and caused some havoc for the Hawkeyes. The Cyclone defense came out and continued to stop the Iowa rushing attack, and caused difficulty for Iowa’s passing game, holding Iowa to only three points in the second half and taking the Cy-Hawk trophy back to Ames for the 17-14 victory.
“They (Iowa State) came out in the second half and played better then us. We need to learn how to finish like we did the last few weeks,” Scherff said.
Three of four Iowa’s second half drives ended in an interception and two punts. Iowa just couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively.
“That seemed to be the story of the game. We did a decent job in the first half. Second half we just never got in the traction” said Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz.
As much as Iowa wanted to win this game, they still have Pittsburgh next week, and the Big Ten season ahead.
“You only have one choice, you go back to work and you’ve got to work and you’ve got to work to improve,” said Ferentz. “We still have a lot of football a head of us.”
The Hawkeyes (2-1) travel to Pittsburgh (3-0) to take on the Panthers at 11:00am.
