On Saturday Night, No. 19 Iowa hit the road to play Northwestern at New Ryan Field in the stadium’s inaugural season. The Hawkeyes entered off a dominant shutout victory over Wisconsin, a performance that they intended to repeat against the Wildcats. Northwestern had been gaining attention throughout the season, as they had a 6-1 record and were ranked as high as 18th at one point. But adversity struck quickly, as they suffered a loss to Oregon last week and came into the Iowa game without starting quarterback Aidan Chiles. This game on paper looked close — but it was quietly all Iowa in practice.
Hank Brown and the offense came out swinging in the first half with a similar start to last week, as the opening possession of the game resulted in a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Quarterback Hank Brown capped it off with a third-and-3 quarterback draw, where he slipped past the defensive line and ran into the endzone untouched from 21 yards out. On another drive that bled into the second quarter, offensive coordinator Tim Lester’s offense marched 97 yards downfield, ending on a beautiful Brown pass over the top of the Northwestern defense to Tony Diaz. His 24-yard TD gave the Hawks a 14-0 lead. Brown had a second consecutive efficient week, going 16-for-21 for 126 yards and two total touchdowns with an interception. While the offense stepped off the gas pedal in the second half, they continue to display flashes of greatness. This is now the third week in a row Iowa has logged a scoring drive of more than 90 yards. If they can play a full game to that level of efficiency, there’s no telling what the limits of this team are.
But it wasn’t just Hank Brown behind their success against Northwestern. L.J. Phillips Jr. had his breakout performance with Iowa this weekend. The bruising runner played three seasons with the South Dakota Coyotes of the FCS, where he had a near 2,000-yard season his junior year while scoring 19 touchdowns. Those numbers caught the eyes of FBS teams, and he transferred to Iowa ahead of his senior year. He came into the year looking to be a solid second option behind Kamari Moulton, but Phillips had been held back by injuries, missing three games this year. Now with Moulton out for the season, Phillips stepped into a much more important role. Against Northwestern, he was the bell cow back, averaging 6.1 yards per carry on 21 attempts. In addition to 128 rushing yards, he also added another two catches for 14 yards. His best run of the night came as part of that 97-yard scoring drive in the second quarter, where he took a handoff up the middle for 45 yards, also delivering a mean stiff arm to a defender. Ever since Moulton went down, the Hawkeye coaching staff has rotated who the workhorse back has been each week. Phillips rested his case in Chicago, having the biggest impact of any Iowa skill position player.
Meanwhile, Phil Parker and his defense had another great showing. Chip Kelly’s Northwestern offense utilizes the running ability of Aidan Chiles, but even with him out, they weren’t afraid to run it with backup Nicco Marchiol. While he had 52 yards on the ground, it came at just an average of 2.3 yards per carry. Neither of Northwestern’s running backs could get much going either. Marchiol was under pressure all game, sacked by six different Hawkeyes. Overall, the Wildcats went just 1/11 on third downs and were shut out in the first half. Iowa’s top two tacklers were, you guessed it, Cam Buffington and Jayden Montgomery. The two-headed monsters at linebacker combined for 21 tackles.
The Wildcats found life in the third quarter after Robert Fitzgerald picked off a Hank Brown underthrow. They went on to put together their first score of the night on a 45-yard field goal from Jackson Kleather. The game sat on the border of competitive, but Braeden Jackson had other plans. Fielding the ensuing kickoff from his own 4, Jackson weaved and dashed through the Wildcats’ special teams unit and ran it all the way for a 96-yard kick return touchdown, pushing Iowa back out ahead 21-3. It was Jackson’s second kick return score of the year, as the former high school track star continues to make a name for himself in his sophomore campaign. As soon as Northwestern saw the tiniest glimpse of hope, Jackson crushed it.
The Wildcats had one last chance to make it a game early in the fourth quarter. Marchiol had a great escape from pressure on a fourth-and-8 in the red zone before making an off-balance throw to Griffin Wilde, but the wideout dropped the easy touchdown, as Iowa caught a lucky break with a turnover on downs. From there, they whittled off seven minutes of clock. It could have been even more if not for a Tony Diaz fumble. Northwestern finally found the endzone with under two minutes to play, but it was too little, too late as the Hawks recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock from there, completing the 24-10 victory.
Having won back-to-back games since the Minnesota loss, Iowa is sneakily climbing back up the rankings. With three manageable contests left on the schedule and the Big Ten getting even tighter, you have to wonder where Iowa will find themselves come December. Next week, they play under the lights at home against the Purdue Boilermakers, with ambitions of running the table.
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