If someone told you before bowl season began that a team would win 21-0 despite going 0/11 on third downs and asked you who that team was, how fast would it have taken you to say "Iowa"? Kirk Ferentz & Co. engineered another Hawkeye Devil Magic performance for the record books on Saturday afternoon, as the Iowa defense swallowed up Kentucky en route to an easy 21-0 victory in the Music City Bowl.
When we say this was a performance for the record books... we're not really kidding. Kentucky punted a Music City Bowl-record 10 times (the most punts by any team in any bowl game since 2018) and Iowa... well, Iowa did this:
Iowa finished with 206 yards of offense -- and they needed 24 yards on the final, extremely meaningless drive of the game to top the 200-yard mark. In fact, they amassed 68 yards on their final two meaningless, run-the-clock-out drives of the game -- almost one-third of their total for the game. Iowa was sitting at roughly 140 yards halfway through the fourth quarter... and yet the outcome of this game never really felt in doubt.
In fact, if you wanted to call every possession meaningless after Iowa went up 14-0 in the second quarter, you wouldn't get much argument from us. Iowa's 7-0 lead already felt pretty insurmountable with the way the Iowa defense was swarming all over Kentucky, but there was at least the possibility of a turnover or fluke big play managing to tie the game. At 14-0 that was pretty much off the table.
The stars of the game were, as usual, the Iowa defense and special teams. Kentucky ran 21 more plays than Iowa -- but gained 21 fewer yards and averaged a miserable 2.7 yards per play. As noted in the preview, this was a Kentucky offense that wasn't particularly potent all season -- and then lost its starting quarterback, top two running backs, and several other skill position players in the lead-up to the Music City Bowl. Iowa's defense took full advantage of their inexperience, though, dialing up pressure to harass QB Destin Wade (16/30, 98 yards, 2 INT) and force him into mistakes. Iowa's front seven absolutely feasted -- they racked up nine TFL and three sacks, led by Deontae Craig, who was a monster off the edge with 3.5 TFL and a sack.
Butkus Award-winner and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week Jack Campbell made sure his final appearance as a Hawkeye was a memorable one, too, going off for a team-high 10 tackles, including two TFL and a sack. He was anywhere and everywhere Iowa needed him to be all game long. His presence in the middle of Iowa's defense will be sorely missed next season.
Iowa's secondary made sure the front seven didn't get all the glory, though. Xavier Nwankpa, Cooper DeJean, and Sebastian Castro all had standout performances in the defensive backfield and turned this game into a rout in the second quarter. Nwankpa, making his first career start, got things started with a picture-perfect pick-six seconds early in the second quarter:
He finished the game with 8 tackles, an interception, and a pass break-up in what was instantly a star-making performance. Kaevon Merriweather was excellent for Iowa this season -- but the Hawkeyes didn't miss a beat with Nwankpa replacing him today.
Cooper DeJean erased doubt in the game's status as a competitive fixture with a pick-six shortly before halftime:
That was probably the easiest interception and touchdown DeJean will ever have at Iowa. He read the quarterback's eyes perfectly, timed his jump expertly, and the rest was just a stroll into the end zone. That was DeJean's third pick-six of the season, which is a new Iowa single-season record -- and ties him with Riley Moss, Desmond King, and Tom Knight for the Iowa career record. Reminder: he's only a sophomore. DeJean finished the game with 7 tackles, a TFL, that interception, and a pass break-up -- and that doesn't even factor in his also stellar play on punt coverage (he downed one Tory Taylor punt inside the 2-yard line) or punt returns (3 returns for 42 yards).
Finally, Sebastian Castro was another player who looked like he'd taken a big step forward during bowl prep -- and looks like the next potential standout for Iowa at the "cash" position. He finished the game with 5 tackles, a TFL, a sack, and two pass break-ups and was consistently in the right position to make plays all game long. His reading of the game looks much improved from even a month ago; it certainly seemed like the game has slowed down for him. That's typically when Iowa defensive backs make their biggest jumps, so the future seems very bright for Castro -- and for Iowa's entire secondary, which returns everyone from today's game except Riley Moss.
Let's not overlook the efforts of the special teams units, either. Tory Taylor has been magnificent all season, but he was just about flawless today, blistering punt after punt deep into Kentucky territory. His eight punts averaged 48.3 yards per kick, with three going 50+ yards. Six of those eight punts were deposited inside the 20-yard line and Kentucky started three drives inside their own 10-yard line. Taylor's punts (and the stellar play of Iowa's coverage units) helped tilt the field in Iowa's direction in the first half and win the field position battle; Iowa started three consecutive drives at their own 40-yard line or better (including two that started on the Kentucky side of the field). That culminated in Iowa's first breakthrough in the game, a two-play, 42-yard scoring "drive" that gave Iowa a 7-0 lead.
Speaking of that play, let's talk about the offense. If there is one sour note in this Iowa performance it came from the usual suspect: the offense. We covered the big picture stats -- 206 yards of total offense, 0/11 on third downs -- already. Joe Labas replaced Spencer Petras (and Alex Padilla) under center and while the details looked slightly different (Iowa called multiple designed runs for Labas, who ran for 17 yards on those plays), the end result looked very familiar. As expected, the passing game revolved around the tight ends -- Sam LaPorta had 5 receptions for 56 yards and Luke Lachey had 3 catches for 36 yards, including Iowa's only offensive touchdown of the game -- with a variety of tight end screens and crossing routes on call. Labas, to his credit, executed those plays well and also avoided any critical mistakes -- the only way Iowa could lose this game was via meltdowns or miscues on offense and he did well to avoid those bad plays. Iowa's run game was generally ineffective -- 67 yards on 24 carries (2.8 yards per carry), including sack yardage -- minus some late-game bursts from freshman Jaziun Patterson, with the offensive line consistently falling to open holes or maintain blocks for Iowa's runners.
I don't want to belabor the struggles of the offense too much at this point -- we have all offseason to gnash our teeth and rend garments about that side of the ball -- and this was, overall, a pretty fun bowl victory. But it's both amusing and frustrating to see announcers, commentators, and observers point out the panoply of "weird football" stats regarding Iowa football -- it's beyond impressive that Iowa finds ways to win so many games despite fielding an offense as threatening as a wet paper bag. It's also beyond frustrating, since adding even an average offense to this defense and special teams would result in a team that could regularly win 10-11 games and perhaps challenge for Big Ten titles (and more).
But a 21-0 win in the Music City Bowl -- the first shutout win in a bowl game by a Big Ten team since 1999 and Iowa's first shoutout bowl win since the 1996 Alamo Bowl (27-0 Iowa over Texas Tech, in Hayden Fry's second-to-last bowl game at Iowa) -- is a nice way to wrap up a season that was always weird and often frustrating. It's a great day to be Hawkeye.
GO IOWA AWESOME.
