IowaSim21: Iowa vs. Northwestern

Join us as we follow the great Cody Hills and his #IowaSim21 this season to preview each game as the Hawkeyes work their way through the 2021 schedule.

Since Cody started the #IowaSim in 2013, it is 80-19 in correctly picking the winner of each week's game.

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With Iowa winning the coin toss and electing to receive, it was the Hawkeye offense on the field first at Ryan Field in Evanston.

On their opening drive, Iowa was able to advance the ball from the 23-yard line to around midfield before back to back sacks led to a fourth and long. On came punter Tory Taylor, who booted it 47 yards down to the Northwestern 18-yard line.

Northwestern's offense, led by quarterback Ryan Hilinski, took the field for their first possession of the game. But on his very first pass attempt, Hilinski was picked off by Iowa cornerback Matt Hankins over the middle and with the return the Hawkeyes took over at the 19-yard line with 4:22 to play in the first quarter.

From there, the Iowa offense was able to get the running game going with Tyler Goodson leading the charge and eventually he found the end zone for a two-yard touchdown.

With the PAT good from Caleb Shudak, the Hawkeyes took an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

The score remained at 7-0 at the end of the first quarter with Northwestern's offense on the move. Luckily, for the Hawkeye defense, the Wildcats were pushed out of the red zone after a Seth Benson sack, which led to a field goal attempt.

On came Northwestern's Charlie Kuhbander and his kick was good from 41 yards to cut the Iowa lead down to 7-3.

As Iowa got the ball back, quarterback Spencer Petras stayed hot as he was now 5/5 passing and hit wide receiver Keagan Johnson for a big gain over the middle to put the Hawkeyes in field goal range.

That eventually led to a 36-yard field goal from Shudak, which gave the Hawkeyes a 10-3 lead with 3:35 remaining in the second quarter.

That is what the score stayed going into the locker rooms for halftime with Iowa clinging to a 10-3 lead on the road at Northwestern.

With Northwestern set to receive to open the second half, the Wildcats were anxious to get their offense going and make a comeback, but the Hawkeye defense had different ideas.

As Hilinski dropped back to pass and looked for tight end Charlie Mangieri, it was Iowa linebacker Seth Benson cutting underneath the route to pick it off and he returned it 27 yards for a Hawkeye touchdown.

With Shudak's PAT good, Iowa took a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter.

Now with a comfortable lead, the Iowa defense did a lot of bending but not breaking on Northwestern's next possession with the Wildcats eventually settling for a field goal attempt.

This time it was a 36-yard kick from Charlie Kuhbander, which was good to make the score Iowa 17, Northwestern 6 with 5:36 remaining in the third quarter.

That is where the score remained at the end of the third quarter with Iowa holding onto a 17-6 lead.

With another Keagan Johnson completion putting the Hawkeyes in the red zone, it looked like Iowa would be adding to their lead, but then Petras was intercepted by cornerback Cameron Mitchell in the back corner of the end zone to end the drive.

Northwestern's offense was still not able to get much going on their next possession and a sack by Jack Campbell on third down left them no choice but to punt it back to the Hawkeyes with 5:54 remaining on the clock.

Keeping the ball on the ground to run some clock, Iowa's offense went three and out and punted the ball right back to Northwestern.

With the Wildcats in hurry up mode and finally moving the ball, it was Iowa cornerback Matt Hankins that came up with another big play, intercepting Hilinski for the second time to basically seal the game for the Hawkeyes.

With a strong defensive effort that included six sacks and three interceptions, the virtual Iowa Hawkeyes left Evanston with a 17-6 win over Big Ten West foe Northwestern.

Linebacker Seth Benson was named player of the game after finishing with eight tackles, four tackles for loss, a sack, and an interception that he returned for a touchdown.

Final score: Iowa 17, Northwestern 6.