A much-hyped Saturday night showdown between #7 Penn State and #24 Iowa ended in a one-sided rout, as Penn State manhandled Iowa on offense and defense en route to an easy 31-0 victory.
The shutout marked the first time that Iowa had failed to score in a game since a 31-0 loss to Illinois on October 14, 2000, ending a 288-game scoring streak. The Iowa offense was held to just 76 yards for the game, its lowest total since accumulating only 66 yards against Wisconsin in a 38-14 loss.
Of the two halves, the first half was more successful -- barely. Iowa received the opening kickoff and picked up a first down on a 20-yard pass from Cade McNamara to Erick All that moved Iowa near midfield.
Little did anyone know that would be the highlight of the Iowa offense for the entire game. The drive stalled shortly after that and the Iowa punt pinned Penn State at their own 5-yard line.
The defense forced a quick three-and-out and Iowa took possession again near midfield after a 42-yard Penn State punt. For a brief moment, what Iowa needed to happen to have a chance to win the game was happening: the defense and special teams were working together to create short field opportunities for the offense.
The Iowa offense was able to take advantage of that opportunity too, at least for a few plays -- McNamara picked up 18 yards on a run, Leshon Williams added five more on another run, and All picked up 12 on another completion. Iowa was set to have a first down inside the red zone -- except All fumbled on that same completion. PSU recovered, and whatever momentum Iowa had evaporated.
Penn State proceeded to go on a 17-play, 53-yard drive after the turnover, driving to the Iowa 29 before settling for a 46-yard field goal from Alex Felkins. That drive was a harbinger of things to come in the game, though. Penn State patiently took what the Iowa defense gave them and steadily moved the ball down the field; the Nittany Lions only had two plays longer than 8 yards on that drive, but they had few negative yardage plays, either.
Iowa got the ball back after the PSU field goal, but whatever small amount of offensive mojo the Hawkeyes had was completely gone -- they gained seven yards on the drive and went three-and-out. That was the first of four consecutive three-and-outs for Iowa to end the first half. Iowa gained a total of four yards on 12 plays after All's first quarter fumble.
The Iowa defense held strong for the most part through the first half. Penn State gained a touchdown on a short field after a second Iowa turnover -- this time a poor PSU punt that ended up deflecting off an Iowa gunner and being recovered by PSU. But aside from that, the Iowa defense was able to force three punts and held the Nittany Lions to just 10 points in the half. Given everything that had gone wrong for Iowa in the first half, only being down 10-0 was a small piece of good news.
Unfortunately, there was no spirited comeback in the second half. The Iowa offense remained wholly ineffective. The Hawkeyes had four possessions after halftime: two ended in punts and two ended in strip-sack fumbles. All told, Iowa ran 12 plays in the second half and gained a total of 18 yards -- with basically all of those yards coming on a final garbage time drive.
The third quarter was a microcosm of the game: Iowa ran four plays for a total of -9 yards and possessed the ball for 1:34. Penn State ran 29 plays for a total of 136 yards and held the ball for 13:26. It was a shockingly one-sided quarter in what ended up being a wholly one-sided game.
Overall, Penn State ran 97 plays to Iowa's 33 plays. Penn State gained 397 yards to Iowa's 76 and had 27 first downs to Iowa's 4. Penn State finished the game with 45:27 of time of possession; Iowa held the ball for just 14:33.
To no one's surprise, the Iowa defense ran out of gas in the third quarter. They simply could not get stops or force turnovers against an incredibly patient and methodical Penn State offense. In the third quarter alone, Penn State had a 15-play scoring drive and a 12-play scoring drive. They also added an 8-play scoring drive on a short field and also had a 10-play drive end in a missed field goal at the end of the game.
Iowa was outplayed in every way in the game, aside from the punting. Tory Taylor was superb -- he punted seven times for 366 yards (a 52.3 yards per kick average), with four punts being downed inside the 20-yard line. In fact, two were downed inside the 10-yard line.
His effort went for naught, though, because nothing else worked for Iowa in this game. The offense hit a new low, even in a recent era of lows (this was the seventh time in the last 25 games that Iowa has failed to score at least 10 points), and the defense struggled to produce negative plays against Penn State's offense. Iowa turned the ball over four times (all lost fumbles) and forced zero turnovers. The end result was a 31-0 defeat and one of the most thorough defeats of the Kirk Ferentz Era.
