Hawkeyes lone unbeaten left in Big Ten
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MADISON, Wis. - And so the trend continues with this Iowa football team.
With their 20-10 win over Wisconsin, and No. 7 Ohio State's 26-18 loss at Purdue, the 11th-ranked Hawkeyes are now the Big Ten's lone unbeaten team in conference play, improving to 3-0 in the Big Ten, as well as 7-0 overall.
This victory also extends Iowa's current winning streak to 11 straight, dating back to last season.
"We take a lot of pride in being able to come in and get the victory today," senior linebacker A.J. Edds said. "We knew it would be a battle, and that's exactly what it was."
Like most of the Hawkeyes' games have played out this season, Iowa found itself in a 10-0 hole late in the second quarter. With a 3-0 lead, the Badgers started a drive on their own eight-yard line and proceeded to march 92 yards, with running back Montee Ball's 10-yard touchdown run putting Wisconsin ahead, 10-0.
But from there, the Hawkeyes dominated.
Just before halftime, junior wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos recorded a 34-yard reception that would set up Iowa's first points of the afternoon when kicker Daniel Murray would hit a 37-yard field goal to cut the Wisconsin lead to seven points going into the locker room. The catch was one of eight receptions for Johnson-Koulianos, tying a career-high he set in 2007 against Northwestern.
Then after junior cornerback Amari Spievey recorded his first interception of the season on the Badgers' opening drive of the third quarter, Iowa responded back with a game-tying 24-yard touchdown from the arm of quarterback Ricky Stanzi to the hands of tight end Tony Moeaki.
Stanzi finished the game 17-of-23 passing for 218 yards, that touchdown strike to Moeaki, and perhaps most significantly, no interceptions. Moeaki's touchdown was one of three receptions accumulating 55 yards for the 6-4 senior.
Late in the third quarter, a Stanzi fumble recovered by the Badgers set Wisconsin's offense to seize momentum and take the lead. However, kicker Phillip Welch would miss from 38 yards away, keeping the game tied at 10-10.
On the ensuing series, the Hawkeyes managed to go 79 yards down field and eventually took a lead they would never relinquish when redshirt freshman running back Adam Robinson scored from 10 yards away to make it 17-10 in favor of Iowa.
"I just saw an opening," Robinson said about his game-winning score. "My offensive line did a great job blocking, and my tight end Allen Reisner did a great job blocking. I just saw two defenders, kind of made one miss, then lowered the shoulder and got into the end zone."
Meanwhile, the Iowa defense did its part, only surrendering 111 yards of total offense to the Badgers in the second half.
"We just continued to play gap-control defense," said senior linebacker Pat Angerer, who led Iowa with nine tackles. "We were losing leverage on the ball, and we started doing that more, and it helped us out."
The Hawkeyes would seal the victory with a career-long 48-yard field goal from kicker Daniel Murray, and two interceptions from Edds and Spievey, again.
"Our players do a good job of regrouping when things go tough, and it was going tough," Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. "Our players really boded up and played well in that second half and gave us a chance to win."
Now at 7-0, Iowa concludes its two-game road trip on Oct. 24, when it returns to East Lansing, Mich., for the second straight year to face Michigan State. Kickoff from Spartan Stadium is set for 6 p.m., Central, and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
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