The No. 9 Hawkeyes defeated the Hoosiers 35-27 on Nov. 7 in Bloomington, Indiana.
By Jordan Hansen
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For only the second time in school history, the No. 9 Iowa football team is 9-0.
In defeating Indiana, the Hawkeyes also assured themselves a nine-win season, something that hasn’t been done since the Ricky Stanzi-led 2009 team that won the Orange Bowl.
Iowa has surpassed any reasonable expectation for this season and are now in uncharted territory. No Hawkeye team has ever started a season 10-0. They’ll have a chance to do that Saturday night against Minnesota.
The Hawks are road warriors
The Hawkeyes have been good on the road this year. They’ve defeated Iowa State, Wisconsin, Northwestern and now Indiana away from Kinnick, no small feat.
They’ve also won five-straight road games dating back to last year, something that hasn’t been done by an Iowa team since 2008-2009.
Defensively, Iowa has also been awesome on the road, giving up an average of just 15-points per game away from Kinnick. While Indiana — who scored 27 against Iowa’s defense — is a bit of an outlier, the defense still held them below their 32.4 average.
C.J. Beathard is tough as nails
Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard has been tough as nails all season and showed once again why he has been the team’s most valuable player this season.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this was late in the second quarter when Beathard jumped over a pile of Hawkeyes and Hoosiers to put Iowa up 21-17 before halftime. Jumping like that had to have been extremely painful with the serious groin injury Beathard likely has, but he gutted it out.
Beathard, after rushing for -14 yards against Maryland, piled on 38 rushing yards against Indiana — the most he’s had since Sept. 19 against Pittsburgh (39).
Iowa can win a shootout — sort of
While it’s hard to exactly classify the win over Indiana a shootout, the Hoosiers did score more points than anyone else has against the Hawkeyes this season.
The Hawkeyes had to pile on points — they’ve only scored more than 35 two other times this season, both in blowout games — to win the game.
No, it’s not quite what a shootout with a TCU or Baylor would be, but it did show Iowa has the ability to score when it absolutely has too.
Josey Jewell is a baller
The middle linebacker has played well all season, but he took things to an entirely different level against Indiana.
Jewell had 15 tackles (11 solo), both of which are career highs. The sophomore has showed flashes of doing something special this year, but it should say something when Pat Angerer says a player can play.
https://twitter.com/PAngererUSA/status/663095630710050816
https://twitter.com/PAngererUSA/status/663099038867324932
Matt VandeBerg continues to be clutch
Iowa receiver Matt VandeBerg continues to come in clutch, making several huge catches late in the game and helped put the game out of reach for Indiana.
The Hawkeyes have gotten huge amounts of production out of VandeBerg this season — 49 catches, 513 yards — and the junior is showing no signs of slowing down.
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