Despite miscues throughout the game, Iowa’s Jordan Canzeri and Desmond King stepped up when it mattered most.

By Danny Payne
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AMES — Over the course of Iowa’s up-and-down performance in the Sept. 12 31-17 win over Iowa State, there were times it wasn’t unreasonable to believe Jordan Canzeri’s and Desmond King’s blunders could have cost the Hawkeyes the game.

Take, for example, King’s botched kickoff return after Iowa State’s touchdown drive to go ahead 17-10 in the second quarter. Instead of letting the ball go out of bounds or into the end zone on the ensuing kickoff, the junior touched the ball, eventually pinning his team on its own 2-yard line, swinging the momentum totally in Iowa State’s favor.

“It was just a little bit of mental mistakes and a little missed vantage of the ball,” King said. “I couldn’t read it as well. It was a hard decision. I didn’t know if I wanted to take the ball or let the ball go out. I just made a terrible decision.”

Unfortunately for King and his team, it wasn’t his only bad play of the game. A few moments before on Iowa State’s opening drive of the frame, Cyclone quarterback Sam Richardson hit Jauan Wesley for a 37-yard catch-and-run, bringing it down to the Iowa 19. King ran down the sideline with Wesley and didn’t make a real effort to push him out of bounds until the Cyclone was actually out of bounds.

It resulted in an extra 9 yards and led to an Iowa State touchdown.

A similar blunder happened to Canzeri, but this time in the fourth quarter. After quarterback C.J. Beathard hit Matt VandeBerg for a 48-yard pass earlier in the drive, Canzeri caused a surging Iowa offense to sputter when he fumbled and the Cyclones recovered at their own 7.

It was an extremely deflating moment for Iowa. After struggling to get things going on offense and routinely starting with bad field position, a fumble when a touchdown looked like almost a sure thing stung Iowa.

But, just on cue, King was there to pick him up. After the Iowa defense forced a punt, King, who did not have a good day up until that point in punt returns (one return for zero yards and at least one missed fair catch), lined up to take another shot.

The cornerback said a middle return was called, but he didn’t like what was there. King found a seam, however, and took that punt back 34 yards to the 50-yard line.

“I was wondering a little bit about that whole deal,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But what a time to come up with a punt return there and what a spark we got out of our special teams there.”

Seven plays later, Beathard found Riley McCarron to put the Hawkeyes up 24-17 with 2:14 to play.

Three plays after that, King picked off Richardson, putting the game on ice.

Canzeri rushed for 17 yards the next play and followed it up with an 8-yard touchdown.

Dagger. The Cy-Hawk Trophy is on its way back to Iowa City.

“We know how to win,” Canzeri said. “… Just to be able to see it work out the way it did and us to be able to fight the way we did today and to show what our hard work has done for us, obviously, we’re so excited about it.”

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