The Iowa football team fell victim to Christian McCaffrey and Stanford in the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl.

By Danny Payne
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PASADENA, Calif. — Heisman Trophy runner-up Christian McCaffrey slipped out of the backfield, grabbed a slant pass from quarterback Kevin Hogan, and made safety Jordan Lomax miss. Cole Fisher fell when working over to help, and just like that, the running back was off to the races.

That 75-yard touchdown reception on the game’s first play was a sign of things to come.

“That’s just how it goes sometimes, I guess,” Fisher said.

How it went resulted in a game that was over in the first quarter, a 45-16 Stanford (12-2) embarrassment of the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes (12-2) and a loss to end a 2015 season that was special but could have been much more than it was.

It was death at the hands of McCaffrey and the sixth-ranked Cardinal front seven. The sophomore finished with 368 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns, becoming the first player in the 102-year history of the Rose Bowl to rack up 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving.

His first score, which gave his team a 7-0 lead on the game’s first play, took the life out of the Hawkeyes and the majority of the announced 94,268 on college football’s greatest stage.

“Out of the gate, they had a really great play,” defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson said. “He made some plays, he’s a very good running back, great athlete, he made a lot of good plays tonight … they executed better than we did on defense. We gave them a huge lead in the first half. They’re just a very explosive offense.”

While the game technically wasn’t over because of Stanford’s 21 first-quarter points, it sure put the game out of reach for a struggling Iowa team. The Hawkeyes allowed a season-high in points, while the offense only netted 48 yards on the ground. LeShun Daniels Jr. led Iowa with a measly 37 yards, and the Hawkeyes had only eight first downs through three quarters, before 10 more came in garbage time in the final stanza.

Much of that offensive ineptitude was because of poor blocking by the Hawkeyes, who allowed quarterback C.J. Beathard to be sacked seven times. Stanford officially registered no quarterback hurries, although Beathard spent his entire afternoon and evening under siege.

Put simply, Stanford outplayed the Hawkeyes in every aspect of the game. Iowa couldn’t block anyone, quarterback Kevin Hogan finished 12-of-21 for 223 yards and 4 touchdowns. He had all day to throw and took advantage of a Hawkeye defense that went sideways on the first play from scrimmage and didn’t get any better for the rest of the contest. The Cardinal knocked the Hawks on their heels, and they never bounced back.

What the loss means for Iowa in the grand scheme of things is up for debate, but what’s for certain is the Hawkeyes were not the better team on the first day of 2016. Perhaps they would be on another day, but Jan. 1, they were not.

“We had ample opportunity [after McCaffrey’s touchdown] to play],” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But to put it on that would really diminish the way they played. They played a tremendous game in all phases.”

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