EVANSTON, Ill. — It looked easier than it should have.

Surrounded by five purple Northwestern jerseys, Tyrone Tracy — starting in place of the injured Brandon Smith — hauled in a third-down pass from Nate Stanley for a first down.

But it ended up being more than a first down. It went for a touchdown.

After catching the pass, Tracy slipped out of a tackle before outrunning what seemed like the entire Wildcat defense in a race to the end zone for Iowa’s first points of its 20-0 beat down of Northwestern in Evanston on Saturday.

“It was basically a curl route, Nate Stanley put it on the money, and they missed a couple tackles,” Tracy said. “I hold myself to being electric, so when I got it, I’m trying to do the same. So, I spun out of it, and I saw two blockers — Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Nico Ragaini — and they did their thing. They blocked, and that’s how I scored.”

Tracy’s two-catch, 88-yard performance came at the perfect time for the Hawkeye offense. Brandon Smith went down with a leg injury in the fourth quarter against Purdue on Oct. 19, taking 33 receptions, 407 yards, and four touchdowns out of the lineup.

So, when Tracy caught a pass for 38 yards off a post-corner route, the Hawkeye fans clad in black and gold throughout a seemingly pro-Hawkeye Ryan Field knew they had another play-making option out wide.

“It starts in practice,” wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette said. “He comes in, he’s hard on himself in practice, he makes sure that everything is detailed out. He just continues to grow, and it shows up on Saturdays. Today, he led the team, and we just followed in everything he did.”

Tracy also did what he needed to do blocking-wise to make the team better.

On fourth-and-8 on Northwestern’s 30-yard line in the third quarter, Stanley tossed the ball to an open Shaun Beyer short of the first-down marker.

With Wildcats closing in on his tight end, Tracy put himself out in front to propel Beyer past the marker for an 11-yard gain.

Four plays later, Mekhi Sargent punched it into the end zone to put Iowa up 17-0.

“I saw Shaun Beyer get the ball, and I knew he didn’t have the first down,” Tracy said. “I saw three people going to him one-on-three — that’s never a good situation. So, I’m trying to make the team better in every single way I can, so I went in there and threw my body in there.”

Overall, it ended up being a pretty impressive day for the Indianapolis native who didn’t have a set position when he entered the program.

Tracy made moves at running back in practice during a bye week last year that made Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and former Hawkeye quarterback and Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore lock eyes.

But after Tracy showed what he can do in Smith’s absence, it seems as if the staff made the right decision.

“We didn’t know [if he would play] running back or receiver,” Ferentz said. “The question was, what’s he going to end up doing? But it’s all learned. You learn how to play football in my mind. He’s gotten better.”