MINNEAPOLIS — The game was decided, but the rivalry was still alive in the final seconds of Iowa’s 35-7 victory over Minnesota at TCF Bank Stadium on Friday night.

Down by five touchdowns with only 19 seconds left in the game, Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck called a timeout ahead of a second-and-4 play at Iowa’s five-yard line. In a retaliating move, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz called all three of his timeouts before the play was ever run.

“They called timeout I guess to get a look at what we were doing,” Ferentz said postgame. “So we just wanted to make sure we got a good look at what they were doing. No sense taking them on the bus with us.

“Figured we’d take Floyd with us and leave the timeouts here.”

After the ball was finally snapped, Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan threw a touchdown pass to star receiver Rashod Bateman with 14 seconds left in the game to complete the scoring drive against an Iowa defense without its starters on the field.

“That whole drive we had our backups in,” Iowa defensive end Chauncey Golston, who finished with four tackles, said. “It just shows how hard those guys, most of them haven’t had in-game reps — they were stopping first-team guys.”

Iowa’s shutout was gone. It lasted as long as it did because, up to the point where Minnesota finally put up points, the Gophers trying to score on the stout Hawkeye defense was similar to watching a leaking boat try to stay afloat — it wasn’t happening.

Holding an offense scoreless for over 59 minutes of a Big Ten game is a team effort, but the Iowa defense showcased several stellar individual performances.

Defensive end Zach VanValkenburg accounted for three of Iowa’s four sacks, harassing Morgan throughout the night.

“He was doing his thing… he’s just relentless,” said Golston, who lines up opposite VanValkenburg on the line. “Every day he comes ready to get better and he has a great mindset. I’m just happy to see him get his sacks in today.”

In the secondary, safety Jack Koerner secured his third interception in as many weeks late in the second quarter. Only minutes later, officials reviewed a possible targeting penalty on Koerner that would have removed him from the game.

Officials ruled there was no targeting, so Koerner stayed in the game. And late in the third quarter, he may have made his best play of the game.

Minnesota set up for a field goal attempt to end a 17-play, 74-yard drive that took just under 11 minutes off the game clock. At the time, Iowa was only leading 14-0. Koerner got a jump off of the line as the ball was snapped and managed to get a hand on the kick, keeping Minnesota off the score board.

“It seemed evident that we were going to get the win pretty early,” Koerner said. “So we were just playing for pride… We knew on field goal that they were susceptible to a corner block. Nick Niemann did a great job pinning the wing’s arm and I was able to jump through there and get a thumb on it.”

The standout performances go on for Iowa. Riley Moss picked off Morgan in the fourth quarter and ran it back 57 yards to set up a Mekhi Sargent rushing touchdown. Daviyon Nixon added another sack to his impressive stat line.

Pair the Iowa’s defensive effort with a dominant rushing attack — the team ran for 235 yards and four touchdowns — and the Hawkeyes defeated the Gophers for the sixth season in a row. The celebration with the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy started shortly after the final whistle.

“I was the first person in the locker room and I tried to pick it up by myself,” Golston said. “It was a little heavier than I thought. It’s been a while.”

After an 0-2 start, Iowa is back to .500 and has outscored its past two opponents 84-14.

Floyd is headed back to Iowa City. The same can’t be said for Iowa’s timeouts.