By the numbers | Iowa’s decisive victory over Minnesota
The Hawkeyes dominated for their sixth straight win in the series.
November 14, 2020
MINNEAPOLIS — The Iowa football team’s 35-7 rout of Minnesota on Friday night ensures that Floyd stays in Iowa City for the sixth consecutive year.
The Hawkeyes dominated the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium to improve to 2-2 on the season.
Here are the numbers that stand out from Iowa’s victory.
Six — Iowa’s win streak vs. Minnesota
The Hawkeyes are on the longest win streak they have ever had against the Gophers in the series’ 114-game history. It’s also the longest the Floyd of Rosedale trophy — established in 1935 — has ever gone without exchanging teams.
Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck falls to 0-4 against Iowa. Under Fleck, the Gophers haven’t even had a lead on the Hawkeyes in their four losses.
11 — Consecutive games with an interception
Iowa safety Jack Koerner has said frequently of late how much the coaches stress the importance of the defense forcing turnovers. Koerner forced another one on Friday night. For the third game in a row, Koerner recorded an interception. It’s the 11th game in a row the Hawkeyes forced a pick.
The team had two on the game as cornerback Riley Moss picked off Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan in the fourth quarter and returned the ball 57 yards to set up an Iowa touchdown.
Four — Sacks of Tanner Morgan
Morgan turned the ball over twice against the Hawkeyes, and finished the night 16-for-33 for 167 yards and a garbage time touchdown. The signal caller faced consistent pressure throughout the night.
Iowa defensive end Zach VanValkenburg finished with three sacks on the game, and was close to adding more on a couple of other snaps. Defensive tackle Daviyon Nixon also got to Morgan once, adding another play to his season highlight tape.
100 — Red zone conversion percentage
The Hawkeyes struggled finishing drives with touchdowns for stretches of last season, forcing kicker Keith Duncan to come in and hit a field goal. Duncan stayed on the sideline for most of Friday’s game, and that’s a good thing.
Iowa went five-for-five on scoring touchdowns once it got into the red zone. Tyler Goodson ran for two scores, Mekhi Sargent and Nico Ragaini both tallied a rushing touchdown, and quarterback Spencer Petras connected with Ihmir Smith-Marsette for an eight-yard passing touchdown.
7.9 — yards per carry for Goodson and Sargent combined
Goodson and Sargent both had success in the backfield for Iowa. Goodson ran 20 times for a career-high 142 yards and scored two touchdowns. Sargent added 86 yards on only nine touches, one of which was a touchdown.
Combined, the two Hawkeye running backs averaged 7.9 yards per carry. Minnesota’s defensive front had no answer for the Iowa rushing attack.
Nine — Spencer Petras completions
Goodson and Sargent dominated on the ground for Iowa. The same can’t be said for Petras through the air.
In his fourth career start, Petras finished 9-of-18 passing for 111 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Iowa didn’t need a stellar performance from Petras in this one because of how poorly Minnesota was playing the run, but the redshirt sophomore at times was staring down his receivers, as he did on his interception, leading to an easy read for the defense.
Four — Offensive plays in third quarter
For how dominant Iowa was the entire game, its offense barely touched the ball in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes went three and out on their first drive of the second half. Then, the Gophers took up 10 minutes and 56 seconds of game time on a 17-play, 74-yard drive that eventually ended with Koerner blocking a field goal.
Iowa got the ball back with under a minute left in the quarter after Minnesota’s long drive and only ran one play before the clock ran out. That one play happened to be a 45-yard run by Goodson in which center Tyler Linderbaum pancaked his opponent downfield.
Three — Punts downed inside Minnesota’s 20
Another game, another impressive performance from punter Tory Taylor.
Taylor punted three times against the Gophers, averaging 44.3 yards per punt and pinning them inside their 20-yard line each time. The Melbourne, Australia, native is a weapon for Iowa in the battle for field position.
First — Snaps this season for Jack Campbell and Austin Schulte
Defensive tackle Austin Schulte missed the first three games of the season with an unspecified injury, and middle linebacker Jack Campbell was diagnosed with mononucleosis shortly before the season started. Both were starters entering the season, and both played their first snaps of the year on Friday night.
Campbell entered the game for the first time at the end of the first quarter, and Schulte made his season debut in the second quarter. Campbell rotated in and out throughout the game and tallied five tackles on the night.
33 degrees — Temperature at kickoff
At kickoff, it was the 12th-coldest game in the 79-game history of TCF Bank Stadium.
There was wind present throughout the game and it got colder as the night went on. Snow still covered sections of the stands from a snowfall days before. Goodson could be seen in a winter coat on the sideline, trying to stay warm on an exercise bike. Petras, a California native, wore a long-sleeved shirt and tried to adjust to the cold.
“Once I got out there and worked up a bit of sweat, it didn’t seem so bad,” Petras said.
0 — Iowa timeouts remaining
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz used all three of his timeouts in the final minute of the game after Fleck used one as Minnesota’s offense was trying to break the shutout and score on the backup Hawkeye defense.
“Figured we’d take Floyd home and leave the timeouts here,” Ferentz said.