Nearly 68,000 fans piled into Kinnick Stadium in anticipation of the season opener showdown between No. 17 Indiana and No. 18 Iowa. Given the rankings, one might have expected a close game, but Iowa dominated the entire time, overwhelmingly beating IU by a score of 34-6.
Iowa won the toss and elected to receive, scoring in the first two minutes of the game. Running back Tyler Goodson ran for a 56-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the drive, giving Iowa an early 7-0 lead.
The pressure on IU grew when Iowa intercepted Michael Penix's second pass of the game for a touchdown, extending the lead to 14-0. Each team only had one drive, yet the Hawkeyes already led by 14 at only three minutes into the game.
The next drives for IU and Iowa both stalled, with each team forcing the other to punt.
The Hoosier offense finally gained some traction with around eight minutes left to play in the first quarter. Penix connected with receiver Ty Fryfogle, moving the ball 32 yards and into the red zone. The offense stalled again, preventing a touchdown, but Charles Campbell converted a 36-yard field goal to put IU on the board 14-3.
But Iowa countered with a strong drive that led into the second quarter. The possession capped off with a running touchdown from Spencer Petras to extend Iowa's lead to 21-3.
IU's next two drives resulted in punting the football.
The second IU punt gave Iowa the ball with around three minutes left to play in the first half. Tyler Goodson rushed up the middle on the third play of the drive but fumbled and IU was able to recover the ball.
What came next was a negative turn of events for IU. Penix's first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown to make it 28-3 in Iowa's favor.
When IU started its next drive due to the pick-six, Penix threw another interception, marking his third of the game. Iowa attempted to extend its 25-point lead going into halftime by scoring a touchdown, but an IU sack on third down forced a field goal.
IU head coach Tom Allen attempted to ice Iowa's kicker by calling three consecutive timeouts, but to no avail as the kick was good, making it 31-3 heading into halftime.
The struggle to score a touchdown continued for IU once the second half resumed. Despite a 33-yard completion to Fryfogle that put the Hoosiers in the red zone, Iowa's defense forced IU to settle for a field goal, making it 31-6.
With around seven minutes left in the third quarter, Penix almost threw his fourth interception of the game, but a roughing the passer call negated Iowa from taking over. He finished the game completing 14 of 29 passes (48%), passing for 156 yards and throwing three interceptions.
Iowa carried a drive roughly five minutes into the fourth quarter and reached the red zone but settled for a field goal to make it 34-6. Reese Taylor's sack was one of the defensive contributions to keep Iowa from scoring a touchdown.
IU quarterback Jack Tuttle replaced Michael Penix in IU's first drive of the fourth quarter, hoping to produce different results. However, like many drives of the day for IU, it resulted in a punt downfield.
Iowa also made a substitution on offense, replacing Tyler Goodson with senior running back Ivory Kelly-Martin. Iowa handed Kelley-Martin the ball, intending to run out the clock slowly.
But Kelley-Martin made progress, driving within the IU 25-yard line before fumbling the ball.
Indiana took over with around six and a half minutes in the game but punted for the second time in a row under Tuttle.
The Hoosiers received the ball with around one minute and 30 seconds left to play but were unable to score, sealing the Iowa 34-6 victory.
IU's failure to score 25 points or more continued Iowa's 23-game streak of allowing 25 points or fewer, the longest streak in the nation among Power 5 teams.
The 34-6 defeat extended IU’s current losing streak against Iowa to four games, also dropping to 1-2 against ranked opponents to start the season in the last five years.
IU dropped to 0-1 to start the season, but is looking to bounce back next week against Idaho in the comforts of its own home in Bloomington.
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