Hawkeyes set sights on strong finish
Iowa will attempt to plug the holes in its sinking ship when Northwestern visits Iowa City on Saturday.
The Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten) were sitting pretty three weeks ago with a 6-1 overall record, but they’re dropped their last two games at Penn State and Purdue to essentially fall out of contention in the Big Ten West Division.
With three regular-season games remaining, Iowa trails division-leading Northwestern (5-4, 5-1) by two games and Wisconsin, which beat Iowa in September, and Purdue by one game. The Hawkeyes’ 38-36 loss at Purdue last week put Northwestern in the driver’s seat to win the West.
“Obviously, some things haven’t gone the way we wanted,” Iowa defensive end Parker Hesse said Tuesday, “but we just want to be remembered as a tough team that stayed together. After going through that, they got up and pulled together and they played their best football down the stretch.”
The Hawkeyes haven’t been able to win the close ones. They had a chance to score a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter against Penn State and quarterback Nate Stanley threw an interception. In last week’s 38-26 loss to Purdue, Iowa rallied to take the lead in the fourth quarter but allowed the Boilermakers to drive to a winning field goal in the final seconds.
“We’re obviously upset that we lost, but our mindset is positive and looking forward,” Iowa safety Amani Hooker said. “We’re not going to quit and let the season go downhill.”
After climbing to No. 16 in the College Football Playoff rankings and dreaming of a potential berth in the Big Ten Championship Game and an outside chance of making the CFB Playoffs, Iowa, which feel to No. 21 in this week’s CFP rankings, now will try to avoid losing its final five games. After hosting Northwestern, the Hawkeyes play two improving teams — Illinois on the road and Nebraska at home.
“We’ll focus on being 3-0,” Iowa tight end Noah Fant said. “That’s what we can control. Yeah, we’ve dropped some games in the past, but we’ve learned from those and we have to keep pressing forward.”
Iowa’s offense hasn’t been able to consistently run the ball this year. The Hawkeyes have broken only two runs longer than 20 yards since the opener. Their 3.88 yards per carry average ranks 94th in the country, an uncharacteristic number for a program that prides itself on power football.
The Hawkeyes continue to split carries between running backs Ivory Kelly-Martin, Mekhi Sargent and Toren Young.
“For whatever reason, we have people look at us like we’re a run-first team, which is kind of funny,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “They did it in ’04, too, and we couldn’t run from here to that door right there. … But I think our goal is just to move the ball and try to score points, and we’ll do whatever we feel we have to do to be successful at that.”