Perhaps the No. 1 reason why Saturday’s 20-19 loss versus Iowa State felt so shocking for Iowa football was because it simply rarely ever happens.
Dating back to the start of the 2015 season, the Hawkeyes owned a 72-2 record in contests where Iowa led by eight points or more at any point in the game.
At least for one Saturday, that bit of history didn’t hold up in Iowa’s favor. Iowa State bucked the trend, marching for a game-winning 54-yard field goal off the foot of Kyle Konrardy with just 34 seconds remaining and no timeouts to put the finishing touches on the Cy-Hawk victory.
The Hawkeyes led Iowa State 13-0 at halftime and 19-7 with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter following junior running back Kaleb Johnson’s 3-yard rushing score.
After the loss, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz was asked what was different this time around with a lead of eight points or more and if the game felt any different as it was going along.
“Well, no, not really. Like I said, they got their first touchdown and I was really happy with the way we responded. We took it, whatever it was, 79 yards I guess, for a touchdown drive. So that’s what you’re looking for. Things are going to happen. I mean, we’re playing good teams, so they’re going to have plays, too, and make plays, so that response was really good. Then we weren’t good enough the rest of the way to respond or continue to respond the way you need to.
“Even our last possession, if you can get one more first down, now it’s never an issue of punting down there. Just little things like that that we’ll see all those tomorrow and talk about all those tomorrow.
“Typically when you lose a game, that’s the way it goes. There’s certain things you can point to that are going to make a big difference. Sometimes those things get disguised or masked a little bit when you win games, but that’s really the difference in a game. Making them chunk it instead of, going 10 plays instead of one or two plays, that type of thing,” Ferentz said.
Iowa did surrender a 75-yard touchdown grab to Iowa State senior wide receiver Jaylin Noel right after Johnson’s touchdown run. On its game-winning drive, Noel’s 30-yard reception was another killer.
Iowa returns to action on Saturday as it hosts Troy at 3 p.m. CT on FS1.
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