Leistikow's thoughts, Iowa football squanders upset in loss vs Indiana

IOWA CITY — The recipe for an Iowa football upset special against No. 12 Indiana was about to become reality.

And then … the Hawkeyes threw the game away.

All Iowa needed was a 5-yard completion to all but seal a victory at Kinnick Stadium. But backup quarterback Hank Brown flipped a screen pass wide left, Drew Stevens’ subsequent field-goal attempt also went wide left, and the Hoosiers took advantage by marching their way to a 20-15 victory before 69,250 disappointed fans at Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 27.

Elijah Sarratt’s 49-yard touchdown catch on third-and-10 with 1 minute, 28 seconds left was the difference. Sarratt beat one-on-one coverage from Deshaun Lee, and quarterback Fernando Mendoza delivered a strike over the middle to break a 13-13 tie, sending the Hawkeyes into their first of two bye weeks with a 3-2 record.

Indiana took an intentional safety on the game's odd final play.

It was a crushing finish for the Hawkeyes.

Just a few minutes earlier, they had the game fully in their hands.

Iowa was facing third-and-5 from Indiana’s 24-yard line with 2:07 remaining. Indiana was out of timeouts. A first down, and the Hawkeyes would’ve been able to wind the clock to zero while setting up Stevens for a shorter game-winning option.

The screen-pass call to Kamari Moulton had a chance. Maybe he springs free for a first down, maybe not. But Brown never gave him a chance.

And then Stevens’ 42-yard field goal was equally errant, giving Indiana the ball with 2:01 left.

Curt Cignetti and the 5-0 Hoosiers didn’t miss their chance.

Some odd moments put Brown into the spotlight.

The vibes at Kinnick Stadium couldn’t have been stranger than when Iowa took a three-point fourth-quarter lead on a 54-yard Stevens field goal while star quarterback Mark Gronowski hobbled to the injury tent. Gronowski would not return and there was no immediate word on his injury status.

And so, with 9:47 left in this Big Ten Conference slugfest, Iowa’s chances suddenly were on the right shoulder of Brown — who promptly was intercepted on his third pass attempt.

Suddenly, the Hawkeyes needed some weirdness against Mendoza and the high-powered Hoosiers.

Right on cue, Zach Lutmer was there for the crazy moment that Iowa needed.

Lutmer’s interception of Mendoza and 38-yard runback with 2:50 remaining turned what looked like an Indiana game-winning drive into the Hawkeyes being in control.

But instead of owning the moment, Iowa squandered it and extended its losing streak against ranked opponents to 11 games.

With one crucial decision, Kirk Ferentz revealed his game plan

The Hawkeyes had weathered an early onslaught and trailed, 7-3, with a little over 11 minutes to go in the first half. Facing fourth-and-11 from Indiana’s 40, the aggressive and perhaps greedy decision would’ve been to attempt a 58-yard Stevens field goal. Going that direction, with the wind helping from the south, Stevens had connected from 65-plus in warmups. Ferentz had to know that every point would matter.

Ferentz seemed to agonize about the decision and finally sent the punt team out. The snap came just as the play clock hit 00, and Rhys Dakin’s high punt was fair caught (for some reason) at the 3-yard line with Indiana’s back to the deafening north end zone.

That was what Iowa wanted, to rattle Indiana and play field-position ball like it did with Tory Taylor’s deft punting accuracy on Oct. 9, 2021, in the 23-20 win over then-No. 4 Penn State.

But Indiana quickly got out of trouble, making this particular decision seem moot initially. But two big defensive tackles — by Lutmer on third-and-1 and Koen Entringer on fourth-and-1 — turned a 10-play, 70-yard Indiana drive into zero points.

Iowa took over at its own 27-yard line and bled most of the rest of the first half, delivering its best offense of the game during an 11-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that consumed 5:31 of game clock. The Hawkeyes converted a key third-and-4 to start the drive on a 7-yard flip from Gronowski to Nathan McNeil.

Then, credit to Ferentz again for a smart (albeit obvious) decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from Indiana’s 30. Gronowski surged ahead for a 2-yard sneak, Moulton went for 22 yards on the next play, and Gronowski finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown plunge with just 22 seconds left in the first half for a 10-7 Iowa lead.

So, to sum up: One punt decision gave each team one 70-yard possession, but only the Hawkeyes got (seven) points.

That revealed how Ferentz wanted to play this game. Iowa ran 34 plays in the first half to Indiana's 23, consuming 18:09 of clock despite getting outgained, 152-149. To Ferentz, field position always matters in big games.

A disappointing first-half finish from the Iowa defense

Cignetti, Indiana's coach, seemed content to let the half run out, even with two timeouts. A handoff to Roman Hemby at first seemed to be stacked up, but sloppy Iowa tackling allowed Hemby to spring free for a 16-yard gain to the Indiana 41. Then Mendoza found Sarratt for 16 yards, and that play turned into 31 when Kenneth Merrieweather was tagged for a 15-yard roughing-the-passer call (it was a soft flag, but it was still a silly play by the redshirt sophomore defensive end).

Indiana, thus, got to try a 46-yard field goal to end the half, and Nicolas Radicic’s kick knuckled through the south uprights to make it 10-10 at half.

For all the talk of Indiana’s high-powered offense coming into this one, the Hawkeyes gift-wrapped all 10 Hoosiers' points in the first half. Gronowski’s first pass attempt was intercepted off a deflection, setting Indiana up for a two-play 24-yard drive on a pair of 12-yard passes from Mendoza to Omar Cooper Jr.

Those were seven easy points given by the Iowa offense; then another three from a careless defensive possession.

All these points added up in what was a disappointing team loss with failures on offense, defense and special teams.

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