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jordan-garretson@uiowa.edu
Believe it or not, Iowa’s 3-point output in Happy Valley happened just 14 days ago.
After Saturday’s game — Iowa beat Indiana, 45-24, scoring 40-plus points for the second-straight game — the 13-3 loss at Penn State on Oct. 8 seems like it was 14 years ago.
“We knew what we were capable of,” senior receiver Marvin McNutt said. “We just needed to execute. We knew that practice needed to get better — we did that and we executed during the week.”
The Hawkeyes (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten) again demonstrated their explosive offensive potential, racking up 456 yards against the Hoosiers (1-7, 0-4). They also achieved the kind of balance they have looking for, with 203 of those yards coming on the ground and another 253 through the air.
McNutt led the charge. The senior’s first score of the day — an 80-yard pass from James Vandenberg on the second play of the team’s second drive — made him Iowa’s all-time leader in receiving touchdowns. He made two additional trips to the end zone, too, scoring on 24- and 29-yarders before halftime to increase his career touchdown total to 24.
The St. Louis native finished with six catches for a career-high 184 yards. He called having sole possession of the record “an honor,” but deferred praise to the rest of his teammates.
“We got good matchups,” McNutt said. “I ran good routes, the protection held up, and Vandenberg threw great balls. It looks good when you have 11 guys doing what they need to do.”
Vandenberg added a fourth touchdown pass in the final quarter when he hooked up with tight end Brad Herman for a 1-yard score. Saturday marked the first time an Iowa quarterback connected for four touchdown passes in one game since Ricky Stanzi did it against Iowa State in 2009.
The Keokuk, Iowa, native was 12-of-16 for 253 yards without an interception, improving his season touchdown-to-interception ratio to 16-to-4.
Vandenberg also gained 42 yards on five carries, though four sacks reduced his net rushing total to 11 yards.
Iowa wasted little time in establishing its offensive dominance. The Hawkeyes reached the end zone on all five of their first-half possessions, which was especially crucial after Indiana scored touchdowns on its first two drives.
The Hoosiers continued to move the ball and finished with 414 yards of offense. But after those first two scores, Iowa limited them to a 22-yard field goal in the third quarter and a 1-yard rushing touchdown with 50 seconds left and mostly second-string players in the game for both squads.
“We needed it [offensive efficiency] in that first half because we started pretty slow defensively,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But it was pretty good to see the guys respond, keep playing. They were clearly focused right from the start. That’s a positive.”
Iowa established its running game early, too. The Hawkeyes compiled a 12-play, 69-yard game-opening drive, with Marcus Coker carrying the ball on eight of those plays for 37 yards. Coker capped the 7:10 drive with a one-yard touchdown run to give the Hawkeyes an early 7-0 lead.
Coker recorded his second touchdown of the day on a two-yard run with 1:38 remaining in the first half, extending Iowa’s lead to 28-14.
The sophomore back totaled 139 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, including a long run of 41 yards.
“We wanted to run the ball today because we knew it would open up the pass game,” Coker said. “We just came out with a higher sense of urgency. Our o-line’s been doing a great job, I’ve been hitting the holes a little better.”
Iowa has now scored 31-plus points in six of its first seven games for the first time since the 2002 season. And after 41 points against Northwestern last week, the Hawkeyes have also scored 41 points or more in consecutive games for the first time since 2008 when they posted 46 and 42 against Maine and Florida International, respectively.
But despite being a part of some of Iowa’s best offensive production in nearly a decade, Vandenberg and Company still aren’t satisfied.
“I think we all know that we can get a lot sharper on offense,” Vandenberg said. “In that third quarter … we just weren’t executing like we were earlier. That’s something that we can’t slip out of. We need to keep our foot on the gas. I think we showed we can do that in the first half. We need to do that more consistently for 60 minutes.”
