The 9th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes looked to get a bad taste out of their mouth following their first loss of the season to Purdue two weeks previous. Following a bye week, Iowa took their frustrations up to Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin to face off with their rivals in the Badgers. Iowa won last year’s meeting 28-7.
This matchup would look the exact opposite, as the Iowa offense struggled to put up a fight for the 2nd game in a row. Graham Mertz was able to find rhythm early, as he found tight end Jake Ferguson for the game’s first score to make it 7-0 Wisconsin. Following an Iowa punt, Wisconsin was able to muster a field goal, to make the score 10-0, before an Iowa fumble inside the Hawkeyes 5, resulted in a Graham Mertz sneak to make the score 17-0 Wisconsin. Another Collin Larsh field goal made the halftime score 20-0 in favor of the Badgers.
Iowa was finally able to muster some offense in the 3rd quarter, as a short field resulted in a Spencer Petras sneak for a touchdown to make the score 20-7. The Hawkeyes then got the football back after a punt, and appeared to have another promising drive. However, a 3rd and short and 4th and short call resulted in fullback dives that did not get the necessary yardage, and resulted in a turnover on downs. Wisconsin would turn it into points, and grab a 27-7 lead and never looked back.
The Hawkeyes dropped to #19 following the loss and will face the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field in Evanston at 6 PM on Saturday.