Hawkeyes Turn Lions Into Lambs

Exactly one snap into Saturday night's game against Penn State, Iowa's defense was already in the middle of an impromptu meeting.

Daryll Clark had just faked a handoff to running back Evan Royster and launched a 79-yard rainbow to Chaz Powell for a 6-0 lead on the Lions' first offensive play. It was a simple play action, but the Hawkeyes bit hard on the fake, swarming the line like Bill Gates had just dropped his wallet somewhere behind Penn State's center, leaving cornerback Amari Spievey all alone to become a cautionary tale.

So, with a steady rain thumping against their helmets and 109,000-strong migraine of a crowd on their backs, the defense launched a sideline intervention.

"They told me to just forget about it," Spievey said. "They got at me, but they kind of motivated me at the same time, so I guess it happens for a reason."

From that point on, the Hawkeyes played like they could've kept the raindrops out of the end zone, if they'd just put it in their defensive playbook. Over the remaining 58-plus minutes, Penn State would come within 30 yards of the goal line just once.

So, by the time Adrian Clayborn, Iowa's long-haired bulldozer of a defensive end, returned a blocked Penn State punt for an 11-10 lead early in the fourth quarter, the defense had finished what it started, another upset victory over Penn State.

"The defense played outstanding today," said last year's hero, kicker Daniel Murray. "They kept us in the game."

And then they won it with the finest 15 minutes of defensive football this season.

The Hawkeyes' fourth quarter was a study in the sort of pressure that causes a top-10 team to wilt in front of a city of its own fans. In four possessions, the Lions had a punt blocked, fumbled the ball, and Clark, who threw just six interceptions last season, tossed two picks.

The white-out turned into a washout; the Lions turned into lambs. Iowa 21, Penn State 10.

"That was really something to see," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said of his defense's final quarter. "Our guys really knuckled down."

And hopefully everyone was paying attention. It's well past time to give Iowa its due.

The Hawkeyes probably aren't national title contenders -- you need look no further than quarterback Ricky Stanzi's confused 11-of-26, two interception line -- not in the era of the big-play offense, at least, but they're every bit a threat in the Big Ten. And in a season where wins over Memphis and Southeast Louisiana, were enough to confirm Ole Miss's bona fides as the nation's No. 4 team, the Hawkeyes certainly deserve a spot among the nation's 20 best.

Granted, they aren't spectacular. There's not much about the team that would you make worry about missing something while you went to get a beer. The Hawkeyes needed to force four turnovers against Penn State and even then the offense barely had enough mustard to bring home a win.

But on a day when the promise of the spectacular turned the No. 9 team into a 24-point loser and the No. 6 team into a 39-point flop, Iowa affirmed the value of the steady over the stunning.

Still, the Hawekeyes play in the Big Ten, a league whose reputation is about as hip as Joe Paterno's cabana wear, so the benefit of the doubt is squarely against Ferentz's team.

After the Hawkeyes needed two blocked field goals to beat Northern Iowa – a team that has since beaten its last three opponents 131-14 -- in Week 1, Iowa dropped out of the rankings. Despite a 27-17 win over Arizona last week, they've yet to come close to returning.

Go ahead, name one other Big Six team that's ever won its first three games, including two wins over BCS teams, and still fell out of the rankings. We'll wait.

More perplexing, in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of college football, Iowa has done everything. Only Florida has a longer winning streak that the Hawkeyes' eight in a row. The last time Iowa lost on the first day of November, 2008, TARP was still simply the thing you rolled out during a rain delay, and Sarah Palin had one eye on the vice presidency and another on Russia. The Hawkeyes even won a bowl game, and beat an SEC team at that – something Ohio State still hasn't done -- routing South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.



This season, they've compiled more wins over BCS teams than anyone in last week's top 10. Yet they were 30th in the AP poll, immediately behind Pitt, who played its first BCS opponent Saturday. And lost.

Now, the Hawkeyes, have one of the season's best victories, a defensive tap-out over a top-10 team on the road in front of a crowd 40,000 larger than all of Iowa City.

But will they finally earn notice as something other than the team that nearly lost to Northern Iowa?

Perhaps an impromptu meeting is in order, one with the same message as the Hawkeyes' early-game huddle: When it comes to Iowa football, first impressions aren't always accurate.