Happy Trails No More for Hawkeyes

We finally figured out what sort of misfortune Iowa's Cardiac Kids couldn't survive. They couldn't survive losing Ricky Stanzi. As a result, No. 8 Iowa fell to unranked Northwestern on Saturday, 17-10.

The junior quarterback left just before halftime after Northwestern's Corey Wootton tackled him in the end zone. Stanzi sprained his right ankle and fumbled the ball. As Northwestern's Marshall Thomas recovered the fumble for a touchdown, Stanzi remained on the Kinnick Stadium turf. He would walk off the field on his own power, but Stanzi would not return to the game. Neither would Iowa's offense.

Redshirt freshman James Vandenberg replaced Stanzi but proved ineffective. Vandenberg completed just 9-of-27 passes for 81 yards, throwing one interception. Vandenberg led the Hawks on one impressive drive in the third quarter, but Daniel Murray uncharacteristically missed a field goal from 46 yards. Iowa would get no closer than their own 44-yard-line for the rest of the game.

As usual, Iowa kept plugging despite the deficit. Vandenberg found Trey Stross over the middle on 4th-and-2 with 1:46 remaining to keep a little hope alive, but then he threw four straight incompletions. That was the ballgame.

The extent of Stanzi's injury and his status for next week's trip to Ohio State was not immediately known. Kirk Ferentz is known to be tight-lipped about such things, so don't expect to hear too much about Stanzi's injury any time soon.

Iowa's loss all but ends any hope of making it to the BCS championship game, a game they would have had little chance of winning anyway. The Hawks simply haven't shown enough offensive firepower at any point this season. Expecting the defense to carry the offense's water all the time was bound to lead to problems, and those problems finally showed up Saturday.

Stanzi played well early as the Hawks rolled out to a 10-0 lead. It looked like they would finally get the statement victory they hadn't had since pasting Iowa State 35-3 on Sept. 12. Once Stanzi left the game, however, even the Iowa defense looked bewildered.

For Northwestern, the win continued their recent strong performance against the Hawkeyes. Pat Fitzgerald seems to be to Kirk Ferentz what Ferentz himself is to Joe Paterno. As Paterno can't beat Ferentz, Ferentz can't beat Fitzgerald, seemingly under any circumstances.

Despite the loss, Iowa still has a strong shot at a Rose Bowl berth. The trip to Columbus to play Ohio State next week looms huge, as they will almost certainly need to win out to make it to Pasadena. It's hard to imagine them winning without Stanzi, though. For as much grief as Stanzi has taken from all corners, his leadership has always been beyond question. Vandenberg is Iowa's quarterback of the future. He showed he has as big an arm as Stanzi has but doesn't have the accuracy yet. To be fair, neither he nor the coaching staff had to expect he would play Saturday.

Still, at roughly 3 pm CT, a slight sigh of relief echoed across the southern tier of states. There won't be an undefeated Big Ten team this season. That means that Texas, Florida, and Alabama now all have a loss to give. The door is now slightly more open for Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise State as well. It's probably not open quite enough, however.