The good, bad and ugly unsung moments of Iowa football’s win at Rutgers

IOWA CITY — Big Ten play comes down to details, and how a team executes those details in crucial moments. Occasionally there’s a little it of luck involved, too.

Iowa football had both of those against Rutgers in its conference opener. Though the Hawkeyes had a few errors of their own, the good outweighed the bad in a 60-minute offensive battle.

Quarterbacks Mark Gronowski and Athan Kaliakmanis traded touchdown drives the entire game, until the Hawkeye signal caller pulled away in the fourth quarter to win it 38-28 in New Jersey.

“First half wasn't exactly by script,” Head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But the guys kept pushing, kept digging, they believed in each other. And sometimes you got to win games like this too. We had to work for it tonight, which is a real credit for Rutgers.”

Even the smallest details had ripple effects against the Scarlet Knights — creating the game-changing moments Iowa needed to stack up for its first conference win of the season.

Here are the moments that helped, and hurt, the Hawkeyes in their road trip to New Jersey Friday night.

The good

Blocked that kick

Ethan Hurkett didn’t just get a Big Ten win on his birthday, but he was also a key contributor to the Hawkeyes’ success.

After the Scarlet Knights were driving downfield, the Iowa defense finally forced a field goal attempt. It was still a tied game, sitting at 21-all in the third quarter. One kick would’ve given Rutgers an advantage and pressed the Hawkeye offense against a wall to respond.

Hurkett single-handidly denied Rutgers that opportunity — literally. He stuck his left his up in time to block Scarlet Knights kicker Jai Patel. The blocked kick was the second missed field goal attempt by Rutgers that night.

“We got some good push,” Hurkett said. “All I saw was the ball kind of right here, and I just put my hand out and I look over to the sideline, and guys are going crazy. So to see their reactions was really cool.”

Though it took a few more drives before the Hawkeyes scored again, the blocked field goal was a catalyst in frustrating Rutgers. Without Hurkett getting his hand up in time, the Scarlet Knights could’ve easily gone up 10 points over the Hawkeyes between the field goal and the fourth quarter touchdown.

The bad

Defensive pass interference

Typically Iowa plays a clean football game. There may be some errors occassionally, but it might be a missed tackle or a dropped pass. In the second quarter, the Hawkeyes defense had two defensive pass interference calls against them.

It was the only two penalties Iowa had all game, handing Rutgers an additional 30 yards and two fresh sets of downs. Plus, it through the Scarlet Knights right into Hawkeye territory.

What seperates this as a “bad” and not an “ugly” however is that in the end, it didn’t hurt the Hawkeyes. Rutgers went for a field goal, and the ball smacked the left upfront with a loud doink. It was the first time Patel missed a field goal in 18 consecutive tries, going back to last season.

The Hawkeye bench went beserk, knowing that a costly error kept the game tied and the offense had a chance to take a lead before halftime.

The ugly

Another missed field goal

Iowa kicker Drew Stevens said following the Week 3 win over UMass that his uncharacteristic missed field goal was a technique issue. It happened again against Rutgers.

Stevens is one of the most automatic kickers in Power Four football, boasting a career 80.3-percent in made field goals since the 2022 season. He’s just missed those two field goals this season.

Though not the biggest issue for Iowa moving forward, it’s rare to see Stevens have those missed three points. The 40-yard attempt Stevens tried in the third quarter had a good snap, but it sailed wide right.

He’s still the same kicker that drilled a 52-yard kick to start the year, and had room to spare. Until it grows into a bigger issue, it’s not something to sweat about.

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com, sign up for my weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, here.