Wet, wild roller coaster ride for Iowa football ends with cruel thud against Oregon

IOWA CITY — As John Lennon sang in his song “God,” the dream is over.

For Lennon, that signified putting idealism behind and facing reality. For the three-loss Iowa football team Saturday, it meant a climb into College Football Playoff discussion no longer appears attainable. Barring a wild series of events the rest of this month, the Hawkeyes will remain 0-for-reaching-the-CFP.

Look, that was going to be remain uphill even had Iowa clung to its short-lived 16-15 lead over Oregon at Kinnick Stadium instead of falling 18-16 on a 39-yard field goal. With the loss, though, the dream is over.

“I’m not big on the dream thing,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said in his postgame press conference.

Maybe that’s a defense mechanism. Ferentz’s team could have used a defensive mechanism in this game after surrendering not only 261 rushing yards, but an Oregon drive in the final 1:51 that went mostly by air from the Ducks’ 25 to the Iowa 21.

Enter Atticus Sappington, a senior kicker from “war-torn” Portland, Ore.

After all the viewers had watched over three hours of this wet and wild roller coaster, Atticus Sappington stepped onto the soaked Kinnick field and punched through a field goal with three seconds left. He kept Oregon in the CFP upper class and Iowa in the “Be nice to the Florida bowl people” stratum.

Atticus Sappington sounds like the name of a Charles Dickens character. His kick made it the best of times for Oregon, the worst of times for Iowa. It negated a 93-yard touchdown drive the Hawkeyes had masterfully executed on their previous possession.

“I’m a huge man of faith and I know Jesus is out there with me,” Sappington said.

Oregon’s entire fan base tagged along after he made the kick.

It was a game to remember, great theater staged by two very good teams. Losing like that kind of game, with the stakes and the emotions higher than the relentless rain clouds of the day, that not only breaks heart but leaves them broken for as long as the game is remembered.

Sometimes the other team is one play better. The 24-yard pass-and-catch from Oregon’s Dante Moore to Malik Benson to get the Ducks into field goal range on the last drive was 24-karat gold.

“You talk about a matter of inches,” Ferentz said. “It was a great throw. The guy did a good job bringing in. (Iowa cornerback) TJ (Hall) had great coverage, and he’s been playing his ass off all year.

“Sometimes that’s football.”

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Oregon certainly had no monopoly on wonderful and clutch plays. There was the 40-yard strike the Hawkeyes’ Mark Gronowski threw to tight end DJ Vonnahme on 3rd-and-5 from the Iowa 12 on his team’s last series. Nine plays later, Gronowski trotted into the end zone for the 12th time this season.

It felt like Iowa was heading to a 7-2 record and would wait longer to hear its name called on the coming Tuesday’s CFP rankings countdown show than it did in the previous one.

Oregon gouged the Hawkeye defense on the ground, but never put the game on ice. Iowa kept the contest in its reach. Drew Stevens hit a 58-yard field goal to help the cause early in the fourth quarter. A 58-yard field goal!

It never felt like the Hawkeyes just wouldn’t lose until Atticus Sappington ensured he won’t have to buy his own craft beers in Eugene for a while.

As achy breaky hearts go, you have to flip back to the 2015 Big Ten championship game for the last time the Hawkeyes came oh, so close only to hurt oh, so much.

That night in Indianapolis, Iowa scored on an 85-yard pass for a 13-9 lead early in the fourth quarter, a lightning bolt that put the 4-team CFP and a 13-0 record within its grasp. It wasn’t to be. Michigan State got the ball over the goal line by inches with 27 seconds left for the 16-13 win after a 9-minute, 22-play drive.

Saturday’s game was that type of battle, one that screamed “Big Ten,” not “Pac-12.” Oregon showed it can play ugly November Midwest ball against a team that does it so well, and prevail. By the slimmest of margins.

“This is the kind of game we were hoping it would be,” Ferentz said.

It just wasn’t the kind of result he desired. And a dream — one of those rare opportunities to be in play for the national-championship tournament — was washed away.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com