Riley McCarron's 55-yard punt return TD launches the Hawkeyes

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Riley McCarron was too busy to take note of who was doing what. He threw out a blanket "credit to all of the guys." That's what he's supposed to do.

This was in the postgame after the senior's 55-yard punt return for a touchdown Saturday launched Iowa's 28-0 victory at Illinois. It was just McCarron's second punt return of the season. He had a 38-yarder against Northwestern.

When McCarron sees this during Sunday's video review, he'll be buying Pancheros for ...

1) Iowa assistant coach Seth Wallace handles Iowa's punt return team. The Iowa staff checked the weather forecast for the weekend and noticed that a ceiling fan set on typhoon would hover in the area Saturday.

So, Iowa used a pair of punt returners. McCarron was on the left and cornerback Desmond King, the No. 2 punt returner in the Big Ten, was on the right.

'On Monday, they were calling for 20-plus mph winds,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'Coming over here, it's not uncommon. It's part of the deal and what a great job Riley did and the whole team did on executing that punt return.'

2) King threw the first block.

A middle return was called. King went from potential returner to blocker in a blink.

'He had a great block,' McCarron said. 'That was the game plan all week. If you're not going to catch it, you're obviously going to turn into a blocker. He did a great job. The rest of the unit did great as well. We just happened to break one for once. We were due to break one.'

Iowa's last punt return for a TD is actually credited to former defensive end Drew Ott, who returned a blocked kick 12 yards for a score against Nebraska in 2014. The last true punt return was Kevonte Martin-Manley's pair against Western Michigan in 2013.

3) Cornerback Michael Ojemudia took out the gunner on McCarron's left.

'We knew we would have opportunities out there for our return game,' King said. 'We got that one opportunity and we sprung it free.'

4) Linebacker Jack Hockaday initially fell behind his block, a defender who looked to be assigned the middle lane. But Hockaday stayed close, and at the end, when the defender needed to squeeze and close on McCarron, Hockaday put his body between the defender and the ball and opened the middle of the field like an interstate highway.

5) Linebacker Kevin Ward locked up with an interior player and also helped open the middle of the field.

6) Linebacker Amani Jones pancake'd maybe the last defender who had any shot at McCarron. The player started squeezing from McCarron's right, but Jones knocked him down.

7) Cornerback Joshua Jackson hooked up with a wide receiver in the middle of the field. This wasn't the block than sprang McCarron, but it was one of many that kept McCarron untouched until he tossed the ball over his head and greeted teammates in the end zone.

'They did a great job blocking,' McCarron said. 'I didn't get a finger laid on me. Credit to them, they did an outstanding job. I had the easy part.'

McCarron's general 'credit to all of the guys' really does work here.