Halftime Thoughts: Iowa 21, Maryland 0

IOWA CITY - If Iowa loses this game after that first half, it's not just Halloween. It's Halloween on top of Halloween on top of Halloween.

Iowa's 21-0 lead isn't insurmountable by any means, but it sure feels like it. What kind of about-face does Maryland have to do to win this? The Terrapins who had totals of 852 yards and 58 points in their last two games, against Ohio State and Penn State, aren't here. Or maybe Iowa's defense is one of the nation's best.

The latter seems more likely.

Maryland looks one-dimensional on offense and predictably lackluster on defense, and that's a bad combo against a good opponent.

The yardage: Iowa 240, Maryland 68. Any questions?

The play of the half is a tossup, and both plays under consideration would be strong contenders in the plays of the year category.

George Kittle's 1-hand stab of a 26-yard pass from C.J. Beathard late in the first quarter was a doozy, with no offense to fellow Iowa tight end Jake Duzey.

Akrum Wadley's 11-yard touchdown run in the second quarter was a beauty, too. He waited, slithered through a hole that maybe wasn't big enough to even be called a hole, then turned on the moves and the jets.

Coaches can coach their heads and tails off, but you can't teach the talents Kittle and Wadley showed on those two plays.

Iowa doesn't have a running back curse this season, despite ankle injuries to Daniels and Jordan Canzeri.

Not when Wadley could top 200 yards and Derrick Mitchell could add almost 80 against Northwestern two weeks ago. Not when three different running backs - Daniels, Wadley and Mitchell - could all score first-half touchdowns on the ground.

Suddenly, Iowa has running back depth of the kind that has been seldom seen here.

Sometimes you just have to have confirmation of what's working before you start making hay off it.

Iowa passed six times on its first possession though the running game was working fine. The only play of the six passes that got much was a 19-yard play on a dinky screen from C.J. Beathard to Mitchell. Don't get me wrong, it was a good play, a well-designed play.

That drive ended in a missed 45-yard field goal, but Iowa's second possession was five runs, two passes, and both Wadley and LeShun Daniels had 14-yard carries as Iowa powered to a 7-0 lead with 4:42 left in the first quarter.

However ... Iowa came out throwing or looking to throw on its third drive. The first play was that 26-yard pass from Beathard to Kittle. But then came a sack, a pass for a short gain, and another sack. No run game.

Maryland entered the game with 24 sacks, among the nation's leading teams in that department, but yet has one of the country's worst defenses statistically. Sacks are good. Total defense is better.

Iowa picked off a pass in the first half. The player who did it, safety Miles Taylor, is from Maryland.

Generally, Kirk Ferentz doesn't bring in someone

without direct Iowa Hawkeye football ties to be his team's honorary captain for a home game.

But the week before Labor Day weekend, Ferentz invited PGA Tour star and Cedar Rapids native Zach Johnson to have the honor for a game this season, and today's was it.

Johnson is a Hawkeye football fanatic, self-described. He's talked in front of a lot of people, a lot of cameras, and has known some rather large moments. But he said talking to the Iowa team Friday was 'one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.”

Why?

'I'm still a kid looking up to these guys,” said the 40-year-old. 'I feel like a 10-year-old looking up to the ‘86 Rose Bowl team.

'I'm not living here anymore, but Iowa football is one of my significant ways of staying in touch.”

Johnson brought his Clarent Jug back to Iowa for the weekend and showed it to the crowd when he stood at midfield as he was introduced before the game. He gets a year with that British Open championship trophy, and said he wanted to share it was many family members and friends as possible.

'It's not sitting in my living room for a year,” he said.

Johnson watched the first half of the Iowa-Wisconsin game at Kennedy Airport in New York before flying to South Korea with some of his Presidents Cup U.S. teammates. He hoped the airliner would have Wi-Fi or satellite television, but didn't find out the Hawkeyes finished off that game in Madison with a win until he landed at Seoul 14 hours later.

Finding out Iowa prevailed made for a good start to his week there. It finished with the Americans posting a 15.5-14.5 win over the International team. Johnson was 3-0-1 in his matches, including a victory over PGA Championship winner Jason Day in the singles.

Tucker Beathard is performing in downtown Iowa City tonight at the First Avenue Club. He is C.J.'s brother.