Something to be said for taking care of business — Iowa 28, Illinois 0

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It was kind of all over the place. You really didn't how it got where it did or how it was going to end. For a little while, this didn't look human, but more like something made in a lab with the final product missing a few key ingredients.

Really, this game was Levi Paulsen's beard.

Paulsen is a redshirt freshman offensive lineman who's been growing his long red beard since he arrived at Iowa in 2015. It's bushy and carries some heft but there's very little mustache.

The Hawkeyes' 28-0 victory over Illinois was Levi Paulsen's mustache-less beard. The winds that gusted to 40 mph in and around the 39,091 fans at Memorial Stadium forced this magic trick: Iowa won the toss and chose to kick off and defend the north end zone, where the winds blew in from. In the second half, Illinois took the ball.

With the Hawkeyes (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) notching their first shutout since 2010 (45-0 over Ball State) and first Big Ten shutout since 2009 (12-0 vs. Minnesota), Iowa didn't receive a kick.

The game was a mustache-less beard.

It looked like Iowa was finally going to get on the board midway through the second quarter when Iowa running back Akrum Wadley fumbled at Illinois' 1. Wadley wasn't thrown in fumble-purgatory. He logged a few carries in the third quarter and scored the final TD, a 2-yard run that gave Iowa its 28-0 lead with 4:41 left in the game.

Wadley finished with 82 yards on 13 carries, second chair in an effective rush attack led by senior LeShun Daniels, who finished with 159 yards and two TDs, including a 50-yard run that made it 21-0 in the fourth.

Wadley isn't in head coach Kirk Ferentz's doghouse. He's out in the yard and he's still running around.

'We're so far beyond that,' Ferentz said. 'It's going to happen. LeShun had a dropped pass today. He didn't look like he was playing his best early. I'm not saying effort-wise, he just didn't look like he was in sync. Riley (McCarron) had a tipped ball. Jerminic (Smith) had a ball that was catchable, I thought. Yet, all of those guys came back and played. They really rebounded and that's what good players do.

'Bumps in the road are going to happen, but it's part of football. The real question is how does a guy respond? All of those guys I mentioned ... That was one of the strong points of the game for me. Nobody went into the tank. They kept playing.'

Quarterback C.J. Beathard threw slightly behind McCarron early in the second quarter. McCarron tipped the ball and it ended up as an interception. Wadley's fumble came on Iowa's next series. There was no next next series.

McCarron returned a punt right through the heart of Illinois' cover team for a 55-yard TD that finally put the Hawkeyes on the board with 4:33 left before halftime.

'I keep telling the guys they're doing a great job and they have all year,' McCarron said. 'It was just a matter of time before we broke one.'

What set the stage for Iowa's offense to find itself, find its mustache, if you will, was a shutdown performance by Iowa's defense.

You kind of wondered where Iowa's head might be after its gigantic victory over No. 3 Michigan at Kinnick Stadium last week. Iowa's defense played as if that never happened. In fact, the 201 yards Iowa allowed against Michigan last week was Iowa's season-best until it held Illinois (3-8, 2-6) to 198 yards of total offense on Saturday. The Fighting Illini's 61 rushing yards were their worst total since they had just 3 yards against Western Michigan in week 3.

The Illini marched to Iowa's 30 on their final drive. Linebacker Bo Bower broke up a pass to seal the shutout. If you don't think the defense took satisfaction in the shutout — Phil Parker's first as Iowa's defensive coordinator — that's where you're wrong.

'Yeah, we've been striving for one all year,' linebacker Josey Jewell said. 'It's always good to get at least one during the year.'

The Hawkeyes played without a handful of injured players, including offensive tackle Ike Boettger, who missed the game with an injury. That pushed Paulsen into his first career start, moving in at right guard with junior Sean Welsh at right tackle.

The rushing attack stayed in tune against the Illini, with 49 carries for 262 yards. Paulsen was never out of tune with nerves going into his first start. During his childhood in Moville, he learned to play several musical instruments, a little known fact among his teammates.

When Paulsen and backup running back Toks Akinribade walked past a grand piano Friday night at Hawthorne Suites, Paulsen asked Akinribade if he thought he could play it.

'Toks, do you think I could play that?' Paulsen said. 'He's like, 'No way.' I'm like, 'Yep.''

There's more to the 6-5, 290-pounder than a big, red beard with no mustache. This game, though, there was a beard and there was no mustache.