Hawkeyes offense stuck in the 90s

IOWA CITY - It's either some really slick Luke Skywalker vibe or a real-life Jedi mind trick. Whatever 'Star Wars” reference you want to use fits. When Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard gets in the huddle with 90 or so yards in front of the offense, he tells his teammates they're going to score.

Twice Saturday night, the No. 5 Hawkeyes (10-0, 6-0 Big Ten) took the ball against Minnesota (4-6, 1-5) with 90-plus yards in front of them. Twice they marched 90-plus yards for touchdowns.

'You have to go in there and say, ‘Hey, we're about to go 97 yards and put a dagger in them,'” Beathard said. 'Any offense that goes 91 or 97 yards or whatever, that's tough.”

On a day that Kinnick Stadium hosted a wrestling meet with no pins, really, you could kind of argue that Iowa's offense pinned the Gophers twice. Two 90-plus yard TD drives is more than most teams put up in a season much less game, or, more accurately, a half.

Yes, Iowa bookended the first half with 91-yard and 97-yard drives during its 40-35 victory.

'It's demoralizing when you're on the opposite sideline, no question,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'Anytime somebody moves a ball like that for that length of the field, on our side it means somebody made a couple big plays, typically. Though the one drive was in the teens, right?

'One of our drives was. That was pretty impressive, I've got to tell you.”

That's as close as Ferentz comes to flipping the bat and watching the baseball leave the yard. And, really, why not? The Hawkeyes have five 90-yard TD drives this season, 13 TD drives of 80-plus yards and, against Minnesota, the Hawkeyes had five TD drives of 75-plus yards.

That's making a withdrawal from the bank whenever you want.

'Demoralizing for us to be able to do that multiple times,” wide receiver Matt VandeBerg said. 'As soon as C.J. got in the huddle, he said we're going to score here. We took it upon ourselves to follow his leadership and we were able to do that.”

Really? It's that easy? Your QB says that and, presto, it works?

'He's cool, calm and collected and he leads us,” said VandeBerg, who caught six passes for 74 yards. 'We absolutely believe him when he says that. We've had multiple 90-yard drives this year. We have enough faith in ourselves.”

Beathard, who went 6 of 8 for 47 yards on the first 90-yarder, doesn't mince words here. Whenever he starts a drive, he believes Iowa's offense can score touchdowns. It went 5-for-11 against Minnesota and that last drive was taking a knee, which they probably like at least as much as scoring a TD.

'You believe you're going to score every drive, that's the way offense is,” said Beathard, who left the game in the fourth quarter for one play after suffering a hip pointer on a QB sneak. 'Obviously, it's not realistic that you're going to score every drive, but you have to look at every drive like you're going to score.”

The 90-yarders against Minnesota couldn't have been anymore different.

Iowa started its first drive of the game from its 9. On third-and-10, Beathard dropped a screen pass to running back Derrick Mitchell for a 12-yard gain. On third-and-5 from the 27, Beathard scrambled for 14 yards. On third-and-7 from the 44, the Gophers were hit with a defensive holding penalty.

On third-and-15 from Minnesota's 40, Beathard connected with VandeBerg for 18 yards. Running back LeShun Daniels took care of a second-and-10 with an 18-yard gain. He finished the drive with a 3-yard TD run.

The totals: 17 plays, 91 yards and 8:38 off the clock. This drive had a little bit of everything. There was the tight-rope walking on third downs, a review on a tight end George Kittle fumble that was overturned and Iowa overcame a first-and-20 after a holding penalty.

'I think just getting one first down when you're backed up like that, that's really the goal,” center Austin Blythe said. 'You can flip field position and then the goal after that is obviously to go down the field and score points and score touchdowns.”

The 97-yard drive, which was finished on Daniels' 2-yard run with 44 seconds left before halftime, came with a few more big plays. Beathard scrambled to buy time and found Krieger Coble for a 32-yard gain. On the next play, Beathard scrambled through the middle of the field for a 26-yard gain to Minnesota's 14.

'He is a pretty good athlete,” Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys said. 'He made plays that he's made before and that's why everyone likes to have a mobile quarterback.”

The drive went 97 yards on nine plays and took an economical 3:08. The Hawkeyes have now outscored opponents 44-0 in the final two minutes of the first half.

When one of these beastly drives is happening, do the players even realize it? You can see how they might get caught up in the moment and, you know, their jobs and might lose track of where they started.

'You're out there and executing at such a high level, you're not even thinking about the drive,” said Daniels, who finished with a career high 195 yards and has now scored six TDs in the last three games. 'You're just thinking about getting first downs and going out there and making plays.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com