Halftime Thoughts: Iowa 16, Illinois 7

Yards

: Iowa 299, Illinois 121.

First downs

: Iowa 15, Illinois 4.

Time of possession

: Iowa 19:45, Illinois 10:15

Blowout? Nope. Not yet.

Despite allowing 299 yards, Illinois' defense has had several fine moments and caused plenty of consternation for Iowa's offensive line. The score could easily have been 27-7.

Isn't it amazing how much better

coaches and teams look when the quarterback is talented and can improvise?

The play C.J. Beathard made to bail Iowa out of a 3rd-and-13 at the Iowa 39 with nine minutes left in the first half was purely on him. He ran to the right for daylight that had been hard to find in the half, then threw a ball 50 yards in the air to a spot that freshman receiver Jerminic Smith reached at the perfect moment for a 49-yard reception.

Three plays later, Jordan Canzeri juked his way to a 17-yard touchdown after catching a short pass from Beathard, and Iowa led 13-7.

Beathard did have a bad miss on a 1-yard pass to Smith with :15 left in the half. It happens.

There are statistics for everything in sports

. I wonder what the winning percentage is for teams who converted 3rd-and-longer-than-26.

Iowa connected on a 46-yard pass from Beathard to Smith late in the first quarter on a 3rd-and-27 from the Iowa 39.

What a decimating thing for a defense. What an uplifting thing for an Iowa offense that sorely needed a deep threat in the absence of senior Tevaun Smith.

Iowa had never had a Tevaun or a Jerminic. Now it has both, and they are Smiths. Tevaun is from Toronto, Jerminic from Garland, Texas. It will be interesting if Tevaun recovers from his knee surgery and lines up opposite Jerminic later this season.

Jerminic had four first-half catches for 118 yards. He not only showed speed, but good hands and good instincts. He's a freshman. This is good for Iowa football.

Iowa had 1st-and-goal at the Illinois 4

early in the second quarter. If you're a Top Ten team, you punch it in from there. The Hawkeyes had a 1st-and-goal at the 1 late in the half. If you're a Top Ten team, you punch it in from there.

What if you're a Top 25 team? Apparently it's not a given.

The Hawkeyes got a total of three points from those two spots. They were two great defensive stands from an Illinois team that made nothing of the sort last year when it allowed over 300 rushing yards to Iowa in its 30-14 home loss that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

How much does a missed extra-point

affect a team?

The obvious answer is on the scoreboard. If you lose by a point, it hurts. A lot.

But this game took a temporary ugly change for Iowa when Marshall Koehn missed a PAT after the Hawkeyes scored on their second drive for a 6-0 lead.

Illinois immediately responded with a 67-yard touchdown drive highlighted by passes of 34 and 27 yards. They got their touchdown, and they got their PAT for a 7-6 lead.

But it was early.

Much credit has been given

to Iowa defenders Desmond King and Drew Ott, with reason. And Nate Meier, with good reason.

But defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson is good. Really good.

And Hawkeye running back Jordan Canzeri is really good.

The Big Ten has Ezekiel Elliott and Justin Jackson and Jordan Howard and De'Veon Smith. But Canzeri has had an All-Big Ten half-season. He doesn't have Elliott's numbers, or freshman Howard's, but he's been a critical player for an unbeaten team.

The 5-foot-9, 192-pound Canzeri carried the ball 20 times in the first half for 76 yards and had two catches for 15 yards and his ninth touchdown of the season.

I'm curious. How many among you

will do wall-to-wall college football today? Anyone?

What that means is, who will go from the 11 a.m. games all the way to the end of the California-Utah game that starts at 9 p.m. on ESPN?

Or, for some reason I certainly wouldn't try to pertain, the Wyoming-Air Force game on ESPN2 that begins at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2. Wyoming rivals Kansas for badness.

I count the Cubs-Cardinals game at 4:30 in your viewing, Or the Mets-Dodgers, for that matter. That starts at 8.

Were I a shut-in today – and the concept has its merits if it's voluntary instead of health-related – here would be my viewing priorities, with local teams factored out of the equation:

1. Cubs-Cards. Unless the Cubs were giving no better of an offensive show through the first few innings that they gave Friday night in their 4-0 Game 1 loss.

2. Northwestern-Michigan, 2:30. I'd love to see Northwestern win and set up a possible/probable battle of 6-0 teams next Saturday when Iowa visits Evanston.

3. Wisconsin-Nebraska, 2:30. Someone's going to lose to fall to 0-2 in the Big Ten, and it isn't going to sit well at all either place.

4. Arkansas-Alabama, 6. Bielema.

5. Cal-Utah, 9. A battle of unbeaten.

6. Indiana-Penn State. Which of these two will begin unraveling today?

7. (tie) Minnesota-Purdue, Michigan State-Rutgers. Just to see if something screwy happens either place.

Navy-Notre Dame? Only if Navy is ahead in the fourth quarter.