No. 6 Stanford 45, No. 5 Iowa 16

PASADENA, Calif. — It was quick and it was clean and it was nothing personal. Iowa had a historic season, regular season anyway.

Stanford was cordial all week and said really nice things about the Hawkeyes. Then, before 94,268 fans in the Rose Bowl on Friday afternoon, the Cardinal did nasty, nasty things to the Hawkeyes.

It was over after one play, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey caught a short pass between linebacker Cole Fisher and free safety Jordan Lomax and went 75 breezy yards for a TD 11 seconds into the game. The stories on who had responsibility there are unclear, and that about says it all for the Hawkeyes.

McCaffrey put up a Rose Bowl-record 368 all-purpose yards and No. 6 Stanford limited Iowa's offense to a just 48 rushing yards in a 45-16 victory over the No. 5 Hawkeyes (12-2), who finished the 2015 season with back-to-back defeats following a school-record 12-0.

'This sucks,' Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard said. 'This will be stuck on us for a little while, but we'll get over it, hopefully sooner than later. We did have a great season and you can't take that away from us.'

It was quick and it was clean.

McCaffrey, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, danced through Iowa like a deer dodging traffic on I-80. He followed up the 75-yarder with a 63-yard punt return touchdown, flashing moves that froze linebacker Josey Jewell and safety Kevin Ward and planted them on their backsides. In the first half alone, the sophomore had 98 yards receiving, 87 yards rushing and the 65-yard punt return for 252 all-purpose yards.

McCaffrey fueled a 35-0 first-half surge, most points scored in a Rose Bowl first half, that sunk the Hawkeyes. He finished with 172 rushing yards and 105 receiving.

'It was like he could see the holes before they were even there,' linebacker Cole Fisher said. 'He's great in the open field and really a strong runner for his size.'

After McCaffrey's 75-yard burst, Iowa went three-and-out, and the Cardinal went 75 yards on eight plays for a 14-0 lead less than six minutes into the game. Iowa put together a solid drive and then Beathard threw a late out that defensive back Quenton Meeks undercut, picked and returned 66 yards for a 21-0 lead.

Beathard was pummeled all game, taking seven sacks and several hits. Iowa's wide receivers struggled finding separation. The O-line, which shuffled starters because of injury, according to head coach Kirk Ferentz, never found footing.

'No one likes getting their quarterback hit like that, especially a guy like C.J., who we all love,' said sophomore Boone Myers, who moved to guard from tackle due to injury. 'That literally just cuts down into the atmosphere when you see him down on the ground and he's limping around out there for you. He's doing his job, but you haven't done your job right and that really sucks.'

Beathard, who finished 21 of 33 for 239 yards, two TDs and an interception, said he hurt his back on the first drive. You know he's been hurt all season. Ferentz said he's not on the list of possible surgical candidates for the offseason, at least not right now.

Beathard, who nursed hip and groin injuries since October, said 'we'll see' on any sort of offseason surgery.

'Just to put it on one injury or guys being a little bit hobbled, Stanford just outplayed us every turn,' Ferentz said. 'They outplayed us.'

Iowa literally never found footing, continually slipping at inopportune times on the Rose Bowl natural turf.

'It's not an excuse because they run on the same field,' said Jewell, who added that Iowa wore only one pair of cleats during the game. 'We needed to stay balanced and attack like we usually do.'

The punt return deserves so much more than this plain sentence, but the final scoring play of the first half was so odd and really kind of said everything you needed to know about this game.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan, who led an offense that scored TDs in four of its first five possessions, faked a fumble and McCaffrey hit the deck pretending to try to recover the fake fumble. Iowa's secondary reacted toward the line of scrimmage. Wide receiver Michael Rector split corners Desmond King and Greg Mabin for a 31-yard TD.

It was over and that was embarrassing. It was a fake fumble. You don't do that unless you feel like master and commander of the game.

'I didn't know that was a trick play,' cornerback Desmond King said. 'I thought that was an actual fumble. They outsmarted us on that play and made a big play out of it.'

Iowa hasn't been master or commander in bowls lately, with Friday's result dropping Iowa to 0-4 in its last four. This was Iowa's first Rose Bowl appearance since 1991. Any hope for its first Rose Bowl victory since 1959 were blurred early by the brilliant McCaffrey and a defensive front that ate alive an Iowa offensive line that tried a different lineup and then tried several combinations during the game.

It wasn't the injuries, it wasn't the shoes. It was the Stanford.

'You've got to play with your feet up underneath you,' Ferentz said. 'That's what it gets down to.'

Iowa never did.

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