Halftime thoughts: Iowa 38, Indiana 21

IOWA CITY — Did anyone confuse Indiana's defense with that of the Seattle Seahawks? I thought not.

As I said on Twitter (@Hlas), the first quarter wasn't just cray cray, it was cray cray cray cray cray cray cray.

The score is Iowa 38, Indiana 21. The Hoosiers don't have their only experienced quarterback, Nate Sudfeld, because of a second-quarter injury. Indiana has offered little defensive resistance.

This goes in Iowa's win column, right? I mean, how could it not?

Iowa had a 15-play, 80-yard drive for its first touchdown. That concluded the sane portion of the period.

First … Desmond King badly outplayed Indiana freshman receiver Dominique Booth in getting his one-handed interception and 35-yard return for a touchdown.

It was almost surprising to realize this was sophomore King's first career INT considering how well he has played since breaking into the Hawkeyes' lineup early last season.

Other than that, Mr. Booth, how did you enjoy the play?

Then after an Indiana 3-and-out, Jake Rudock fired a 72-yard perfect pass to a streaking Damond Powell for an easy six points. If Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz felt smug for a moment after that, well, you know why.

Showing why he's Tevin Coleman, the Indiana running back galloped 83 yards for an Indiana TD to cut the Iowa lead to 21-7. That gave Coleman his 15th-straight 100-yard rushing game. He, to use a phrase Ferentz has borrowed from the cartoons a couple times this year in Tuesday press conferences, isn't your average bear.

So naturally, Iowa scored on its next play, a 60-yard dash by freshman Jonathan Parker. Indiana's defensive backs seemed to be doing their best to run into each other.

Shane Wynn dropped a touchdown pass for Indiana early in the second quarter, and as a result the Hoosiers squandered a successful onside kick.

Take away the drop and the pick-6 … but you can't, so why bother?

Iowa had a problem on its second play from scrimmage. Starting right guard Jordan Walsh got hurt and was helped off the field.

Enter senior Tommy Gaul, who came on to play center, with Austin Blythe moved to guard. That seemed a recipe for trouble, and Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock got sacked on the next play. So it was a 3-and-out.

But on Iowa's second drive, the Hawkeyes had no such problems in going 80 yards over 15 plays for a touchdown.

Gaul is from West Des Moines Dowling. He is a former walk-on.

Coleman had 9 carries for 144 yards. No matter how badly the Hoosiers get whomped today, he got his yards and had his highlights on two long TD dashes.

When you aren't winning, you at least need a marquee player. Coleman is marquee.

The numbers were bizarre all the way around. The teams combined for 547 yards, 300 by Iowa. The Hawkeyes cored four touchdowns in stretch of three minutes and 38 seconds. Iowa had scoring drives of 11 seconds and 9 seconds. Indiana then had one of 8 seconds.

A week ago Friday, I saw Elkader Central's 8-man high school team score two touchdowns in 12 seconds, and then two touchdowns in 10 seconds thanks to successful usage of onside kicks. This was just as nutty, and they were using 11 players on each side and a 100-yard field instead of the 8-man's 80-yard track.

Elkader Central, by the way, is 7-0. It beat Central City last night, 68-0.

Iowa tried and made a short field goal. That was something different, too.

Drew Tate is today's honorary captain for Iowa. A few months ago, I was asked to participate in voting for something Tom Kakert's Hawkeye Report site did, with the 'Mount Rushmores' of various positions in Iowa football history.

At quarterback, I had Brad Banks but didn't have Tate. The more I thought about it later, the more I think I would have reversed that vote.

Banks was nothing short of marvelous in 2002, of course, but was Tate any less in 2004 when he helped Iowa to a share of the Big Ten title on a team that lost running back after running back to injury?

And, Tate played two more seasons after that, though neither could compare to '04.

At 30, Tate has endured in the Canadian Football League. He lost his starting job with the Calgary Stampeders to injury, but regained a few weeks ago when Bo Levi Mitchell got hurt. The Stamps are 12-2, 2-1 with Tate starting. His career record is 7-1 when he's played an entire game.

Tate has 28 career touchdown passes to 11 interceptions, and has rushed for 21 TDs. He has eight rushing touchdowns this year alone, having been Calgary's quarterback in short-yardage situations near the goal line.

No former Iowa quarterback is in the NFL. No quarterback who has played for Kirk Ferentz at Iowa has thrown an NFL pass, which is kind of strange when you think about it. But the CFL isn't chopped liver, and Tate has done well and is doing well there. He is an unqualified success as a football player.

I was among those who were behind the Iowa team buses on I-380 this morning. NG. Not Good.

It reminded me of when I've been on media buses covering the Super Bowl, where police escorts let us zip through traffic while civilians waited for us to pass.

It's a lot more fun to be in the bus getting the special treatment than to be on the outside waiting for it to go by.

We really pay football a lot of tribute in this country, don't we?