Last Call -- Indiana

Wegher week 1 -- The Iowa running game is doing enough to be effective. It's not a juggernaut and likely won't be this season, but it's good enough and freshman Brandon Wegher has proven himself perfectly capable.

When it doesn't work -- 38 yards in the first half -- it's because defensive coordinators still want to make QB Ricky Stanzi beat them with his arm.

Opposing linebackers are running to the line of scrimmage. One or both safeties are creeping toward the line of scrimmage. This sets up the play-action, which popped big in the fourth quarter, but the key phrase here is "set up."

Iowa's idea is to bang, bang, bang and then hard fake and play to Stanzi's strength, throwing on the run.

Even in the fourth quarter, when Iowa trailed by 10, Indiana was gunning the line of scrimmage. Iowa couldn't afford to spend the time to "set up." The playcalling went right to the hard play-action fake.

"We had to do something," Ferentz said. ". . . we had to do something. And they were kind of up in there. They made it tough for us to run the football.

"Again, they were up in there pretty good. We felt like that gave us our best shot, so we just went with the hard play-action. And then Rick did a good job putting the ball where it had to be and those guys finished the runs which was just great to see. I thought that guy was going to get McNutt, but then he kind of pulled out of it and showed a little bit more speed than we all thought he had."

It took 92- and 66-yard TD passes for the Hoosiers' defense to loosen up, but when it did Wegher took advantage, gaining 73 of his career-best 118 yards, including a 27-yard TD run to close out IU.

Ferentz was asked early in the week if Wegher was a 20- to 25-carry back. Well, Wegher finished with 25 carries for 118 yards and three TDs -- all career highs.

"He's in a lot of sticky situations when he's been in there, but it didn't mean he's not a good back, and this guy's got a hardness to him," Ferentz said. "I think he rises to the competition. You know, I think he embraced the challenge this week.

"So, it was really good to see him do what he did, but I'm not shocked. It was great to see him get that last touchdown. It'll be a good confidence booster for him."

"Biggest bonehead play of the year" -- Indiana punted from its 46 with about 30 seconds left before halftime. The Hoosiers had the wind and let loose one of those funky rugby punts that went end over end down the Iowa sideline to cornerback Amari Spievey.

Ball was clipping along fairly well, probably would've gone into the end zone. But Ferentz said he called for a return and so Spievey picked it up and took off. Collin Taylor stripped him of the ball and Jammie Kirlew recovered. First down, Indiana at Iowa's 12 with 26 seconds left.

Ben Chappell hit Demarlo Belcher for a 9-yard TD with nine seconds left for a 21-7 halftime lead.

Ferentz let Ferentz have it over that one.

"You're talking about the biggest bone head play of the year - or maybe the day," he said. "But that was me. I got greedy. I was hoping we could get a return, get a spark there and take a couple shots down the field and get three points. You know, as soon as we did it I just, you know, that's my fault. That was just a stupid play, you know. I was hoping they'd bail me out. Thank goodness they did because that was stupid. That was really stupid."

On the coin flip, the Hawkeyes won and, shockingly, deferred, letting IU decide if it wanted the ball or the wind (17 mph out of the WNW) to start the game.

IU took the ball and then took it 69 yards on 11 plays for the TD and a 7-0 lead just more than five minutes into the game.

Ferentz didn't let Ferentz off the hook for this one, either.

"We did it against Michigan State in '03 and got the same result," he said. "They took the ball and drove it for a touchdown. So, that might have been my second dumbest decision today."

Credit Ferentz for humilty, or for taking one for the team.

Pass efficiency lunacy -- The yards per attempt component in the NCAA's pass efficiency must be the mother fulcrum in the formula.

You know where we're going here. As it turned out, Stanzi's pass efficiency actually improved after Saturday's run-of-the-mill 337-yard, five-interception game (both career highs, by the way). The numbers compute to 145.8. For comparison, Penn State's Daryll Clark went into Saturday's games leading the Big Ten with 148.4.

Stanzi's 12.96 per attempt Saturday is gargantuan. An extremely healthy YPA is 9.0. This helped Stanzi go from 126.9 to 128.78. By the way, Stanzi's third quarter (4 of 11 for 48 yards with four interceptions) rated out at .29. In the fourth quarter (3 of 3 for 177 and two TDs), Stanzi rated 815.59.

What do you make out of the efficiency stat? Winning QBs tend to be listed among the national leaders:

1 Kellen Moore, Boise St. QB SO 8 227 153 67.40 2 .88 1905 8.39 24 10.57 171.02

2 Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame QB JR 8 257 172 66.93 2 .78 2318 9.02 18 7.00 164.25

3 Bill Stull, Pittsburgh QB SR 8 196 132 67.35 4 2.04 1654 8.44 16 8.16 161.09

4 Case Keenum, Houston QB JR 8 398 285 71.61 5 1.26 3293 8.27 25 6.28 159.32

5 Max Hall, BYU QB SR 8 247 170 68.83 11 4.45 2231 9.03 17 6.88 158.50

6 Andy Dalton, TCU QB JR 8 187 118 63.10 3 1.60 1642 8.78 14 7.49 158.36

7 Tony Pike, Cincinnati QB SR 6 199 128 64.32 3 1.51 1633 8.21 15 7.54 155.11

8 Tim Tebow, Florida QB SR 8 153 99 64.71 4 2.61 1323 8.65 10 6.54 153.68

9 Ryan Mallett, Arkansas QB SO 8 237 129 54.43 3 1.27 2148 9.06 18 7.59 153.09

10 Nathan Enderle, Idaho QB JR 9 259 161 62.16 9 3.47 2404 9.28 15 5.79 152.29

So, food for thought. Really, that's about all that is.

Special sliding -- You had Spievey's fumble. Freshman WR Keenan Davis also fumbled a punt return. You had K Daniel Murray's line drive failure of a 44-yard field goal attempt. And then there was Ryan Donahue's 8-yard punt, which gave IU field position at Iowa's 35, which ended up in the end zone.

The take here is that Iowa might have a big-time problem replacing WR Colin Sandeman at punt return. Forget his 10.6 yards a return. He caught the ball, and sometimes that's enough. Spievey was still receiving at the end of the game and appears to be the choice, for now.

Also, the world now knows (at least ESPN's Bob Davie does) that Murray is struggling with trajectory. Yes, Iowa has lived through it, but file this. It could factor in a blocked kick sometime down the road.

"You know, for us to win, we need to play well on special teams," Ferentz said. "We certainly struggled there today."

Inside the numbers

350 -- Safety Tyler Sash returned an interception 86 yards for a TD against IU, the fifth-longest INT return in Iowa history. He holds the Iowa record for interception return yardage at 350.

100 -- Iowa has outscored its opponents 100-38 in the fourth quarter this season.

1,600 -- Iowa WR Derrell Johnson-Koulianos passed 1,600 career receiving yards with 117 yards on three catches vs. IU. He now has 107 catches for 1,611 yards. His 66-yard TD reception in the fourth quarter was the longest of his career. He is now tied for 15th on Iowa's career receptions list and is 13th in receiving yards.

4 of 4 -- Iowa made all four of its third-down conversions in the fourth quarter.

1st down -- On 27 first downs, Iowa averaged 10.96 yards a play. In the first half, Iowa gained 81 yards on 13 first downs. The big plays were a 32-yard Stanzi completion to Marvin McNutt and a 37-yarder to DJK. Wegher scored a 1-yard TD on a first-and-4. Stanzi's 92-yarder to McNutt and 66-yarder to DJK in the fourth quarter were on first down.

Overall, Iowa rushed 18 times on first down for 32 yards (1.7 yards per). Stanzi completed 7 of 11 for 268 yards and two TDs. Stanzi was also sacked three times on first down.

Two -- Indiana had two plays in Iowa's end zone reviewed. The first one was a 10-yard pass to Terance Turner, who looked like he might've beaten Spievey for a 10-yard TD. He was called out of bounds, it was reviewed and upheld.

The head-scratcher came with 5:41 left in the third. Turner again seemed to beat Speivey along the Indiana side of Iowa's end zone for an 11-yard TD. He caught the ball while sliding out of bounds. On the field, it was ruled a TD. The review wiped it out, giving the Hoosiers a fourth-and-6 at its 11. Kicker Nick Freeland pushed a 28-yard field goal wide right staved off a 28-14 deficit.

 Side judge John Hayes was in perfect position to make the call. Turner landed on the wide OB line, that was clear. But did he drag his right foot on the pitch black FieldTurf just before he landed? The front angle shows maybe no. But there's also a shot from over the top that shows particles kicking up, suggesting that Turner did indeed drag his foot.

The baseline for overturning a call is indisputable evidence. Going on that, there probably wasn't enough there to overturn the call.

Indiana would've eventually led 31-14.

Would that have stabbed Iowa in the heart? Would that have changed the direction of the 17 mph wind? Improved an Indiana secondary that was missing senior corner Ray Fisher after kickoff? Stopped Iowa from eventually scoring 42 points?

No. No. No. And no.

There wasn't enough to overturn, but Indiana didn't do anything to help itself in the fourth quarter.

Next -- The No. 8 Hawkeyes (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) play host to Northwestern (5-4, 2-3), which is coming off 34-13 home loss to Penn State.

Northwestern QB Mike Kafka injured what looked to be his left hamstring in the second quarter and didn't return. The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that Kafka's dad received a text from his son saying he would be OK and ready to play Iowa.

The Wildcats averaged just 4.1 yards a play under backup Dan Persa against the Nittany Lions.

Kafka is about 300 percent of Northwestern's offense. He finished the PSU game having completed 14 of 18 passes to raise his season completion percentage to 66.8 percent. He is also NU's leading rusher, with 248 yards and six touchdowns.