Grunt work win: Running game, defense help Hawkeyes fight through mistakes

No, it wasn't nice and tidy.

It was a quarterback who looked a little shaky in his second start. It was 10 penalties for 173 yards. It was eight dropped passes.

It was a kicker who couldn't kick straight. It was one shanked punt. It was an offensive lineman running around in circles on the field goal unit.

The Hawkeyes (1-0) left a lot on the table Saturday at Soldier Field. But it was a 16-3 victory over Northern Illinois (0-1) before 61,500 mostly Iowa fans. It was a 40-3 victory

shaved down because of all of the above, but it was a victory.

It wasn't Michigan, a 34-32 home loser to Appalachian State, a Football Championship Subdivision school.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz will wake up this morning and he won't be Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr.

Take a deep breath. It wasn't Michigan.

"Yeah, we heard that after the game," Iowa defensive lineman Matt Kroul said. "I can't believe that. Can you believe it?"

In light of the big bomb in the Big House, Iowa's victory over a team picked for a second-tier finish in the Mid-American Conference looked like football artistry.

For the beauty in Iowa's victory you have to look at the ugly grunt work of football.

Running backs Albert Young and Damian Sims rushed for 144 and 110 yards, respectively, repeating their 2005 performance against Minnesota, the last time a pair of Iowa running backs went over 100 yards.

"Dam, did you see we both had 100?" Young yelled from one interview clump in the gray guts of Soldier Field.

The 100 yards is been-there, done-that for Young, who did it for the 11th time. It's still sort of new for Sims, who logged just his third.

"Yeah, oh yeah," Sims said. "I saw that."

Iowa's running game was the spine of its victory. It was the one thing the Hawkeyes could lean on.

"The biggest difference was that Iowa was able to run the ball and we weren't," NIU Coach Joe Novak said. "When we throw the ball 40-plus times (42, to be exact), that's not good for us."

Iowa's offense sort of futzed around through the first quarter. Sophomore quarterback Jake Christensen started the game 1-for-7 and was 2-for-9 before a scramble to nowhere and a sack near the end of the first quarter.

Then, junior wide receiver Andy Brodell found a seam and returned a punt 56 yards down Iowa's sideline to NIU's 20.

That gave the Hawkeyes something to work with.

"It did a lot for us," Brodell said. "We came out maybe a little jittery and there were a lot of guys on the offensive side of the ball who hadn't played a whole lot. It really got us going as far as field position."

Young carried three straight times, giving Iowa a 6-0 lead on a 7-yard run with 12:19 left in the second quarter. After a 55-yard punt pinned the Hawkeyes at their 5, they really leaned on Young, Sims and an offensive line that had three new starters, including sophomore Travis Meade, who won the last spot at left guard.

Young carried four straight times, moving the ball to Iowa's 33.

Then, offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe made a masterful call, a play-action pass to wideout James Cleveland for a 40-yard gain to NIU's 33.

Christensen finished off the 95-yard drive with a 5-yard TD pass to tight end Brandon Myers.

You could almost feel the weight being taken off Christensen. He didn't force it, just let the game come, and he finally had a few highlights to show for it.

"I thought, and he'd probably be the first one to tell you, he missed some reads, missed some open receivers at times," Ferentz said. "On the plus side, I thought his demeanor was great. He saw things out there. He managed the team and the huddle, all those intangible things you take for granted sometimes."

Christensen finished just 12 of 29 for 133 yards and the one TD. He was hounded by eight drops, but he also missed his share of open receivers.

He's OK. It was a win. It wasn't Michigan.

"We left some opportunities out there," Christensen said. "But the good thing is we had a chance for those opportunities. Sooner or later, we'll start taking advantage of those."

If Iowa's running game was the spine, its defense was everything else.

When Iowa was bullying the Big Ten in 2002 and 2004, you heard defensive coordinator Norm Parker use the term "one-dimensional," meaning the Hawkeyes stopped the run and forced their opponents to pass.

Iowa did that kind of bullying Saturday, holding the Huskies to 21 yards on 21 carries. It was the lowest rush total against the Hawkeyes since they held Montana to 10 in last season's opener.

NIU quarterback Dan Nicholson completed 26 of 42 for 214 yards and three interceptions, two by cornerback Charles Godfrey. Nicholson also was sacked three times, including two by tackle Mitch King.

The Hawkeyes held Northern Illinois to 235 total yards. The defense wasn't about to have a Michigan happen on its watch.

"As a defense, we want to stop the run. We want to pound them," Godfrey said.

"We want those guys to stop the run and we'll take care of the pass."

It wasn't perfect - far from it. But it wasn't Michigan.

It's still football season in Iowa City. It's something else in Ann Arbor.