The good, bad and ugly unsung moments of Iowa football’s win at Rutgers

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Big Ten play comes down to details, and how a team executes those details in crucial moments. Occasionally there’s a little bit of luck involved, too.

Iowa football had both of those against Rutgers in its conference opener. The Hawkeyes had a few errors of their own, but the good outweighed the bad in a 60-minute offensive battle.

Quarterbacks Mark Gronowski and Athan Kaliakmanis traded touchdown drives the entire game, until the Hawkeye signal caller pulled away in the fourth quarter to win it, 38-28, in New Jersey.

“First half wasn't exactly by script,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But the guys kept pushing, kept digging. They believed in each other. And sometimes you got to win games like this, too. We had to work for it tonight, which is a real credit for Rutgers.”

Even the smallest details had ripple effects against the Scarlet Knights — creating the game-changing moments Iowa needed to stack up for its first conference win of the season.

Here are the moments that helped, and hurt, the Hawkeyes in their road trip to New Jersey Friday night:

The good

Blocked that kick

Ethan Hurkett didn’t just get a Big Ten win on his birthday, but he was also a key contributor to the Hawkeyes’ success.

After the Scarlet Knights were driving downfield, the Iowa defense finally forced a field-goal attempt. It was still a tie game, at 21-all in the third quarter. One kick would’ve given Rutgers an advantage and pressed the Hawkeye offense against a wall to respond.

Hurkett single-handedly denied Rutgers that opportunity — literally. He stuck his left hand up in time to block Scarlet Knights kicker Jai Patel. The blocked kick was the second missed field-goal attempt by Rutgers.

“We got some good push,” Hurkett said. “All I saw was the ball kind of right here, and I just put my hand out and I look over to the sideline, and guys are going crazy. So to see their reactions was really cool.”

Although it took a few more drives before the Hawkeyes scored again, the blocked field goal was a catalyst in frustrating Rutgers. Without Hurkett getting his hand up in time, the Scarlet Knights could have easily gone up 10 points over the Hawkeyes between the field goal and the fourth-quarter touchdown.

The bad

Defensive pass interference

Typically, Iowa plays a clean football game. There may be some errors occasionally, but it might be a missed tackle or a dropped pass. In the second quarter, the defense had two pass interference calls.

They were the only two penalties Iowa had all game, handing Rutgers an additional 30 yards and two fresh sets of downs. Plus, it put the Scarlet Knights in Hawkeye territory.

What separates this as a “bad” and not an “ugly,” however, is that in the end, it didn’t hurt the Hawkeyes. Rutgers went for a field goal, and the ball smacked the left upright with a loud doink. It was the first time Patel missed a field goal in 18 consecutive tries, going back to last season.

The Hawkeye bench went berserk, knowing that a costly error kept the game tied and the offense had a chance to take a lead before halftime.

The ugly

Another missed field goal

Iowa kicker Drew Stevens said following the Week 3 win over Massachusetts that his uncharacteristic missed field goal was a technique problem. It happened again against Rutgers.

Stevens is one of the most automatic kickers in Power Four football, boasting a career 80.3 percentage in made field goals since the 2022 season. He has missed just those two field goals this season.

Although not the biggest issue for Iowa moving forward, it’s rare to see Stevens have those missed three points.

The 40-yard attempt Stevens tried in the third quarter had a good snap, but it sailed wide right.

He’s still the same kicker who drilled a 52-yard kick to start the year, and had room to spare. Until it grows into a bigger problem, it’s not something to be terribly concerned about.

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com, sign up for my weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, here.