Hlas: With one big pass, Indiana officially passes Iowa in Big Ten pecking order

IOWA CITY — It seems everybody in sports writing and reporting in general are into takeaways these days.

Three takeaways on this, five takeaways on that. To paraphrase Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti, Google it. Everybody’s doing it. We used to call them notebooks. Well, there’s one takeaway from Iowa’s 20-15 football loss to Indiana Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, and it’s that this was a mixed bag.

Yes, the Hawkeyes showed they could go chin strap to chin strap with the No. 11 team in the nation, and make a tornado of an offense led by a quarterback who is a possible 2026 NFL No. 1 draft pick look less than violently destructive.

If Iowa can play Indiana like this, why can it not do likewise here against Penn State and Oregon, as well as in Los Angeles against USC? Why can’t it still have a glossy record by season’s end? The answer is, it can.

OK. But the bag is mixed because Iowa is 0-2 against ranked teams this year and hasn’t beaten any of the last 11 it has faced. Because it was Indiana that made the play of the game when it needed to be made, not Iowa. Because the Hawkeyes didn’t look entirely sound when it came to tackling, because they are a minus-1 in turnovers this season and had two different quarterbacks get intercepted Saturday.

It’s because they received the opening kickoff against the Hoosiers, yet were somehow behind 7-0 before 90 seconds had passed. Because Indiana got the ball at its 25 with 22 seconds left in the first half, and the Hoosiers managed to come up with three points before halftime.

It’s because after Zach Lutmer returned an interception 38 yards to the Indiana 29 with 2:50 left and a 13-13 score to make victory seem imminent, Iowa went 3-and-out before Drew Stevens missed a 42-yard field goal with 2:01 still to play.

It’s because Fernando Mendoza, that Hoosier quarterback who had completed 40 of 43 passes over his previous two games, was a mortal 13-of-23 with that Lutmer pick Saturday. However, he made the play of the game with 1:28 left, a dart to Elijah Saratt for 49 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

That’s a lot of “becauses.”

It could have been Iowa’s win despite its two picks and just 284 yards of offense. It could have been Iowa sitting at 2-0 in the Big Ten, not Indiana.

Instead, Iowa is 3-2 overall, 1-2 against Power Four teams, and a face in the crowd until it gets the chance to beat Penn State in its next home game, Oct. 18.

“The thing I shared with the players in the locker room,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said, “is that there is a lot of football ahead. Not as much as we had a couple weeks ago, obviously.

“We’ve shown some growth. I really believe we had a lot of room for more improvement, and that’s the work we need to do forward.”

Many is the time we’ve seen Ferentz’s guys refuse to be deflated by losses in the first half of the season. Many is the time they’ve risen up and finished seasons strong. So to discount the possibility of that this fall is foolish, especially if quarterback Mark Gronowski doesn’t have to miss any time after his second-half injury Saturday.

On the other hand, there are only a handful of chances each season to feel truly elated about a victory during a college season, and this would have been such a win.

Cignetti and the Hoosier players Indiana brought to its postgame press conference lauded Iowa’s program and its performance. They didn’t brag about their win, they were just happy to have it after a 60-minute struggle. It wasn’t the polar opposite of their 63-10 win over Illinois the week before, but it sure didn’t bear much resemblance.

“It was a really tough, tough, competitive team game between two really, I think, good teams and very determined teams,” Cignetti said.

“A great environment against a great Big Ten team,” said Hoosier center Pat Coogan.

As the evening sky grew dark here Saturday, however, the math had changed. This wasn’t the Indiana that had lost eight of its last nine games to the Hawkeyes and was winless here since 2007.

The math says only one of these two clubs is currently a big deal in the Big Ten, and now it’s the team in crimson and cream.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com