Hlas column from Northwestern-Iowa

IOWA CITY - The weather was too nice for November here.

The Hawkeyes' first-quarter play was also atpyically good.

It was an un-Iowa day at Kinnick Stadium Saturday. Yet, was it really?

A team that had spent more and more time living on a highwire finally fell Saturday, and fell hard. It was a stumble that will be remembered unhappily here for years.

One year ago this weekend, a 9-0 team Penn State team came here on a raw, gusty, cold day and lost to an Iowa team that would go on to win 12 more in a row after that.

On a near-balmy Saturday a year later, a plucky Northwestern came in and plucked yet another win out of Kinnick.

The score was 17-10. It was the end of a dreamer's dream, the death of a perfect record.

It threw the Hawkeyes out of the driver's seat in the Big Ten title race and left them looking for the license plate number of what hit them.

What struck them was reality. You can't make turnovers on four straight drives and win.

That somehow, almost impossibly, didn't wreck Iowa against Indiana the week before. Against the disciplined, determined Wildcats, it shoved the Hawkeyes out of the national-title discussion for good this season.

You can call Ricky Stanzi's ankle injury as what ended the dreamer's dream. Maybe it was. But what happened before that hastened the demise.

Iowa was ahead 10-0 after its first two possessions and in pretty firm control of the game after one quarter. It was rare air. It also was fool's gold.

Early in the second period, Stanzi made a bad throw for his 14th interception of the year. Northwestern had the ball at midfield, and the field-position game changed in that instant.

The ‘Cats didn't score on that subsequent possession, but punted to the Iowa 6. Two plays later, NU's Corey Wootton planted Stanzi the wrong way in the end zone.

The recovered fumble gave Northwestern a touchdown. Ouch. The way Stanzi was twisted in the turf probably ended his charmed, wild and yes, frequently brilliant regular-season.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

If Iowa hadn't looked mortal enough before, it truly was earthbound after that.

“You could see guys were a little worried,” said Iowa receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos.

“He's such a strong kid. He never gets hurt, he's always there.

“We expect that, we take it for granted. His leadership, his ability to come back, his ability to sustain drives, his ability to make throws when we need them.”

The call went to redshirt freshman James Vandenberg. The kid, by all accounts, should be a fine college quarterback. Someday. Not this day.

Iowa didn't score again.

“I know all the stuff,” Vandenberg said. “I just wasn't making enough plays.”

He was no goat. It was a rough spot for a coming-out. And not nearly as nasty a situation as his first college start, next weekend at Ohio State.

“I've got to come in tonight, early tomorrow, watch the film, learn as much as I can,” Vandenberg said. “We don't have time to hang our heads.”

Not very many in these parts wanted to agree with what nearly everyone around the country thought about the Hawkeyes. Which was, they were cheating the odds with their amazing run of close wins. They were admirable, absolutely, but they weren't great.

But they had always shown resiliency and toughness as games grew old, and that combination is endearing. It led many to wonder if magic dust had been showered on the Hawkeyes, that their will to win might actually carry them to things no Iowa team in football's modern era had ever known.

But 12 games is a long, revealing season, especially in the Big Ten. Seldom does a highwire act run the table. It takes the force of an elephant and the fury of a tiger to win them all.

Now, the BCS circus has left Iowa City. Now, the Hawkeyes need another dousing of magic dust to get their hooks into a Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth. How fast can Vandenberg get up to speed?

“He's a smart kid who knows the offense as well as Rick,” Johnson-Koulianos said. “He makes some amazing throws every day in practice. He has a strong arm. He knows a lot about football.

“Right now is the opportunity for James, for his story to begin.”

The Hawkeyes' 2009 story, meanwhile, is still a great one. But oh, what anticipation this week would have held with a win over the Wildcats and Stanzi able-bodied.

Football. In one sudden crunch, it can do the same thing to your heart as your ankle.