Hawkeyes blown out by heavily-favored Michigan in Big Ten championship game

INDIANAPOLIS — Some doubted whether Iowa could finish 10-2. Iowa proved them wrong.

Some doubted Iowa’s chances of going to the Big Ten title game. Iowa proved them wrong.

But No. 13 Iowa didn’t prove any doubters wrong Saturday.

The double-digit underdog suffered an embarrassing 42-3 rout at the hands of second-ranked Michigan in Saturday’s Big Ten football championship game.

“We’ve been working for a moment like this since January,” tight end Sam LaPorta said. “It hurts more than anything to work so hard, to fall quite a ways short.”

Michigan (12-1) had virtually complete control of the game, taking the lead about midway through the first quarter and never relinquishing it.

Iowa’s defense prides itself on allowing no more than two plays of 25-plus yards per game. But the unit allowed three big plays against the Wolverines in the first quarter alone.

Michigan running back Blake Corum used a massive hole given by his offensive line and outmaneuvered Iowa’s Jermari Harris for a 67-yard rushing touchdown to give the Wolverines an early 7-0 lead.

A couple drives after Iowa (10-3) tried and failed to execute a trick-play halfback pass, Michigan tried the almost the exact same play and had much more success. Freshman back Donovan Edwards connected with a wide-open Roman Wilson for a 75-yard touchdown.

“You don't want to give up big plays, and we did that twice right off the bat,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Safety Kaevon Merriweather attributed the big plays to the defense “not really being completely locked into what’s going on.”

Michigan’s offense averaged 8.2 yards per play in the first half. When excluding the two big plays, that average goes down to 5.1.

The Wolverines removed any doubt with four second-half touchdowns. They averaged 5.6 yards per play after intermission against Iowa’s usually-stout defense.

Backup quarterback Alex Padilla gave the Hawkeyes a short-lived spark on offense in the second half, but it wasn’t nearly enough to climb out of the 21-3 hole he inherited.

Padilla completed 10-of-14 passes for only 38 yards. Twenty-nine of those yards came on his first drive.

Iowa’s red-zone offense, or lack there of, was quite costly.

The Hawkeyes went to the red zone three times and came away with three points on those trips.

“We weren’t good enough today in the red zone,” LaPorta said. “We need to put points up. We didn’t do that.”

Iowa’s first trip was scoreless after Caleb Shudak had a rare 33-yard field goal miss. The Hawkeyes made it to the Michigan 4-yard-line on the second trip before having to settle for a field goal.

A fourth-down play where Padilla threw a pass to Tyler Goodson for minus-7 yards put an end to the third and final red-zone possession.

The Iowa rushing attack, meanwhile, struggled against a fierce Michigan defense. The Hawkeyes averaged 3.2 yards per carry.

The offense appeared to have some life early on, although that faded quickly.

The Hawkeyes accumulated 121 yards in the first quarter — that averages out to a superb 5.3 yards per play — and visited the red zone on two of their first three drives.

Petras was 5-of-8 to start the game and then only hit 4-of-14 passes after that.

It marked the sixth straight game that Iowa’s starting quarterback completed 50 percent or fewer of his passes.

Ferentz said Petras had “something in his torso” that is hurt, causing him to switch to Padilla.

Iowa had its fewest points in a game since Oct. 5, 2019, also against Michigan. That game was only a 10-3 loss, though.

The Hawkeyes had a lot at stake going into the game — the chance for their first conference title since 2004, first outright title since 1985 and first Rose Bowl appearance since 2015.

Now, Iowa will have one thing still up for grabs — a bowl win.

The Citrus Bowl is the most likely destination. A New Year’s Six bowl berth is highly unlikely, although not impossible after Saturday’s loss.

Meanwhile, Michigan will head to this year’s College Football Playoff; after top-ranked Georgia’s loss to Alabama in Saturday’s SEC Championship, the second-ranked Wolverines could vault to the top spot.

Comments: (319) 398-8394; john.steppe@thegazette.com