Turnovers help Iowa football steamroll Maryland, remain undefeated

COLLEGE PARK, MD. — Iowa keeps on forcing turnovers and winning games. On Friday, that happened at a historic level.

No. 5 Iowa (5-0, 2-0) remained undefeated Friday night with a 51-14 rout of Maryland (4-1, 1-1), largely because of its defense and special teams forcing seven total turnovers and the offense taking advantage of them. In the first half alone, Iowa forced five turnovers, almost all of which came back to cost the Terrapins dearly.

Strong safety Kaevon Merriweather snagged a fifth interception in the fourth quarter, while defensive back Quinn Schulte added a sixth in garbage time.

The six interceptions plus one fumble recovery were the most takeaways by the Iowa defense in the last 25 years, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

“I don’t think anybody could have seen that coming,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said.

After four out of five of those first-half turnovers, the Hawkeyes’ offense turned the miscues into points. Almost half of Iowa’s points — 24 out of 51 — came off turnovers.

It helped Iowa produce its highest-scoring quarter since 2002 against Akron. Among only Big Ten games, the 31-point second quarter was Iowa’s highest-scoring quarter since 1985.

Less than six minutes into the game, cornerback Riley Moss picked off Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa in the first of many Terrapin turnovers. Then the Iowa offense took the ball down 27 yards to set up a 41-yard Caleb Shudak field goal.

At the start of the second quarter, Iowa’s special teams unit had its chance to force a big turnover. Maryland wideout and kick returner Dontay Demus Jr. returned the ball 6 yards before coughing up the football.

This time, Iowa didn’t have to settle for a field goal. Two plays after the Demus fumble, Petras connected with true freshman wide receiver Arland Bruce IV for an 8-yard touchdown pass.

Iowa free safety Jack Koerner intercepted Tagovailoa after a tip from linebacker Jack Campbell minutes later. The turnover almost went for naught. Maryland’s offense poked the ball loose from Koerner as he returned the interception, but Iowa recovered it.

A six-play, 26-yard drive ensued, concluding with a 1-yard sneak into the end zone by Petras.

Almost like clockwork, Tagovailoa tossed another interception a few minutes later. Linebacker Dane Belton caught what was the third interception of the game.

Then the offense again drove the ball deep into Maryland territory before again scoring on a Petras 1-yard rush into the end zone.

Cornerback Terry Roberts also had his first career interception in the final seconds of the second quarter. Time expired, so the offense didn’t have a chance to take advantage. His teammates are still more than happy for him, though.

“It was long overdue for sure for him to get a pick,” Moss said. “I’m really happy for him.”

Friday night was the first time Tagovailoa, one of the most-hyped quarterbacks in the Big Ten, tossed five interceptions in one game. He now leads college football in interceptions after only throwing one pick in Maryland’s first four games.

Four of Iowa’s seven first-half drives started on Maryland’s side of the field. The Terrapins’ best field position in the first half, on the other hand, was on their own 36-yard line.

Petras, meanwhile, had one of his most accurate games this season while involving seven different receivers. He connected on 21 of 30 passes for 259 yards, and the nine incompletions included a handful of dropped passes.

He had three touchdowns in the air and another two on the ground. He would’ve had another passing touchdown had it not been for a holding call on wide receiver Keagan Johnson.

The big lead gave Iowa the chance to play backup quarterbacks Alex Padilla and Deuce Hogan for much of the fourth quarter.

Penalties didn’t exactly help Maryland’s chances. Ten penalties by Maryland cost it 86 yards. Many of those flags came at especially inopportune times, too.

One Petras incompletion in the second quarter would’ve given Iowa a third-and-20 situation. Instead, a roughing-the-passer penalty gave Iowa a first down on a drive that ended in one of Petras’ running touchdowns.

Three false-start penalties in the first quarter alone killed any momentum Maryland could muster.

Maryland played Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” in the second quarter, but the Terrapins didn’t shake off the abysmal second quarter. They trailed by at least 24 points for the entire second half.

“Even when we came out in the second half, we still had that 0-0 mentality because you never know what could happen,” running back Tyler Goodson said. “A team could come back.”

Despite winning by 37, Ferentz said he didn’t want to call Friday’s performance “dominant.”

“But we were playing at a high level out there,” Ferentz said.

Iowa won’t have much time to dwell on the rout, though. No. 4 Penn State will visit Kinnick next Saturday for Iowa’s first game against a top-five team since 2017.

That 2017 matchup worked out pretty well for the Hawkeyes. They throttled then-No. 3 Ohio State, 55-24.

The 5-0 start leaves Iowa as one of the four remaining undefeated teams in the Big Ten.

“The bottom line is to win games,” Ferentz said. “Foremost, it’s a happiness thing, and it’s also sometimes an employment issue.”

Goodson said “it's all about us just enjoying this win” until Sunday. Ferentz said getting to see players celebrate after the big win is “the best part of the job.”

Then it’s back to work to prepare for Penn State.

“We’re not worried about us being top-five in the country,” Goodson said. “We’re just worried about who’s next.”

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