Iowa football rewind: Breaking down key plays that paved way for blowout over Washington

IOWA CITY — Good luck staying dry in the Iowa locker room after Jay Higgins gave Kirk Ferentz the game ball for his 200th win at Iowa. The celebrating then commenced as the team doused Ferentz and the surrounding scrum of players with water.

“Water bottles — that’s our biggest thing,” offensive lineman Mason Richman said. “There’s certain games, certain moments — big wins like this is when you get those out.”

The celebration for Ferentz’s milestone followed a 40-16 win that had little drama. The Hawkeyes led for much of the first half and the entire second half. The game was tied for part of the first half, but Iowa never trailed Washington.

It helped that Iowa had a comfortable 20-10 halftime lead (and a 23-10 lead by midway through the third quarter), which put Washington in a tough spot in the second half — a tough enough spot to go for it on fourth down (and fail) on three consecutive drives.

“We had too many missed opportunities in this game,” said Jedd Fisch, whose Huskies outgained Iowa, 393-328. “We had plenty of opportunities for this game to be a different score at halftime and to start the third quarter. We didn’t capitalize on any of these opportunities.”

Here is a closer look at some of the key moments in the first half that paved the way for the Hawkeyes’ 40-16 win over Washington:

Hawkeyes catch an early break

Washington quarterback Will Rogers had a potential touchdown opportunity that went for naught in his second play against the Hawkeye defense. The Huskies called a flea flicker, and the handoff caused Iowa cornerback Deshaun Lee to momentarily pause as UW receiver Rashid Williams continued running his route.

That gave Williams enough separation with no Hawkeye defenders between him and the end zone. But Rogers underthrew the pass, prompting Williams to slow down and wait for the pass to get to him. That gave Lee enough time to catch up and force the incompletion.

(Iowa caught another break, as Lee appeared to hit Williams a moment early. That would have been defensive pass interference, but the back judge on the Tim O’Dey-led crew did not throw a flag.)

Instead of a potentially touchdown or at least a free 15 yards, Washington’s 73-yard drive stalled at the Iowa 15-yard line and ended with Iowa’s Yahya Black blocking a 32-yard field goal attempt.

Yahya Black’s blocked field goal

When Black blocked the field goal, fellow defensive lineman Aaron Graves said “there wasn’t anything special” about the play.

“It’s what we do every week,” Graves said. “We just try and get hip-to-hip and drive the one guy back. And we did it well, and Yahya got a hand up and got a piece of it.”

That one guy was no pushover. Offensive lineman Enokk Vimahi transferred to Washington after five seasons at Ohio State, where he appeared in 35 games and made one start. But Black and Graves got a good push against him nonetheless, leading to the blocked field goal.

Kaleb Johnson’s field-flipping run

With 24 seconds left in the second quarter, Iowa appeared to be calling just one more run play ahead of halftime as it was in “12” personnel — on its own 19-yard line.

Iowa indeed ran the ball, but instead of a short gain before heading to the locker room, it was a 53-yard gain to set up a Drew Stevens 46-yard field goal. The big gain was thanks to near-perfect execution in several aspects of the play.

The offensive line and tight ends had outstanding blocking on the outside zone play. Kaleb Johnson timed the run perfectly after getting the pitch from Cade McNamara.

Alphonzo Tuputala was the only Washington defender to get a hand on Johnson in the first or second levels, and even then, Johnson breezed past him. Johnson’s speed alone would have been enough to get somewhere near the Washington 45-yard line.

But Johnson swiftly cut to the right just past midfield the and duped a pair of UW defenders. He made another cut to elude another UW defender before finally being tackled at the 28-yard line.

The Hawkeyes then called its last timeout before two unsuccessful pass plays and Stevens’ 46-yard field goal to give Iowa a double-digit cushion going into halftime.

Punting was winning

Punter Rhys Dakin only needed to take the field twice in the win, but both punts were impactful as the Hawkeyes set the tone in the first half.

The true freshman’s first punt of the day went 55 yards — from the Iowa 35-yard line to the Washington 10-yard line — and could only be returned for two yards before Karson Sharar and Koen Entringer made the tackle.

Netting 53 yards on the punt instead of, say, 38 yards — not all that far off from Iowa’s season average of 39.9 net yards per punt — was theoretically the difference between Washington’s drive ending with a missed field goal from the 15-yard line and the drive ending in a touchdown.

Dakin’s second punt went 61 yards while having enough hang time that Washington’s Denzel Boston did not gain any yardage on the return. His booming punt preceded an Iowa fumble recovery on the third play of the drive and a subsequent Iowa three-and-out.

Had it not been for Dakin’s 61 net yards on the punt, Stevens’ 37-yard field goal might have been from either a much more difficult distance or not in field-goal range at all.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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