Davis, Vandenberg shift credit for Iowa's touchdown drive

IOWA CITY - Keenan Davis gave credit to James Vandenberg. Vandenberg, in turn, gave credit to Davis.

It's one of those predictable moments after a win where everyone is happy but nobody wants to corner the glory market. In this case, it was back-to-back passes from Vandenberg to Davis that netted Iowa 78 yards and a touchdown midway through the second quarter.

On second-and-16 at the Iowa 22, Vandenberg found Davis alone in the middle of the field. Vandenberg underthrew Davis, but the play still picked up 31 yards.

"He was like, 'Keenan I told you before I'm going to get you on this one,'" Davis said. "So we took advantage of what we have."

The next play Davis ran virtually the same route. This time Vandenberg used a play-action fake to running back Marcus Coker, which forced up Northwestern's linebackers. Vandenberg then hit Davis over the top of Northwestern cornerback Demetrius Dugar in stride for a 47-yard touchdown to put Iowa up 17-0.

"We got them in the coverage that we wanted to get them in," Vandenberg said. "He ran great routes on both of them. The first one should have been a touchdown, quite frankly, and I kind of underthrew it and allowed the guy to catch back up. We got another chance that next play, and they gave us a similar coverage, and he ran a great route."

"The safety and the corner were down, so we just went up for it," Davis said.

Davis hauled in five passes for 109 yards in Saturday's 41-31 win. He now has caught four touchdown passes over Iowa's last five games. He ranks second on the team in receptions (27) and yards (421).

Vandenberg completed 14-of-22 passes for 224 yards and two scores. He wasn't sacked but had one interception.

In the end, both players disputed that they were responsible for the two long completions.

"It was all Vandy," Davis said. "I just ran the route and caught the ball. Vandy uses his eyes real well, and he just put it up there for me to get it."

"It wasn't all me," Vandenberg said. "When he's that open, he's doing something well."