Halftime Thoughts: Iowa 16, Northwestern 10

Well, that took a sharp turn.

Iowa led 16-0 and then Northwestern started acting like a Top 25 team for the first time in two weeks.

So, Iowa kicker Marshall Koehn missed a PAT for the third time in four games and failed on a 37-yard field goal to close the first half.

Four weeks ago, Koehn became a Hawkeye immortal of sorts with his game-winning 57-yard field goal against Pittsburgh that still stands as the longest field goal by an FBS player this season. But will his team need the four points he left on the table in the first half?

If you knew that, you'd have a summer home in the Hamptons and a winter place in Maui.

This had all the look and feel

of a one-sided game. Someone forgot to tell the Wildcats. Freshman quarterback Clayton Thorson had every reason to be rattled with his team down 16-0 and the offense going absolutely nowhere on its first five drives.

Those possessions began at the 'Cats 12, 15, 9, 25 and 13-yard lines, and produced a turnover and four punts.

Then Thorson led his guys 76 yards in 12 plays for a touchdown to cut Iowa's lead to 16-7 with 6:18 left in the half. Until that drive, Iowa's defense owned this stadium. Which wasn't a bad thing because it's right in the middle of some mighty pricey real estate.

On his third carry

after running back Jordan Canzeri left the game because of an injury, Akrum Wadley sprinted around left end and ran 35 yards untouched for a touchdown.

Last year, Wadley had 15 carries for 106 yards and a TD in the Hawkeyes' 48-7 rout of Northwestern in basically a mop-up role.

Today, Wadley has become the man. The newest 'man.' He had 35 rushing yards this season before today. He matched that on his first TD run, and has 76 yards on nine carries.

He got another score, from 4 yards out, that came after a particularly bouncy 18-yard rush to set it up.

Wadley is a sophomore from Newark, N.J. The Hawkeyes don't recruit New York/New Jersey like they once did, but if they can pull out more like Canzeri (Troy, N.Y.) and Wadley, they should keep mining that area.

Canzeri, he of 10 touchdowns

in the first six games and the yeoman performance last week against Illinois, is done for a while and it's sad.

Canzeri overcame an injury-plagued career to take a star turn this autumn, but his ankle injury in the first quarter left him needing to be helped off the field.

What can you say? It's rough.

At least he had already found out how good he could be at this level, and that was very good. But that's no consolation today.

Those are big shoes to fill even though Wadley is doing so thus far today. Until we learn otherwise, Iowa doesn't have another back who is adept as Canzeri when it comes to pass-catching and making significant yardage out of receptions.

Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard

is playing hurt. Many players do. This is football, and it's definitely not for the meek.

Michigan State's men's water polo team

stayed in the same Chicagoland hotel as the Gazette's crew here Friday night.

I didn't know Michigan State had water polo. I'm not saying it's interesting, I'm just saying I didn't know.

I think of Fitz and the Tantrums

whenever I hear people call Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald 'Fitz.'

Love Fitz and the Tantrums. Here's their smash hit 'Money Grabber.'

Just a long punt from Ryan Field is a 43-year-old eating establishment called Mustard's Last Stand.

I've never dined there. It's a hot dog joint. I've eaten more than my share of hot dogs in this life, but the Chicago hot dog has never been my thing.

That makes me an outcast here. That's fine. I like a lot of Chicago cuisine, I just don't get the love affair with their hot dogs.

New York brags about its pizza and mocks Chicago's deep dish version. Uh, give me the deep dish. Some snobs say it isn't a pizza, it's a casserole. Who cares? It's delicious. I wish I had one now.

The pizza in New York is fine, but I'll take Chicago's over it any day. Unless I just wanted a couple of slices to eat on the run. Then, you can walk in one of a thousand pizzerias in New York and grab them. I was in one of those places near Madison Square Garden a couple years ago, and they had a copy of a story of some New Yorker whose goal was to eat a slice at every pizza place in the city.

Not a life well-lived, in my opinion, but maybe that's too Judge Judy.

On the flip side, give me a Nathan's hot dog from New York any day before a Vienna Beef hot dog in Chicago. It's just personal preference.

A lot of people were wearing

Chicago Cubs garb as we walked from a hospital parking ramp to the stadium.

The Cubs play the Mets in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series tonight in New York. Let's hope the fans of the two teams don't engage in some inane arguments about hot dogs and pizza.