Halftime Thoughts: Iowa 35, North Texas 13

IOWA CITY - Iowa's C.J. Beathard completed all 14 of his passes in the half for 2xx yards.

The Hawkeyes led 28-3 with 10:47 left in the first half.

From a competitive standpoint, this matchup was all it was expected to be and less until Iowa handed North Texas the ball on the Hawkeye 6 midway through the second quarter. Soon it was 28-13.

Iowa made it 35-13 on its next possession. The Hawkeyes had 340 first-half yards. That usually works.

So you insert a freshman tailback

, and his first collegiate play is to flip it to a wide receiver on a reverse?

That didn't go so well. Derrick Mitchell's pitch to Matt VandeBerg was a complete botch, and North Texas collected the football and some life.

One play later, Andrew McNulty threw a 6-yard TD pass, and North Texas was down by just 28-13.

Iowa City's McNulty made some nice throws in the first half. He looked better than some quarterbacks Iowa will face.

That's seven touchdowns in 3 1/2 games

for Iowa's Jordan Canzeri, who it seems can no longer can be classified as the Hawkeyes' No. 2 running back.

Without today's games all being finals, Canzeri leads the Big Ten in TDs after his two first-quarter scores against North Texas.

Midway through the first quarter, Canzeri had 55 rushing yards to the Mean Green's minus-6.

But Canzeri was stripped of the ball at the Iowa 37 with :44 left in the first quarter, so it wasn't a perfect half. However, he logged his third TD after that.

Desmond King, kick-returner.

King had returns of 33 and 38 yards in the first quarter. That put his season-average at 18.7 on seven returns.

That is outstanding.

Then King had a dazzling 40-yard kickoff return early in the second quarter.

He looked like he might break all three for scores at some point in the returns.

For the third-straight week

, Iowa's opposing coach chose to punt on 4th-and-less-than-1.

It was a real bad move by Iowa State's Paul Rhoads, and it wasn't too great a decision by Pittsburgh's Pat Narduzzi.

Down 14-0 with just over four minutes left in the first quarter, North Texas punted on 4th-and-1 at the Mean Green's 44.

Iowa didn't score on its subsequent possession, which began at its 8. In fact, that's the drive on which Canzeri fumbled the ball away.

But you don't play games of field position on the road against a superior opponent when you're behind by two touchdowns.

While I'm being disagreeable, I would have gone for it on 4th-and-5 from the Iowa 21 instead of kicking a field goal with 13:17 left in the half.

Being down 14-3 was still pushing a piano uphill. The piano turned into a houseboat when Iowa went ahead 21-3 three plays later.

Look, this game didn't turn on any fourth-down decisions. But I like to see all teams who need to be aggressive to ... be aggressive.

North Texas brought some cheerleaders

and its mascot. Good for North Texas.

If you can get a $900,000 check for being a designated victim, let some of your loyal supporters in the student body share in the experience of a trip like this.

Before the game, I heard two sports writers

(not from Cedar Rapids) in the Kinnick press box discussing English Premier League soccer.

Or English Premier League football, depending on where you're from.

The world keeps changing, folks.

I've never been to a Premier League match, but I'll bet it's a great experience. Maybe I'll go to one during Iowa's bye week.

Will someone please clear that with my wife?

While walking around in the Kinnick parking lots

before the game, I came upon Carly Fiorina.

This doesn't happen at football games in Utah or Connecticut, folks.

The presidential candidate was chatting up people who clearly were supporters, while a group of 15, maybe 20 protesters wearing pink T-shirts supporting Planned Parenthood were behind her chanting things like 'Offsides for telling lies!” and 'Women are watching, and we vote!”

Now, this isn't a political blog or rant, and I know you come here partly to escape the anger and unhappiness of the outside world. Frankly, my political beliefs align with those at PersuadeIowa.com, where they find the whole presidential selection process to be circus, not substance.

And yes, I have two essays at that site.

But I liked this candiate/protesters scene for one apolitical reason. It felt like I was on a college campus. Not much about being at a college football game at a major university truly does.

Last week, while between interviews of Iowa football players and Kirk Ferentz's weekly press conference, I went to the Iowa Memorial Union on the other side of the Iowa River.

No one there seemed terribly consumed with that week's upcoming Pittsburgh-Iowa game. It was just, you know, college kids living the college life, reading, writing, eating, mingling.

A few days ago, North Texas Coach Dan McCarney said college is supposed to be the best experience in a person's life. Whether that's right or not, I have no idea. I'd hate to think it's all downhill after you're 23.

But there are days when, to someone who's been removed from it for some time now, it sure looks good.