Hlas: Hawkeyes refuse to fade to black

IOWA CITY — Nobody said getting to 10-0 wouldn't be semi-tough.

Wearing black is said to be slimming. But maybe a lot of nervous sweat caused Iowa's unbeaten football team to lose some weight before it hung on to down Minnesota 40-35 Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium.

How much perspiration was spent when C.J. Beathard was down for several moments after a 1-yard carry for a first down with 2:33 left and Iowa nursing a 33-28 lead? Beathard missed just one play, then returned to hand the ball to LeShun Daniels for his 51-yard touchdown run.

The Hawkeyes didn't play anything resembling championship defense. But a botched Minnesota drop kick on an onside kick — seriously — sealed Iowa's victory. They performed well enough offensively to lower their magic number for winning the Big Ten West championship to 1. Beat Purdue here next Saturday, and Iowa goes to Indianapolis to play for the league-title.

When this win is remembered, something that should stand out as much as their all-black uniforms is the Hawkeyes' last drive of the first half.

It wasn't our imagination, was it? Wasn't clock-management near the end of first-halves (and games) a weakness in the Kirk Ferentz era?

It happened again Saturday night as the Hawkeyes improved to 6-0 in the Big Ten, 10-0 overall for the first time in school history. Leading 17-14 in a game that had been resembling a Big 12 contest, defense-wise, the Hawkeyes stopped the Gophers at midfield and Minnesota downed a punt at the Iowa 3 with 3:52 left.

Play it safe? Iowa? Sort of. The Hawkeyes rushed on two plays for breathing room, then clicked on a 3rd-and-4 pass for nine yards to move the chains. They proceeded to their 28 with 1:30 left.

Iowa was then happy to run out the clock and take that 3-point lead to the locker room, right?

Wrong, for the umpteenth time this season. As wrong as saying Beathard would give up his personal running game after he got bogged down by nagging injuries.

Beathard slipped away from Gopher defenders and fired a 32-yard pass to Henry Krieger Coble, then did 26 yards of artful dodging to rush from the Minnesota 40 to the 14.

Three plays later, Daniels powered two yards for a rushing score. It was 24-14, with 44 seconds to spare. Another halftime spirit-enhancer for the Hawkeyes, another soul-crusher for the opposition.

That's not to say the Gophers faded away after that, but they never caught up.

The 97-yard drive was part of a season-long pattern. Iowa has, incredibly, outscored its foes 44-0 in the last two minutes of first-halves. It has scored in the last 2:00 of eight different games.

On top of that, the drive was Iowa's fifth of 93 yards or more this season and second in the game, all ending in touchdowns. Talk about soul-crushing for the opponents, spirit-enhancing for the Hawkeyes.

It was the second half

of a very spirited day for Iowa athletics. Earlier Saturday at Kinnick, 42,287 saw Iowa's wrestling team score an 18-16 victory over top-ranked Oklahoma State.

'I don't know if we could ever duplicate this again,' Hawkeye wrestling director of operations Luke Eustice said. 'The fans, the match, the weather ... (trying to match Saturday's meet) would almost be a little bit of a letdown.'

'Letdown' wasn't a word heard in Kinnick's stands Saturday, whether in noontime sunshine or 10 p.m. darkness.