Hlas: Hawkeyes skip letdown, give Illini beatdown

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — This was where we would find out if Iowa had a genuine November football team or faded back to mediocrity.

Beating Michigan the week before in Kinnick Stadium wasn't easy, of course. But it was easy to be motivated to play the nation's No. 3 team, in their house, in front of an ABC audience, in prime-time.

This 28-0 pasting of Illinois Saturday at Memorial Stadium, though, was the Hawkeyes on their own. There was no chance to be featured at the opening (or middle, or end) of Saturday night's 'SportsCenter' by beating the Illini. There weren't 10 million TV viewers this time, or 70,000 of their best friends screaming for them in their home stadium.

There were barely any people in the stadium at all by Big Ten standards.

Were Iowa to win here, it would have to be because the Hawkeyes were mean enough, hungry enough, and hardheaded enough to do this for themselves in virtual anonymity.

And they were. It wasn't pretty, but there's nothing pretty about a relentlessly frigid 30-mph wind on a gray day, or an opponent that had lost six times from 15 to 45 points and once to a poor Purdue club.

The Hawkeyes let defense keep the game 0-0 through a quarter, let special teams give it a 7-0 second-quarter lead with a Riley McCarron lightning bolt of a punt return for a score, then had two quarters of solid offense for a one-sided win.

'Certainly I thought they played with a lot of determination out there, discipline and decisiveness,' Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.

That was more superlatives than usual from Ferentz, and a lot more alliteration.

But this was a telling game for his team. We know what it is after 11 games, and what it isn't. It's not dynamic. It's not fantastic. Especially offensively.

But it is a fighter. It did have spirit and desire left after getting obliterated 41-14 at Penn State two weeks earlier when Nittany Lions running back Saquon Barkley suggested the Hawkeyes quit?

Asked and answered, in the win over Michigan with atmosphere galore, and now in a dominant way at Illinois with an ambience resembling Siberia's.

'We walked into what was a very challenging environment,' Ferentz said. 'A big contrast from last week. A lot of fronts: weather, the environment itself, not being a night game, all that type of thing.'

Kooky as it may sound, the performance here may have been more impressive than the one against Michigan. It's only human nature to find it hard to bounce back after riding a mighty high emotional wave seven days earlier.

'I think it's a real strong thing,' Ferentz said. 'A lot was made during the week about a trap game and those types of things. To me, it all goes down to your approach.

'One thing we've always tried to work with our guys is to take a consistent approach. It really gets down to details, the way they approach their preparation, and most importantly, the way they bring energy and compete on the field.'

It was Game 11, and the Hawkeyes weren't going to find any higher highs than they experienced in beating Michigan. Yet, they played the kind of November defense no foe enjoys encountering.

It was zero points and 198 yards allowed, a week after limiting Michigan to 201 yards. The defense that seemingly was gutted at Penn State had plenty of guts left after all.

'The defense played very, very great today,' said Iowa senior cornerback Desmond King, who had a very, very great third-quarter interception when it theoretically was still a game at 14-0.

'We played great team Iowa football today,' King said. 'Just going out there playing basics, doing our job and communicating with each other. … playing tough, physical, everybody going out there playing together.'

The merciless wind and the now 3-8 Illini combined to make this game double-ugly. But the Hawkeyes didn't go down the rabbit hole with Illinois.

The coming Friday's regular-season finale against Nebraska won't be for a Big Ten West title. But it's clear now that it really will be for pride.