King does his thing (again)

IOWA CITY - Desmond King has set an awfully high bar for himself in 2015.

Last week, he put away Iowa State with a 34-yard punt return that set up Iowa's game-winning touchdown and then he sealed the deal with an interception on the next drive. In the Hawkeyes' 27-24 victory over Pitt at Kinnick Stadium, King one-upped himself.

The junior cornerback ended the Panthers' first two drives with interceptions, including one in the end zone on a third-and-goal form Iowa's 4, and, somehow, cobbled together a 27-yard kick return off a fumbled squib kickoff to start Iowa's game-winning drive at its 30-yard line.

Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard knows the opponents' pain. He had to play against King all August long.

'I don't hate playing against Desmond, I like playing against him,” Beathard said. 'He makes me a better quarterback. He does a great job out there at corner, like he did today with a couple of picks. He can do that day in, day out.”

King has done exactly that so far this season. When he picked off Pitt QB Nate Peterman on the Panthers' first two drives of the game, it gave him interceptions in three straight possessions. There's no stat for that, but there is for interceptions in your own end zone.

The Hawkeyes' plan for Pitt star wide receiver Tyler Boyd revealed itself early on. If Boyd was on King's side of the field, King was locked in on him one-on-one. On his first pick, King was stride for stride with Boyd, a 6-2, 215-pounder, on the Pitt sideline. King undercut Boyd on a post route on Iowa's goal line. Peterman tried to place the ball where only Boyd could get it - low and inside - but King dove and snared the ball off the fake grass blades.

'I was just playing man-to-man against him, I didn't have to worry about anything else but him,” King said. 'That was my job, I stuck to it and I got rewarded for it.”

Boyd got his. After King's two first-quarter interceptions, Boyd was shifted all over Pitt's offense and climbed a few spots on NFL draft boards, finishing with 10 catches for 131 yards and a TD, which tied the game 24-24 with 52 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Still, Boyd was left underneath the crossbar in the north end zone, watching Marshall Koehn's 57-yard field goal sail through the uprights to give Iowa the win.

Iowa's defense pasted a pretty strong statement. It came up with two interceptions and held the Panthers to 55 rushing yards on 27 attempts (2.0 yards per carry). The Hawkeyes did this with one of their better defenders, defensive end Drew Ott, playing an extremely limited role coming off a dislocated elbow last week.

'It's not carrying the team, but it's doing our jobs,” King said. 'It's getting the ball back for our offense. We get them better, they get us better. It's just what we have to do. That's one of our statements this year, to be one of the best defenses in the country.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com