Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iowa races away, demolishes Ohio St.
IOWA 55, NO. 6 OHIO STATE 24
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Big Ten teams with national title hopes should know by now to be wary of Kinnick Stadium in November.
The Ohio State Buckeyes weren’t — and their playoff aspirations are likely cooked because of it.
Nate Stanley threw for 226 yards and five touchdowns, and Iowa throttled sixthranked Ohio State 55-24 on Saturday, dealing what’s likely to be a fatal blow to the Buckeyes’ hopes of reaching college football’s Final Four.
Josh Jackson added three interceptions for the Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-3), who beat their fourth top-10 opponent in their last five tries at home. Iowa also knocked off unbeaten teams Michigan (2016) and Penn State (2008) in the regular season’s final month.
“I didn’t see any signs. Usually I see signs and if I do I address them,” Meyer said when asked if his team suffered a letdown after coming off an emotional 39-38 comeback victory over Penn State last week.
Iowa went up 7-0 on the game’s first play — a pick-six of J.T. Barrett — and raced out to a 31-17 halftime lead on a pair of Stanley TD passes to Noah Fant.
Stanley, following a successful and highly unusual fake field goal, later fired a 2-yard TD pass with a defender hanging onto his foot that put the Hawkeyes ahead 38-17 late in the third quarter.
“Our guys played with a lot of heart and toughness,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.
Ohio State (7-2, 5-1) allowed its most points in a game under Meyer, and Barrett had a career-high four interceptions.
“They were baiting him … that’s their coverage,” Meyer said. “We just didn’t play very well.”
Defensive end Nick Bosa was also ejected for targeting in the first half, and the Buckeyes committed nine penalties in their most lopsided defeat since last year’s 31-0 loss to eventual national champion Clemson in the playoff.
Stanley, a sophomore who didn’t win the job until the last week of fall camp, had been quietly putting up strong numbers all season. But there wasn’t anything quiet about what he did against the Buckeyes. Stanley now has 23 TD passes against just four interceptions — even tossing one to fullback Drake Kulick. “He’s been bugging me all season about that play,” Stanley joked.
In other Top 25 games Saturday, Brandon Wimbush passed for a career-high 280 yards, ran for two touchdowns and shook off an injury as No. 3 Notre Dame (8-1) won its seventh consecutive, beating Wake Forest (5-3) 48-37 in a game in which Irish running back Josh Adams missed the second half because of a concussion. … Tavien Feaster ran for an 89-yard touchdown to end the third quarter and K’Von Wallace picked off Ryan Finley on the final play to help No. 4 Clemson (8-1, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) beat No. 20 North Carolina State (6-3, 4-1) 38-31. … Matt Coghlin kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired to give No. 24 Michigan State (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten) a 27-24 victory over No. 7 Penn State (7-2, 4-2) in a game that was delayed nearly 3½ hours by severe weather in the second quarter. … Jonathan Taylor rushed for 183 yards and one touchdown and Alec Ingold had three scores to help No. 9 Wisconsin (90, 6-0) pull away with a victory at Indiana (3-6, 0-6). … Luke Falk threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns and No. 25 Washington State (8-2, 5-2) beat No. 21 Stanford (6-3, 5-2) 24-21, keeping alive its hopes for a Pac-12 North title.