Et tu, Brutus Buckeye? Iowa shocks Ohio State

Hawkeyes play spoiler again at home in the Big Ten, throttling No. 6 Buckeyes ,

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 No. 6 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-five opponent in their last five games 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 an emotional 39-38 comeback win 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 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 threw 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.

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 national champion Clemson in the playoff.

It’s almost impossible to see a path that takes the two-loss Buckeyes to the playoff after a defeat like this. All Ohio State can do now is win out — and blow out an unbeaten Wisconsin in the league title game like in 2014 — and hope that enough chaos has broken out nationally that a twoloss team might get a look from the committee. But after how bad the Buckeyes looked in Iowa City, would even that be enough?

As for Iowa, it had scored just 27 points in its last two games against Northwestern and Minnesota. But weird things happen in Kinnick Stadium in November.

“We’ve played like a young team for eight weeks,” Ferentz said. “When we hit adversity, which we knew was coming, we pushed past it.”

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / AP Iowa tight end Noah Fant (left) celebrates with Ihmir Smith-Marsette after catching a 3-yard touchdown pass. Fant had two TD receptions.