Hawkeyes throttle No. 3 Ohio State
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Nate Stanley threw for 226 yards and five touchdowns, and Iowa throttled thirdranked Ohio State 55-24 on Saturday, dealing what’s likely to be a fatal blow to the Buckeyes’ playoff hopes.
Josh Jackson added three interceptions for the Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-3), who beat their fourth top-5 opponent in their last five tries at home.
“They were baiting him … that’s their coverage,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said of quarterback J.T. Barrett, who threw a career-high four picks. “We just didn’t play very well.”
Iowa went up 7-0 on the game’s first play — a pick-six of 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.
“We just tried to go out and play with confidence,” Jackson said.
Ohio State (7-2, 5-1, No. 6 CFP) allowed its most points in a game under Meyer. Defensive end Nick Bosa was also ejected for targeting in the first half.
The Buckeyes committed nine penalties and gained just 371 yards in their most lopsided defeat since last year’s 31-0 loss to eventual national champion Clemson in the playoff. The blowout loss caught Meyer by surprise.
“I didn’t see any signs. Usually I see signs and if I do I address them,” Meyer said. THE TAKEAWAY Ohio State: It’s almost impossible to see a path that takes the two-loss Buckeyes to the playoff after a loss 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 across the country that a two-loss team might get a look from the committee. But after how bad the Buckeyes looked in Iowa City, would even that be enough?
Iowa: Where in the world did this come from, Iowa? The Hawkeyes had scored just 27 points in their last two games against Northwestern and Minnesota. But weird things happen in Kinnick Stadium in November — and Iowa just changed the narrative of its
entire season thanks to an afternoon Hawkeyes fans will never forget. POLL IMPLICATIONS
Ohio State is sure to plummet, although with so many Top 25 teams facing each other that fall might not be as drastic this week. Iowa got 1 point last week. The Hawkeyes will get a lot more of those on Sunday. UP NEXT
Ohio State hosts Michigan State on Saturday. The Spartans knocked off Penn State 27-24, leaving every team in the Big Ten East with at least two losses.
Iowa travels to face Wisconsin next week. The Badgers are now the Big Ten’s best hope for the playoff.