A Record For Beathard

On Saturday, October 17, 2015, C.J. Beathard set a school record for the Iowa Hawkeyes. After a convincing 40-10 win against the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois, "Sunshine" C.J. became the first quarterback in Hawkeye history to win his first eight career starts as the starting quarterback. The Hawkeyes traveled to their Big Ten West rivals, the Northwestern Wildcats, to play their arguably last tough opponent for the season. The Hawks had battled past six opponents, and looked to beat the Wildcats in Evanston to become the favorite in the Big Ten West to compete for the Big Ten Championship. After this win, the Hawkeyes look to have one of the easiest remaining schedules of all the unbeaten teams. The game against the Wildcats looked very impressive for the Hawkeyes who were forced to play without key player Drew Ott. The game started at 11:00 AM Central Time, and was televised on ABC. The Iowa Hawkeyes received the opening kickoff to start the game, and after six plays for a total of 38-yards, Hawkeye punter Dillon Kidd was forced to give the ball back to the Wildcats at their own 12 yard line. Fortunately for the Hawkeyes, quarterback Clayton Thorson and the Wildcats were unable to do anything, and Thorson continued to struggle after last week's blowout loss for the Wildcats against Michigan. On a third and eight, Thorson threw an interception to none other than defensive back Desmond King, who leads the Big Ten in interceptions with six on the year. With good field positioning the Hawks were unable to score a touchdown, but they settled for a 36-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead. After Iowa's field goal, the two teams were unable to put any points on the board, and traded punts for the rest of the first quarter. However, on Iowa's fourth possession of the game, the Hawkeyes were able to finally move the chains. Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, leading running back Jordan Canzeri was squashed by two Northwestern players, and badly injured his left ankle. He was unable to return for the Hawkeyes who were already playing without many key players (more information on Hawkeye injuries here: http://n8hn6bd.blogspot.com/2015/10/how-much-more-can-hawkeyes-take.html). The Iowa Hawkeyes were forced to turn to third string running back Akrum Wadley and fourth string Derrick Mitchell Jr. for the rest of the game. The Hawks knew that Wadley was very talented, and very quick on his feet, but they were concerned with whether or not he would be able to hold on to the ball. That did not seem to be a problem for him, however, as he ran for 35-yards and a touchdown on his third carry of the game. It was an impressive run that put the Hawks up 10-0 against the Wildcats, to the home team's fans' disappointment, at least it should have been 10-0. For the third time this year, Iowa kicker, and hero of Iowa's win against Pittsburgh, Marshall Koehn missed a PAT for the Hawkeyes. This put the Hawkeyes up only 9-0, and Koehn became worried that his luck against the Illini had worn out. In last week's game against the Illinois Fighting Illini, Koehn also missed a PAT early in the game that could have potentially cost Iowa the game if they hadn't forced a fumble on the Illini's potential game-winning drive. Luckily for Koehn, the Hawkeyes did once again what they did last week and pulled off another victory. The teams once again began trading punts after Koehn's PAT miss until Wadley scored another touchdown on a 4-yard run. This time Koehn punched the ball right through the uprights to put the Hawks up 16-0. With the fans at Ryan Field booing their home team, the Wildcats knew they needed to score on their next drive. They quickly marched the ball 76 yards down the field and scored on a touchdown pass from Thorson to Christian Jones with Jack Mitchell making the PAT to bring the game closer to a 16-7 score. After seeing their home team finally scoring again after a shutout loss to the Wolverines, the fans became loud and rowdy. On Iowa's first play of their next possession C.J. Beathard threw a pass into heavy traffic and was intercepted by Traveon Henry who took the ball 20-yards to the Iowa 25 yard-line. The Cats took the ball all the way down into the red-zone, but were unable to score a touchdown against Iowa's tough defense, and were forced to settle for a field goal. However, this brought the game to 16-10 Iowa. If the Wildcats could manage another touchdown, they could take the lead. For the rest of the half, the two teams' defenses played well, and no points were added to the board, and halftime came with the score 16-10 in favor of the Hawkeyes. The second half was less exciting for the Wildcats as the Hawkeyes' defense held them scoreless possession after possession. Even worse for the Cats, they had to continue watching third-string running back Akrum Wadley run the ball into the in-zone again and again to tie a school record of four touchdowns in a game, held by both Jordan Canzeri and Shonn Greene. The game ended with a final score of Iowa 40 and Northwester 10. The home fans left Ryan Field very disappointed in their team, and the Hawkeye fans left very proud of theirs. With this win Iowa is a heavy favorite to compete for the Big Ten Title against the champions of the Big Ten East. The champion will likely be between the Michigan State Spartans or the number one ranked, and defending champion, Ohio State Buckeyes after the Michigan Wolverines shocking loss in the final seconds of their in-state rivalry game against the Spartans in Ann Arbor. The Hawks are looking to close out the season strong with a very manageable remaining schedule.