Iowa Hawkeyes Rally Late Avoid Upset against Northern Illinois

Saturday’s are made for upsets and we’ve had a few thus far on our first of the year. Upsets haven’y been kind to the Big Ten so far today, and after Penn State lost an emotional opener at home, the Iowa Hawkeyes saw their season start out with a loud thud, losing to the Northern Illinois Huskies in a game they never lead in.

Iowa wasn’t projected to be a powerhouse this year, but they’re not some small technical college either. Even in down years, major programs like Iowa are expected to perform and they did the opposite of that in their opener. The Huskies of Northern Illinois jumped out to a 17-9 lead before the Hawkeyes even came close to being a part of the game, let alone do anything with the lead.

Iowa, forced into a 17-12 corner in the fourth, ended up rallying to take the lead with under 2:00 left to go in the game. But that doesn’t bail them out from the horrid day they had.

To put Iowa’s bad day in perspective, their leading scorer was Mike Meyer — the kicker. Meyer hit a field goal in each of the first three quarters, but it was Iowa that looked the the small school on Saturday, not the Huskies.

Hawkeyes running back Damon Bullock was really the only factor in the game outside of Meyer, as he rushed for over 140 yards but was allowed no where near the endzone by the Huskies defense until the final minutes of the game.

The passing game for Iowa was a different story, as senior James Vandenberg threw for little more than what Bullock ended up rushing for, and he too was not allowed into the endzone.

To put the Hawkeyes bad Saturday into even more perspective, despite the fact Vandenberg turned in a horrible passing performance, he still out dueled Huskies quarterback Jordan Lynch who threw for less than half the yards Vandenberg totaled on the day. However, the Huskies (and Lynch for that matter) were bailed out by a beautiful rushing performance by — Jordan Lynch.

If the Hawkeyes were thinking they could just stop Lynch through the air and be done with him, they were wrong. Dead wrong in fact, as Lynch and his 121 yards on the ground displayed as much.

On paper it looked as though the Hawkeyes would be able to stand their ground and look respectable leading up to an October 13th machup with Michigan State. But after their abysmal game against Northern Illinois, games against Iowa State, Minnesota and even Central Michigan don’t look like the cake walks they did a few days ago.

They weren’t really supposed to go anywhere anyways this season, but they at least could have tried harder than they did.