Iowa City Today

The University of Iowa football team lost to No. 11 Indiana, 20-15, on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium’s Duke Slater Field. Indiana outgained Iowa in total yardage, finishing with 337 yards compared to the Hawkeyes’ 284.

Iowa’s starting quarterback Mark Gronowski completed 19 of 25 passes for 144 yards and threw one interception before leaving the game due to injury. Hank Brown replaced him and went 5-for-13 for 48 yards with an interception. Kamari Moulton led Iowa's rushing effort with 75 yards on 18 carries, while Gronowski added a rushing touchdown. Sam Phillips caught five passes for a team-high 64 receiving yards.

On defense, Koen Entringer recorded a career-high ten tackles, including two tackles for loss. Zach Lutmer and Deshaun Lee each had seven tackles; Lutmer also notched an interception.

Reflecting on the game, head coach Kirk Ferentz said: "Today was a really tough competitive game between two very good and very determined teams. Hats off to them. They did a great job finishing out.

I thought our week of preparation was as good as we have had. Saw growth during the week, so pleased to see that. Thought we fought extremely hard and I thought our guys really competed hard.

Same thing about our opponent.

It was one of those types of games in conference play that you're going to get. I think there were a lot of good responses out there. Certainly, some miscues that hurt us and put us in a tough position. The start of the game wasn't exactly how we scripted it out.

But the guys responded. They came back and responded. We saw that as the whole game went on.

There were some things, believe it or not, that I thought we did better. That's encouraging. Then, we left the door open with some mistakes. The turnover -- we're minus one on the season right now turnover-wise, five games into it. Hoping we would be a little higher than that right now.

That was a factor today. Missed a couple opportunities. Overall, everybody understands winning is really hard in college football. It's hard in this conference. Always has been.

It's a week-to-week thing. You can't compare weeks. Everybody likes to do that. But you can't do that. It's week to week each and every time.

Big thing right now, sitting here with 3-2 record, we have two one-score losses, and we have seven games to go. The thing I shared with the players in the locker room that there is a lot of football ahead. Not as much as we had a couple weeks ago, obviously, but a lot of football left.

Big thing I'm sure is we have really good people here, good staff, and quality players. These guys are great to work with. They have improved.

One thing I'm encouraged about is we will improve as long as we keep our attitude where it needs to be.

We've shown some growth.

I really believe we have a lot of room for more improvement,

and that's the work we need to do forward.

When you win,

everybody is happy

and when you lose things get a little bit negative.

The bottom line is we'll determine what the season will be.

That is our job to do that

and our players,

it starts with them.

Based on what I've seen,

I'm not worried about that.

But we'll feel bad tomorrow;

get back on our feet Monday;

and hopefully use this week really wisely.

Then we'll turn our attention to the next three-game block

and go in there."

Indiana took advantage after recovering an Iowa turnover early in the first quarter by scoring quickly through a two-play drive ending in a touchdown pass from inside Iowa territory.

After trading defensive stops,

the Hawkeyes got their first points from Drew Stevens’ field goal late in the opening quarter.

A strong defensive stand by Iowa set up an eleven-play drive capped by Gronowski’s three-yard touchdown run just before halftime.

Indiana responded immediately before halftime with their own field goal,

tying it at ten apiece at intermission.

The third quarter saw no scoring from either side,

with both defenses holding firm.

Stevens gave Iowa its only lead early in the fourth quarter via his second field goal—a successful kick from fifty-four yards out—before Indiana tied again later with another field goal following an extended drive.

Turnovers played key roles late:

after an interception thrown by Brown gave Indiana possession deep into regulation,

Lutmer intercepted Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza near midfield soon after.

Stevens missed another field goal attempt late;

Indiana then scored what proved to be the decisive touchdown on their final possession via forty-nine yard pass play,

leaving only ninety seconds remaining for Iowa’s response—which ended without further scoring except for recording a safety as time expired.

Among individual performances:

Zach Lutmer’s interception marked his second career pick;

Gronowski maintained his streak by rushing for touchdowns in five consecutive games—the longest such streak by an Iowa quarterback since Wilburn Hollis achieved similar numbers over sixty years ago—and has now rushed for seven touchdowns this season (fourth-most ever by an Iowa quarterback).

Kicker Drew Stevens converted both his attempts from distance (forty and fifty-three yards),

bringing his career tally up significantly closer toward school records—he now stands second all-time among Hawkeye kickers for made field goals (sixty-three).

Defensively,

the Hawkeyes continued their pattern of holding opponents scoreless during third quarters through five games this year while limiting Indiana well below its season averages coming into Saturday—holding them twenty points under their average output per contest thus far this fall.

Iowa enters its bye week next weekend before resuming play October 11 against Wisconsin.