Iowa City Today

The University of Iowa football team, ranked 20th nationally, was narrowly defeated by No. 6 Oregon with a final score of 18-16 on Saturday night at Duke Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium. The game took place under rainy conditions.

Iowa managed to take the lead late in the fourth quarter with a touchdown scored by quarterback Mark Gronowski, leaving just under two minutes on the clock. However, Oregon responded with a drive that ended in a successful 39-yard field goal with three seconds remaining, securing their victory.

Mark Gronowski completed 10 out of 18 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown and also added a rushing touchdown. Kamari Moulton led Iowa’s running backs with 87 yards on 23 carries. Receivers Jacob Gill and DJ Vonnahme each recorded 43 receiving yards; Vonnahme also caught a touchdown pass.

On defense, Karson Sharar made ten tackles including four solo stops and one tackle for loss. Koen Entringer contributed nine tackles while Xavier Nwankpa and Jayden Montgomery had eight each. Overall, Oregon outgained Iowa in total yardage, posting 373 yards to Iowa’s 278.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz commented after the game: "It really hurts to lose the game, but really these kinds of games that are emblematic of November football, especially in our conference where you get two teams getting after it pretty good. So, all those things that we thought coming into the game really certainly panned out to be true.

I have a lot of respect for Oregon's talent and they're a very well-coached team. Have been all year. We knew we had a big challenge on our hands there.

Then all those cliches you hear forever in football, they stay around because they mean something. It is a game of inches. Details do matter. I think that's really what it came down to in a lot of ways tonight.

So we came up a little short, but proud of our team's effort and the way competed certainly. Tough loss. A lot of little things that we're going to have to figure out, do a little bit better at, but the most important thing for our team is they understand there's a lot to be proud of. They're going to see a lot of really good efforts on film, a lot of things they did during the course of the game that were really impressive.

I think all the coaches are really proud of the effort that everybody put into it and the way we responded several times in the football game. We still have a good team, and we got plenty of football in front of us.

We'll go back, critique this thing, do what we can to see what we can improve on next week, and that will be the biggest challenge is getting everybody back on their feet here after we get through tomorrow. Losing is tough. Never has been fun, and that's certainly the case here.

Again, credit to our opponents. A really good football team, and they played well tonight.

Last few things. I want to also thank our fans. You guys were all in the stadium, and that's typical of November football here. Our fans were outstanding. The weather could have been a challenge, and you would never know it with them. Didn't dampen their enthusiasm. They certainly were good start to finish, and we appreciate that. It's a big edge for us."

The scoring began when Oregon registered two points from an early safety following an errant snap by Iowa during a punt attempt combined with an illegal bat penalty against Iowa's special teams unit.

Oregon then extended its lead with an early second-quarter rushing touchdown before Iowa answered later in that quarter via Gronowski’s three-yard pass to Vonnahme.

A field goal by Oregon as time expired in the first half gave them a five-point advantage at halftime.

In the third quarter Oregon added another field goal before Drew Stevens kicked one for Iowa early in the fourth quarter.

Gronowski’s late rushing touchdown gave Iowa its only lead before Oregon closed out scoring with its final field goal drive.

Individually:

- Mark Gronowski now holds both school records for most rushing touchdowns (12) by an Iowa quarterback in program history as well as most consecutive games (nine) with such scores by any Big Ten quarterback within one season.

- D.J Vonnahme’s second-quarter catch marked his first career touchdown reception—the first by an Iowa tight end this season.

- Kamari Moulton has led Hawkeye running backs in rushing yards for five straight games.

- Deshaun Lee secured his second interception this season during play inside Iowa’s end zone.

- Kicker Drew Stevens tied both stadium (Michigan State’s Jonathan Kimm) and school records (Tim Douglas) with his made 58-yard field goal; he now has twelve career field goals from beyond fifty yards—a school record—and seventy-one overall (tied seventh-most all-time among Big Ten kickers). With four points scored Saturday he stands one point behind Mike Meyer for second place on Iowa's career scoring list at 323 points.

Defensively:

- The Hawkeyes recorded their tenth interception this season—at least one per game over their last six contests—and have not allowed more than twenty points against any ranked opponent so far this year.

- All three losses suffered by Iowa against ranked teams have come by margins totaling only ten points combined.

Next up: The Hawkeyes travel to Los Angeles on November 15th where they will face USC at 2:30 p.m Central Time.