(Iowa City, IA) — The No. 14-ranked University of Iowa football team fell to No. 5 Ohio State, 31-14, on Saturday afternoon on Duke Slate Field at Kinnick Stadium.
The Hawkeyes totaled 238 yards of offense and 15 first downs, while Ohio State finished with 484 yards and 24 first downs.
At quarterback, Hank Brown completed 12-of-27 passes for 132 yards before leaving due to an injury, while Jeremy Hecklinski was a perfect 5-for-5 for 67 yards in relief.
DJ Vonnahme paced Iowa’s receiving corps with six catches for 64 yards. Tony Diaz finished with five receptions for 59 yards, while Vander Zee added two catches for 35 yards.
Kamari Moulton led the Hawkeyes on the ground with 27 yards on 11 carries, while L.J. Phillips added 16 rushing yards and Braeden Jackson a touchdown rush.
Defensively, Zach Lutmer and Jayden Montgomery led the Hawkeyes with 11 tackles apiece. Kahmari Brown added five tackles, a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Bryce Hawthorne recorded five tackles, a sack and a team-best 2.5 tackles for loss, while Jacob Wallace and Joseph Anderson also registered sacks.
Caden Buhr was responsible for Iowa’s first six points, connecting on field goals from 43 and 48 yards.
Box Score: Iowa v. Ohio St
Post Game Comments from Kirk Ferentz
“First of all, just congratulate, give credit to Ohio State. They’ve got a good football team and played a really good game. We knew it was going to be a challenge going in, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet that challenge.
If you’re going to beat a team like that, you’ve got to play clean and really be smart . If you’re going to give yourself a chance to win, you’ve got to do that, and we came up short today at various times that really kind of hurt us.
Just from where I was standing, two of the biggest things that happened: obviously, the turnover early. First of all, we had a false start before that, I think we were second-and-2, second-and-3, put ourselves in a predictable situation, and then had the sack and fumble.
So, that started it out, and then at the end of the half, we were moving the ball, converted a third down, and then got called for an illegal formation. That took the first down off the board, and then we punted, and we couldn’t get a stop after that. I thought those were two big plays that really impacted that first half.
We’ll never know what the second half would have been, but again, if you’re going to win a game like this, you really have to be able to execute that way. Singling those two things out, and then just again, I think our effort, our investment was good in the game. We couldn’t match up there in the second half, so again, credit to them.
It hurts to lose anytime you do, especially when you’ve got a bunch of guys who are invested. I know how they’re all feeling, and that’s how it’s going to be tonight, and it’ll be that way tomorrow. Then we’re going to move on, look at the film, learn from it like we always do.
It’s imperative this week especially that you’ve got to move on and move on faster because we’ve got a six-day week, so that’ll be the message tomorrow. Proud of our guys. It’s a good group of guys, and we’ll just keep pushing forward.”
