Monday, November 15, 2010

Iowa Lays Another Egg Against Northwestern

This is starting to sound like a broken record for the Iowa Hawkeyes—a serious broken record.

Iowa loses again to Northwestern. Count them Hawkeye fans. Your team has now lost five out of the last six to the Wildcats. Coach Kirk Ferentz has losing records against only two teams—and you guessed it—Northwestern is one of those teams.

Most teams consider Northwestern a victory on its schedule. Iowa is probably wishing the Wildcats didn’t reside in the same division next year when Big Ten alignment kicks in.

Iowa fans saw trouble early Saturday when Northwestern took a first lead. But the Hawkeyes seemed to take control in the second half building a 17-7 lead. Then Northwestern kicked in its usual magic against the Hawkeyes and scored 14 straight points for the victory.

Iowa has trouble against pesky, mobile quarterbacks and Northwestern had one in Dan Persa. Running or throwing, the Hawkeyes couldn’t stop Persa. End of story.

Iowa’s hopes of a Big Ten title are now over. It is now playing for bowl position. The problem this week is that Ohio State comes to town with still a shot at the Big Ten crown.

So suddenly the two teams are coming from opposite directions. This is all because Iowa cannot beat a team that finds much joy in defeating the Hawkeyes.

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