The Iowa football team put out its most complete offensive performance this season in a convincing 38-14 win over Northern Iowa. The Hawkeyes had a shaky start to kick things off. Noah Fant left the field on the third play of the game with what looked like a hip injury. An overthrow to Nick Easley followed a Nate Stanley sack on first down to make it 3rd and 17. A delay of game penalty made it 3rd and 22. An 8 yard draw to Mehki Sargent brought out Colten Rastetter early. The torches and pitchforks were getting ready. Luckily, Iowa has Phil Parker at the helm of its defense. The salty Iowa D forced a three and out right away for the Panthers and Kyle Groenweg had himself a nifty 38-yard return that got called back for an unnecessary holding penalty on Amani Jones. No matter. Back-to-back 12-yard plays by Nick Easley (catch over the middle) and Groeneweg (end-around) preceded a 43-yard catch to Noah Fant that set Iowa up in the red zone. A 4-yard run from Toren Young preceded a 5-yard touchdown catch by Fant and Iowa got itself on the board first. Noah Fant x 2! And with that TD reception, Fant stands alone atop @HawkeyeFootball's all-time TD catch leaderboard for a TE: pic.twitter.com/9oTUvaUM33 — Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 16, 2018 Iowa’s defense forced another three and out (featuring AJ Epenesa in pass coverage) and a weird punt gave the Hawkeyes a short field to work with. Two nice runs by Sargent were wiped out by that stupid illegal five-yard block thing by Levi Paulsen, and Iowa shot itself with a 1st-and-27. A 19-yard pass to Noah Fant made it second and manageable and then a 29-yard pass to Fant got Iowa knocking on the door. Iowa went up-tempo in the red zone and it sort of worked. On fourth and two Stanley hit Noah Fant on the 11 yard line for a first down. It looked a little under-thrown but it was a perfect placement for Fant. A nine-yard toss to the right for Sargent got Iowa to the two-yard line and then the IWCC transfer punched it in. Touchdown Iowa: Mekhi Sargent won't be denied Iowa 14, UNI 0 | 14:09 2nd https://t.co/xQkji3Aldp pic.twitter.com/4bx0AqUsme — On Iowa (@GazetteOnIowa) September 16, 2018 14-0 good guys. It didn’t get much better for the UNI offense. Epenesa sacked UNI’s Colton Howell on first down, and a few plays later a bad snap made it second and 29 for the Panthers. Big stops by Epenesa and Hesse got the ball back in Iowa’s hands. A healthy dose of Sargent, Young and Brady Ross (!!) kept things churning on the ground in the middle of the second quarter. jumping over the haters like pic.twitter.com/VuasOibJON — Jordan Hansen (@jordyhansen) September 16, 2018 Eventually, Sargent would find pay dirt again. (But not before a 10 yard catch by Ross, who I’m going to call my second cousin from now on). Touchdown Iowa: Mekhi Sargent's second of the night Iowa 21, UNI 0 | 2:09 2nd https://t.co/xQkji3Aldp pic.twitter.com/AnFY8sEPUv — On Iowa (@GazetteOnIowa) September 16, 2018 21-0. Iowa and UNI traded possessions to end the half — Howell arm-punted to Michael Ojemudia and a big return set up Iowa in decent position with 15 seconds left. A 23-yard pass down the middle to Easley gave Iowa a great shot at a field, but Miguel Recinos’ kick was blocked as the half ended. Another opponent finds out Kinnick is a no-fly zone the hard way, courtesy of Michael Ojemudia: pic.twitter.com/vzXGqgQV6P — Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 16, 2018 UNI ended the first half with a total of 20 yards — 22 passing and -2 on the ground. This was a great effort all around. Iowa received the ball to start the second half, but had to settle for a field goal after a cute swing pass on third down to Easley. Brandon Smith and Easley had some nice catches that drive, and a successful 42-yard attempt from Recinos made their efforts worthwhile. UNI changed quarterbacks the second half and switched to Eli Dunne. On the ensuing Panther drive, Jake Gervase forced a fumble from UNI’s Jaylin James and Amani Hooker jumped on it. Back-to-back-back runs by Sargent for 5, 15 and 11 yards set up a 14-yard touchdown pass to Easley. Perfect touch. And that put this one to bed folks. Touchdown Iowa: Nick Easley's first of 2018 Iowa 31, UNI 0 | 7:03 3rd https://t.co/xQkji3Aldp pic.twitter.com/WQLkV19uUs — On Iowa (@GazetteOnIowa) September 16, 2018 UNI entered Iowa territory for the first time all game the ensuing drive, but left empty-handed after Austin Errthum missed a 45-yarder. A swing pass to Sargent went for 48 yards and Easley followed that up with a jet sweep that notched 9. Toren Young tiptoed 15 yards for a score and I can feel Brian Ferentz’s smugness from my couch in Chicago. Touchdown Iowa: Toren Young's turn Iowa 38, UNI 0 | 1:59 3rd https://t.co/xQkji3Aldp pic.twitter.com/Q8p5q1PCP9 — On Iowa (@GazetteOnIowa) September 16, 2018 38-0 Iowa. The Panthers drove down the field against a mix of first and second-teamers on Iowa’s D. Jake Gervase was called on a really lame pass interference on the one-yard line to set up UNI’s first touchdown on the day; a four-yard pass to Briley Moore in the corner of the end zone. 38-7. And now we had ourselves a Mansell Moment. On his first snap of the game Peyton Mansell scampered for 13 yards. A couple plays later he hit Tyrone Tracy with a BULLET down the middle for 22 yards. Henry Geil got himself some carries and then Mansell threw a pass right into the chest of UNI linebacker Duncan Ferch. His first turnover as a Hawkeye. Iowa kept a handful of first-teamers in on defense, and Eli Dunne continued to pick on Ojemudia. A 40-yard pass to Jalen Rima put UNI on Iowa’s 5 and two plays later Elias Nissen hauled in a pretty touchdown over Jack Hockaday to make it 38-14. Iowa’s second-team offense was forced to punt again; a holding call preceded a fumble by Mansell that was recovered by the Hawkeyes. UNI’s offense took the field one last time with just under 3 minutes to go. A three and out gave Iowa the ball back and both teams seemed content enough to run out the clock. Three wins and zero losses. Next up: the Badgers. At night. In Kinnick. Other musings:<doc-sep>All that stands between now and Iowa’s conference slate is a date with Northern Iowa. Hopefully the offense can show us something tonight. Broadcast Info Opponent: Northern Iowa Panthers Game time: 6:30 p.m. // Saturday, September 15, 2018 Location: Kinnick Stadium // Iowa City, IA TV: BTN // Announcers: Chris Vosters and Chuck Long There are three games on BTN tonight at the same time. To find out whether or not the game is available in your home, try out BTN.com/gamefinder. Otherwise... Online: BTN2Go Mobile: BTN2Go App Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network and KRUI Radio<doc-sep>
Who's Playing Iowa Hawkeyes (home) vs. Northern Iowa Panthers (away) Current records: Iowa 2-0; Northern Iowa 0-1 What to Know Northern Iowa has had a week off and are no doubt ready to get back on the field. They will challenge Iowa on the road at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Iowa will be strutting in after a victory while Northern Iowa will be stumbling in from a defeat. It's always promising to start the season off with a win on the road. Unfortunately for Northern Iowa, that's not how things played out. They fell just short of Montana by a score of 23-26. Meanwhile, it was all tied up at the half for Iowa and Iowa St. last week, but Iowa stepped up in the second half. Iowa were able to grind out a solid win over Iowa St., winning 13-3. The success made it back-to-back wins for Iowa. Northern Iowa's loss took them down to 0-1 while Iowa's win pulled them up to 2-0. The Iowa defense got after the quarterback against Iowa St. to the tune of 4 sacks, so Northern Iowa's offensive line better have put in some good practice this past week in preparation for the matchup. How To Watch When: Saturday at 7:30 PM ET Saturday at 7:30 PM ET Where: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa Kinnick Stadium, Iowa TV: Big Ten Network Big Ten Network Follow: CBS Sports App Series History This is the first time these teams have played each other within the last 4 years.