North Dakota State’s lone score came on a 21 yard interception return by Mj Stumpf. They don’t have the recruiting cachet as Power 5 teams. They have robust fan bases that love their teams and who celebrate victories with the “Heaven/Beer” polka.
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North Dakota State continued its incredible streak of beating teams from college football’s top division when it downed 13th-ranked Iowa 23-21 thanks to a last-second field goal. It had to be somewhat surreal.
The defensive difference-maker from Week 1 to Week 2 could well have been Josey Jewell.
“All you have to do is turn on the tape and you can see how good they are”, Niemann said. And they are. They were the team that was throwing the punches late in the fourth quarter. They ran the ball down Iowa’s throat for 239 yards while only allowing 34 yards rushing on 25 carries, a dismal 1.4 yards per attempt.
The fact that NDSU doesn’t have Carson Wentz should be a slight sigh of relief for the Hawkeye faithful, but this is an NDSU team that would love nothing more than to win on their biggest stage of the season.
When you play with fire, eventually you’re going to get burned.
Iowa is now 13‐1 all‐time against FCS schools.
“Certainly you look at them, they’re a model program”, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It’s as simple as that”.
Losing to North Dakota State was not good for the Hawkeyes by any stretch of the imagination, and it revealed some flaws in the team. “They play hard, they play physical”. The one game he missed with an elbow injury was against the University of South Dakota, a game where the Bison offense struggled and the team eventually lost.
The victory was NDSU’s sixth consecutive over an FBS opponent. NDSU forced a three and out and got the ball back with just under two minutes left to go. Easton Stick opened the drive with a 29-yard run.
“We’re going to have to be ready for smash-mouth football”, Jewell said.
Sure, there’s the “any given Saturday” principle to consider, and the Hawkeyes very well could bounce back from the loss and regain their Top 25 form and ranking. “That won’t work and we’re all still cleaning a lot of things up to make sure that doesn’t continue to happen”. Trailing 21-14 to Iowa early in the fourth quarter, the Bison took the old school route again. Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and the Irish (1-2) cut the lead to 36-28 with 6:02 left on a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Durham Smythe. The pass failed, but the message was clear. The game was such a mismatch that the Tigers (3-0) scored two touchdowns in the first quarter with no time running off the clock.
That’s exactly how it played out.
The Hawkeyes were up 21-20 with 3:41 left in the game.
Kuhnert returned to the lineup past year, after missing the one game and was the point man for quarterback Easton Stick, after Stick took over for the injured Carson Wentz.
Klieman didn’t blink on the decision to go for 2, either.
“We came here to win”, Klieman said. Senior Jaleel Johnson leads the Hawkeye’s defensive line and he has been more disruptive in the backfield than his 1.5 sacks indicate.
“I’m so proud with King today in the way he ran, all those backs did”, said Bison head coach Chris Klieman. First down. Bruce Anderson for 16 yards. He netted a yard on second down. NDSU had 126 total yards in the final 15 minutes. He paused, a lot of the O-linemen pointed at NDSU defenders and they still couldn’t stop the blitz. Jeff Illies had 45 yards and a touchdown.
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The North Dakota State Bison and Iowa Hawkeyes square off Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium on ESPN2.
