By Tyler Devine

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Playing on the road in the Big Ten is tough enough when healthy.

But doing it without two of your top defensive starters makes it that much tougher.

The Iowa football team found that out the hard way during a 17-10 overtime loss to Northwestern on Saturday, dropping its record to 1-3 in the Big Ten and 4-3 overall.

Iowa was without all-Big Ten senior middle linebacker Josey Jewell, who leads the conference with 70 tackles, and junior free safety Brandon Snyder due to injuries the two suffered against Illinois on Oct. 14 at Kinnick Stadium.

Jewell’s injury snapped his streak of 37 straight starts.

Senior outside linebacker Ben Niemann slid inside to Jewell’s position, while junior Jake Gervase stepped in for Snyder. Senior linebacker Kevin Ward made his first career start at Niemann's position.

For the 6-foot-3, 233-pound Niemann, it was like playing in a different world.

“Totally different position,” Niemann said. “It’s really two different worlds. Being out in the slot, I’m looking at things, I’m jamming wideouts, maybe getting depth in my drops, setting edges. At the Mike, I’ve got to make all the front adjustments, I have to take on offensive lineman, guard posts, see the path of the back, all that stuff. So it’s completely different.”

Sophomore defensive end Anthony Nelson said it helps having Jewell on the field, but he refused to use injuries as an excuse.

“Obviously, Josey is a really good player and we’d love to have him out there but we had a lot of guys step up and step in to different roles and they did a really good job,” Nelson said. “Communication-wise it was no different. We practiced like this and they did a good job.”

Senior receiver Matt VandeBerg said it wasn’t one or two big things that caused Iowa to lose on Saturday, but a lots of little things.

“We’ve got to continue to work on details, work on our little finite execution,” senior receiver Matt VandeBerg said. “The little details on where we line up, things like that, just little stuff that’ll help down the road.

“We’ve got to continue to work on details, work on our little finite execution. The little details on where we line up, things like that, just little stuff that’ll help down the road.”

Iowa’s three losses this season have come by 16 points. Two of those games came down to the final play.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has been around long enough to know that the little things are important when playing in the Big Ten.

“A lot of swings during the game,” Ferentz said. “A lot of little things that add up and make a difference. We call that conference football and certainly that’s going to be important. You talk about a series like this which, typically, is pretty hard fought and pretty close and that’s going to make a difference.

“That’s kind of illustrative of our team right now. We’ve had three games where we’ve come up short. Two of them by one touchdown, the other one less than that. Those are the things that we’re going to have to improve on. We’re going to have to find a way to do a little bit better and be a little more detailed.”

Injury report: Senior offensive lineman Boone Myers did not play against Northwestern.

Myers has been battling an ankle injury since fall practice.

Ferentz said he is confident that Jewell will return from his injury soon.

Snyder on the other hand, maybe not.

“They’re both obviously injured, a carry over from two weeks ago,” Ferentz said. “Fortunately we didn’t have a game last week. We thought Josey might have an opportunity to perform today. He didn’t pass the test, so we dressed him out and all that but we knew he wasn’t going to play in the football game.

“Brandon it’s the same thing, it’s a residual from two weeks ago. We’ll just take that week by week. Hopefully he’ll be able to come back soon but I think Josey’s got the best chance to get back the quickest.”

Senior running back James Butler was dressed for the game but did not play. Butler has been out since suffering an elbow injury against North Texas on Sept. 16.

Ferentz is hopeful that Butler can adjust to a brace he will have to wear on his elbow so he can play soon.

“He dressed and he practiced this week,” Ferentz said. “He’s got to get used to that brace. We haven’t really had a chance to see him handle. There’s an adjustment period. Even just taking the ball there’s a bit of an adjustment period we’ll see how he tests at full speed but we’d like to figure that out and try to get him back in the near future.” 

Potent punting: If Iowa were to take anything positive from the loss to Northwestern, it should be that its specialists had their best performance of the season.

Freshman punter Ryan Gersonde punted a career-high five times. He had a career long 61-yard punt and averaged 52.6 yards per punt. Four punts were 50-plus yards, and one was downed inside the 20-yard line. 

Sophomore punter Colten Rastetter also punted once for 55 yards.

“We’ve all watched Ryan and we know he’s a good punter,” Junior kicker Miguel Recinos said. “So we’re just telling him ‘we need this punt from you and we know you can go execute it’ and he’s done a very good job. I think he punted very well today and gave us a chance, field position wise.”

Recinos also did his part, kicking a career-long 48-yard field goal to tie the game, 10-10, in the fourth quarter. Recinos is 4-for-4 from 40-plus yards this season.

“I remember thinking they had a couple timeouts so they might try to ice me or they might not,” Recinos said. “I remember when the ball was snapped I didn’t hear any whistles so in that split second I was like ‘well, I better make it’ and I was able to do so.”

Wadley passes Harmon: Senior running back Akrum Wadley’s 22-yard rush in the first quarter moved him past Ronnie Harmon and into ninth place on Iowa’s all-time rushing list. Wadley has 429 career carries for 2,336 yards. Wadley rushed 26 times for 90 yards today. In four career games against Northwestern, Wadley has 81 rushes for 435 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Wadley is now 222 yards from passing Owen Gill for eighth on the all-time list.

Career days: Freshman running back Toren Young’s 23-yard reception was the first reception of his career.

Senior linebacker Bo Bower had a career-high 11 tackles, while Ward set a career high with four tackles.

Senior defensive lineman Nathan Bazata had a career-high 1.5 sacks.

Sophomore defensive end Matt Nelson started for the first time this season and for the first time in his 14 career starts at defensive tackle.

Finally, a deep ball: VandeBerg had three receptions for 90 yards. His 61-yard reception in the second quarter was a career long. He has at least one reception in 26 consecutive games played. He has 124 career receptions, 11th all-time, and 1,578 receiving yards, 18th all-time.

Completing deep balls has been an issue for Iowa this season, but VandeBerg thinks Iowa has turned a corner in that regard.

“I think in the deep ball game we took a step forward today but there are a lot of other things we need to clean up,” VandeBerg said.

Quick hitters: Sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley completed passes to eight different receivers…Junior receiver Nick Easley had a team-high four receptions. He has led Iowa in receptions five times this season…This was the first time this season that Iowa did not outscore its opponent in the fourth quarter. Iowa has outscored its opponents 73-23 in the fourth quarter this season…Saturday was the first time Iowa has played two overtime games in the same season.