Iowa’s 54-10 loss at Ohio State was so bad Kirk Ferentz finally switched quarterbacks
By Bob Baptist
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Iowa fans finally got the change they’ve been screaming for.
Well, one of them, at least. Be careful what you wish for.
Six and a half games into the season, coach Kirk Ferentz finally saw fit to replace senior quarterback Spencer Petras with junior Alex Padilla.
By that point, Petras had turned the ball over three times – twice in his first seven plays – in helping No.3 Ohio State to a 16-point halftime lead. The last of the giveaways was a pick-six with less than 3 1/2 minutes left in the half.
Enter Padilla, who had patiently bided his time the past two months while Petras captained an offense averaging the fewest yards per game of any team in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Padilla promptly mishandled the snap from center on his first play and was intercepted on his third when his pass went through the arms of tight end Sam LaPorta and into the hands of the opponent.
It set up another touchdown for the Buckeyes, and they proceeded from there to roll to a 54-10 victory on a sunny and warm late October day in Ohio Stadium.
“Obviously not the start that you want,” Padilla said afterward, “but coaches just said (to) brush it off, keep moving forward, forget about it and start new.
“We knew we’d have to play flawlessly,” Kirk Ferentz said, “execute and take advantage of any opportunities, do a good job with ball security, excel on special teams, avoid penalties. We really didn’t do much to check any of those boxes, so we didn’t give gave ourselves much of a chance.
“Defensively, I thought the guys played with really good effort and energy and came up with some big plays. . . . They were just on the field goo long.”
For 26 minutes, Iowa (3-4 overall, 1-3 Big Ten), if it did not do what it took to gain the upper hand on Ohio State (7-0, 4-0), it did enough to hang around uncomfortably for the vast majority of the 104,848 fans on hand.
Following the only script that’s worked for them this season, the Hawkeyes defense limited the high-powered Buckeyes’ offense by holding its tandem tailbacks to short gains and not allowing its fleet wide receivers to get deep.
They also benefited from Ohio State’s Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback C.J. Stroud being uncharacteristically off the mark with passes that could have broken open the game much earlier. Stroud also gave up an early touchdown – and Iowa a 7-3 lead – when he was hit in the pocket by end Joe Evans, fumbled, and watched Evans run 11 yards for a touchdown.
Iowa’s third defensive touchdown of the season – the offense has seven, and none in the past two games – helped the Hawkeyes to hang within 19-10 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
The defense held Ohio State to field goals on four of its first seven possessions, and the only touchdown the Buckeyes scored came on a short field after punter Tory Taylor decided unilaterally – “That wasn’t our plan,” Ferentz said – to run for a first down on fourth-and-six from the Iowa 30. He was tackled two yards short.
And then it happened again, as it has too often this season.
Petras, already bitten by an interception and lost fumble in his first seven plays from scrimmage, threw his second pick on first down from his 13-yard line. He threw late over the middle and linebacker Tommy Eichenberg stepped in front of running back Leshon Williams,
intercepted the ball and returned it 15 yards for the touchdown and a 26-10 lead with 3:25 to play in the half.
Ohio State took that lead to halftime, and that was pretty much that for an Iowa team averaging fewer than 15 points per game. Ferentz said Petras’ pick-six wasn’t the sole reason for him changing quarterbacks at that point, but it was a factor.
“It was a cumulative thing,” he said. “I felt at that point it was the best thing to do. It’s a tough situation for either quarterback.”
After Padilla’s back-to-back turnovers, the Buckeyes scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives in the second half to finish with 45 or more points for the sixth consecutive game.
Stroud finished 20 of 30 passing for 286 yards and all four second-half scores.
Ohio State netted 360 total yards and averaged 5.8 yards per play, double Iowa’s average. The Buckeyes’ drives, on average, began on their 46-yard line. Iowa started, on average, at its 25.
“When you play Ohio State, they have playmakers at every position,” linebacker Jack Campbell said. “They have arguably the best quarterback in the nation and best receivers in the nation. If you get caught being a step slow, they’re going to exploit you, and, obviously, they did a great job of that today.”