By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Playing with no margin for error in its quest to make the college playoff for the first time, the 16th-ranked Iowa football team cleared another obstacle by defeating Purdue 28-7 on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

The Iowa offense finished with 434 total yards, including 246 rushing yards, while the Iowa defense held Purdue to just 99 rushing yards and 303 yards overall.

Running back L.J. Phillips led Iowa with 123 rushing yards on 23 carries, giving him back-to-back games with over 100 yards as he rushed for 128 yards in the 24-10 win at Northwestern last Saturday.

Iowa improved to 8-2 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten and will now hit the road for a game at Illinois next Saturday.

Following the Illinois game, Iowa will face Nebraska in the regular-season finale on Nov. 27 at Kinnick Stadium.

It is widely believed that Iowa would have to finish 10-2 to have a legitimate chance of making the 12-team college playoff, meaning the last two games are must wins, as was the Purdue game and the Northwestern game a week earlier.

“To have just an all-around team win like that and the guys around you are executing makes my job a lot easier,” Iowa quarterback Hank Brown said afterwards. “And so I think it’s an ultimate team win and I think our boys up front did an incredible job of just dominating the line of scrimmage and allowing our run game to get going.”

Iowa was leading 21-7 when reserve running back Xavier Williams blasted through a massive hole and raced 48 yards for a touchdown with 11 minutes, seven seconds left in the third quarter.

There still was plenty of game left to be played, but Purdue’s defense was starting to wear down, especially against the run.

Iowa would continue to shred the Boilermaker defense with its running game, sprinkled in with some timely passing from Hank Brown, who completed 20-of-29 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown.

Brown also rushed for 32 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries.

Brown’s touchdown pass came on a 44-yard screen pass to running back Braeden Jackson, who eluded multiple Purdue defenders before crossing the end zone with five seconds left in the second quarter.

Jackson showed on his touchdown catch the same vision and elusiveness that he uses to return kicks.

The Ankeny native has returned two kicks for touchdowns this season.

His touchdown, coupled with Caden Buhr’s point-after kick gave Iowa a 21-7 halftime lead.

“Obviously, you never expect a play to end up like that,” Hank Brown said. “Obviously, it’s ideal when it does.

“But for him, obviously, he sees open space and the field well in the kick return game, and so if we can get him the ball in space and create opportunities like to where he might envision the field just like a kick return, then that’s what we want to try and do.”

The Boilermakers had to travel the 330 miles from West Lafayette by bus after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights Friday afternoon.

The team arrived at its hotel in Cedar Rapids at approximately 11 p.m. on Friday.

And while it created an obvious distraction, to suggest that it had a major impact on the outcome of Saturday’s game would be a reach since Iowa won by 21 points.

Iowa, which was ranked 15th in the latest playoff rankings, entered the game as the better team on paper, and that would carry to the field.

“Really an impressive team in all three phases,” Purdue head coach Barry Odom said of Iowa. “I don’t know exactly where they were in the rankings, top 15 I believe. But I would say they’re every bit of that.

“They took the air out of the game. They ran the ball really well, made plays when they had to, were good on third downs, kind of what they’ve been all year and what we expected.”

One of the few issues for Iowa in Saturday’s game was Buhr missing two field goals and having another blocked. However, both of his misses were from beyond 50 yards and Buhr also entered Saturday’s game having made 14-of-16 field-goal attempts on the season.

Purdue marched into Iowa territory on its opening possession of the game, but the drive stalled and then Purdue kicker Jacobo Echeverria Lozano missed a 38-yard field goal as his kick deflected off the left upright.

Iowa then drove 80 yards for a touchdown on 15 plays.

Brown capped the drive by scoring on a one-yard run with 3:19 left in the first quarter.

He also completed 3-of-4 passes for 45 yards on the drive.

Iowa wide receiver Tony Diaz then scored on a 14-yard sweep with 6:35 left in the second quarter. Caden Buhr converted the point-after kicking, giving Iowa a 14-0 lead.

Purdue then answered with its own scoring drive, marching 75 yards on 11 plays, capped by a three-yard scoring strike from Ryan Browne to tight end George Berhenn with 1:49 left in the second quarter.

The Boilermakers had temporarily seized the momentum and had a chance to go into halftime trailing by just one score at 14-7.

But the 1:42 that still was left on the clock would prove to be enough as Jackson crushed any momentum that Purdue had gained by scoring right before halftime.

After making the catch, Jackson reversed field and made several Purdue defenders miss in open field before crossing the end zone.

The way in which Jackson cut back and reversed field was sort of similar to former Hawkeye Cooper DeJean’s punt return against Minnesota in 2023 that was erased by an invalid fair catch.

The touchdown was Jackson’s sixth of the season and his second receiving touchdown. He also has two rushing touchdowns and two kick returns for touchdowns.

The Hawkeyes have struggled with fumbles in recent games, but they recovered their only fumble against Purdue.

Iowa also converted on 10 of 15 third-down plays in Saturday’s game and has now won 25 of its last 30 games in the month of November.

“Obviously, just happy for our players and happy to get the win,” said Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. “I thought it was a really good performance by our guys. Certainly some things to clean up.

“But talk about November football, it’s an important time for every football team, at least in college football. Really it just comes down to having good preparation and the players having a great attitude and preparing. It’s a little bit different than it is earlier in the season from a physical standpoint.”

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Purdue 0 7 0 0 – 7

Iowa 7 14 7 0 – 28 

I – Hank Brown 1 run (Caden Buhr kick)

I – Tony Diaz 14 run (Buhr kick)

P – George Berhenn 3 pass from Ryan Browne (J. Echeverria  Lozano kick)

I – Braeden Jackson 44 pass from Hank Brown (Buhr kick)

I – Xavier Williams 48 run (Buhr kick)