Hawkeyes rally past Nittany Lions

It wasn’t always pretty. The decisions weren’t always perfect. But, Saturday night was one of those find a way wins the Hawkeyes did just that. Iowa rallied from down by eleven points in the second half for a thrilling 25-24 win over Penn State.

With the win, Iowa moves to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 in Big Ten play. Penn State drops to 3-4 on the season and amazingly 0-4 in Big Ten play.

Penn State opened the scoring on Saturday night and it felt a lot like Iowa’s last home game where they had a turnover out of the gate that helped to put points on the board. This time it was an interception that gave the Nittany Lions the ball at the Iowa 35 yard line.

Penn State rode their ground game into the end zone from one yard out. That was after an offside call on Iowa on the first fourth down call that gave the Kaytron Allen and Penn State a second chance and they capitalized.

Iowa answered right back on their next drive, but not to the level that they hoped. It was a field goal from 39 yards and the bulk of the work was on the ground by Kamari Moulton. He finished his evening with 99 yards rushing.

There was not a lot of action the first portion of the second quarter, but the final couple of minutes more than made up for it. First there was an interception by safety Xavier Nwankpa. He returned it 28 yards to the Penn State one yard line. From there, Mark Gronowski added to his rushing touchdown total this season when he plunged in from the one for a 10-7 Iowa lead.

It looked like that might be where the teams would land going to break. But, Iowa forced a punt by the Nittany Lions and used timeouts to force a punt. Iowa started their drive at their own 25 and were aided by a personal foul on Penn State that got the Hawkeyes to the 44 yard line. Iowa got the 48 yard line and with six second left in the half, they attempted a 66 yard field goal by Drew Stevens. It was blocked by Penn State and bounced backwards and into the hands of Elliot Washington Jr. He raced 35 yards for the touchdown as time expired and the Nittany Lions went into halftime leading 14-10.

Penn State got the opening kickoff in the second half and marched right down the field. Again it was Allen leading the way. He finished his day with 145 yards rushing. Allen cruised in from eight yards out and the Nittany Lions were up 21-10 in the third quarter.

Iowa needed an answer and they got one. It came from an unlikely source in the legs of Mark Gronowski. The Iowa quarterback, he was limited last week due to a knee issue seemed much closer to healthy this week, particularly in the second half. On third and three, Gronowski took off for a 38 yard run that got Iowa in business. From there Kamari Moulton and Kaden Wetjen moved Iowa further down the field before Gronowski scored from four yards out. Iowa went for two and failed to make the score 21-16.

Early in the fourth quarter, Iowa continued to cut into the lead. Moulton ran for 21 yards on the final play of the third period to put Iowa into the red zone. But that was as far as the Hawkeyes could get and they had to settle for a 31 yard field goal from Stevens and a 21-19 game.

Penn State answered right back to go up 24-19 when Ryan Baker connected on a 32 yard field goal.

With 4:56 left in the game, Iowa knew that they would likely have one more opportunity to put points on the board and it would have to be a touchdown if they were going to win this game. They did just that and they did it in a much quicker fashion than anticipated.

On the first play from scrimmage on the drive, Gronowski took off and kept running and running. It was a 67 yard burst where he was hauled down at the eight yard line. Wetjen found the end zone on the next play and after the Hawkeyes two point play failed again, it was 25-24 with 3:54 left in the game.

Iowa would need one more defensive stop and eventually they got it. A fourth down pass was broken up by DeShaun Lee and then Iowa got the ball back and Gronowski, who rushed for a career best 130 yards, finished off the game with a third down run for 14 yards to wrap up the victory for the Hawkeyes.