Iowa Football: 3 takeaways from another huge win for Hawkeyes

Iowa football faced another big-time opponent in Penn State and did enough in all three phases to score a top-5 win. 

When you play a top-5 team, winning doesn’t require any style points, and even though it wasn’t a thing of beauty, Iowa football got a huge win on Saturday against Penn State.

Trailing by double digits in the second half, things looked bleak for Iowa football. There’s no mistake about that. But the Iowa defense came through and intercepted four passes, helping the Hawkeyes rally past Penn State for a 23-20 win.

Penn State grabbed a 17-3 lead in the first half and it looked like the Nittany Lions might end Iowa’s dream season. But Spencer Petras, for all his flaws, got Iowa football in the end zone right when it was most needed and that allowed the Hawkeyes to stay within striking distance.

The defense forced four turnovers but those takeaways turned into just three points for Iowa so you have to give credit where credit is due. The offense got it done especially Petras with the 44-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Iowa is trucking toward a trip to Indianapolis and here are three takeaways from the win over Penn State.

Petras is a winner

Spencer Petras isn’t perfect. He’ll make some mistakes and threw an interception Saturday night. He also completed just 17 of 31 passes and led Iowa football to just 305 yards of total offense.

For everything he lacks, he has moxie and it was on full display once again versus the Nittany Lions. With his team trailing by 14 in the first half, he drove the Hawkeyes 75 yards for a score.

After settling for two field goals to trim the Penn State lead to 20-16, he threw a 44-yard touchdown, then didn’t make the sort of mistakes (four interceptions) that plagued Penn State.

Petras isn’t going to win the Heisman, earn First-Team All-Big Ten honors, and likely won’t be playing in the NFL, but he’s got Iowa in the playoff hunt and that’s saying something.