Fitz can't even find a positive in 33-13 beatdown at Iowa

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald is nothing if not relentlessly positive. But after watching his team get smacked by a reeling Iowa team, 33-13, not even Mr. Sunshine could find anything he could hang his hat on.

“None,” he replied for a positive that he could take away from Kinnick Stadium. "[If we] get home safe, that’ll be a positive. We've got Chick-Fil-A [for the post-game meal], that’s a positive."

If you were wondering how far Northwestern had fallen this season, you got the answer on Saturday.

Facing the worst offense in the country, the Wildcats’ defense got shredded. Facing the No. 6 defense in the nation, the Wildcats’ offense predictably couldn’t get out of its own way.

Put both sides together and you get a bludgeoning by a Hawkeyes team that had lost three straight games and had their fans fuming. It turns out that all they needed was Northwestern on the schedule.

Embattled Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz looked like Lincoln Riley after his Hawkeyes put up more than double their average of points per game. Quarterback Spencer Petras, who got yanked last week against Ohio State, looked like Caleb Williams at times, finishing with 220 passing yards and a touchdown.

It was the seventh straight loss for Northwestern and the 13th in its last 14 starts dating back to last season. And this game may have been the Wildcats’ last, best chance for another win this season. They will be heavy underdogs in all of their remaining games – and for good reason. They can’t stop the bleeding on either side of the ball.

Northwestern quarterback Brendan Sullivan had a rough outing in just his second start, throwing for 159 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. He had 54 of those yards wiped out by losses while getting sacked seven times. Northwestern’s running game finished with just 42 net yards.

As a whole, the Wildcats gained 177 yards, but 75 of them came in garbage time on a final touchdown drive that made the final score slightly more palatable.

Iowa came into this contest averaging just 14 points and 227 yards per game. The Hawkeyes surpassed both of those numbers by halftime as they went up and down the field on the Wildcats.

“We couldn’t get off the field,” said Fitzgerald when asked to assess his defense’s performance in the first half.

It was more than that. Iowa scored all four times they had the ball in the first half, racking up 252 yards and building a 20-0 lead after two quarters. That advantage might as well been 60 points against a swarming Hawkeyes defense that limited the Wildcats to 40 yards on 23 plays in the first half.

Iowa's offensive performance wasn't a fluke, as the Hawkeyes repeatedly scored on long drives. They went 63 yards on their first drive, until Northwestern stiffened in the red zone and forced Drew Stevens to kick a 29-yard field goal to open the scoring.

On their second drive, Iowa converted a fourth-and-1 at midfield on a series that began with a first-and-20. The Hawkeyes capped that drive with their first touchdown since Oct. 1 on a Petras one-yard TD plunge to make it 10-0.

The third time they had the ball, Iowa marched from its own 9 to the Northwestern 6 before another Wildcat stand inside the 10 forced a 24-yard chip shot by Stevens.

The Hawkeyes weren’t done, either. They forced a Northwestern three-and-out and called a timeout with 1:39 left in the half to get the ball back. It paid off after Petras completed a six-yard TD pass to Luke Lachey with 22 seconds left in the half to make it 20-0.

Northwestern’s offense, meanwhile, had -17 yards rushing in the first half, counting sacks. They had one drive where they finally found a rhythm, converting two third downs as Sullivan completed 17- and 12-yard throws and then scrambled for 10 yards.

But after reaching the Iowa 22, the Wildcats started going in the wrong direction, stung by the type of errors that have been plaguing them all season. Vince Picozzi was called for holding. Sullivan got sacked for a 10-yard loss. Then he slipped and fell on his next drop back. On a drive that began so promisingly, the Wildcats were suddenly facing a fourth-and-36 from own 49 and had to punt.

That’s kind of the way it went all day for Northwestern. Desperate for a spark, Fitzgerald went for it on three consecutive fourth downs on their first two drives in the third quarter. They picked up all three, the last one resulting in a one-yard touchdown catch by converted defensive lineman Duke Olges to make it 20-7.

But Iowa responded with a booming 54-yard Stevens field goal and the Wildcats never got any closer. Fitzgerald called that a turning point, as the Cats would have had a chance to cut the lead to one score on their next possession.

“Heck of a field goal,” said Fitzgerald. “It was a big play, I think, in the game.”

The Hawkeyes tacked on another field goal, a 25-yarder, early in the fourth quarter to cap their scoring.

Northwestern got the ball back with 5:13 left and pieced together a 75-yard drive that Sullivan capped with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Raymond Niro III.

But that was far too little and far too late. If Fitzgerald couldn’t find anything positive out of this day, neither can the most die-hard of Wildcat fans.