Hawks leave Indiana in the dust in 4th.......Hawks 9-0!

It was looking like it was going to be the end of the winning streak Saturday. Hawks couldn't get anything going in the first half while Indiana had everything going their way. For Hawk fans it seemed odd that Ferentz deferred at the coin toss. Ferentz takes the ball 99.9% of the time. But what we know now is, he is a genius. Most of the TD's in the game occurred in the south endzone. Most of the interceptions by Stanzi and Indiana were when the teams were headed north. This game had all the making of the 2008 Northwestern game when Iowa kept turning the ball over and giving Northwestern great field position, it was deja-vu. But not these 2009 Hawkeyes, or cardiac kids which ever you prefer. The momentum changed very quickly when Tyler Sash intercepted the ball after it deflected 4 times to his arms, and he was off to the races. This play was great, it was like slow motion at first, you saw the ball come out of the QB's hand, but then lost it and see nothing but black jerseys around the 10 yard line, and then all of a sudden it looks like the Hawkeye swarm coming at the North Endzone. After that, the Hawks really got it going with 2 passes for long TD's to McNutt and DJK. I never knew that McNutt was that explosive until then. Let the record state, we have some very talented WR's, both those guys have been huge this year. I think the craziest thing about Saturday was how going into the 4th quarter thinking we are going to lose, but then to think we would still cover the spread is just crazy in itself. I really hope that this was the letdown game of the year, and we survived.

To change gears a bit, I want to share my thoughts on the Big Ten and the respect. I understand that Ohio State has damaged the Big Ten image a bit by their last 2 National Title appearances. They did win in 2002 over Miami, but got beaten down by Florida and LSU. Everybody knows that the Big Ten is down a bit, but don't throw this on Iowa. Iowa has beaten Iowa State (2nd in Big 12 North a week ago), Arizona (top 25 team), Penn State (top 25 team), Wisconsin (top 25 team). 3 of those games were on the road, and if anybody thinks Camp Randall and Happy Valley are easy places to play, think again. Zona was suppose to be too fast for Iowa, I'm pretty sure I witnessed Clayborn run their RB down. Iowa is 9-0 and went from #7 to #8 in the AP poll. That is ridiculous, if it was Penn State, Ohio State, or Michigan sitting at 9-0, they would be in the top 5 at least. Iowa's strength of schedule is strong, just ask the computers. I will argue that the Big Ten is stronger than the Big 12, but nobody wants to talk about that do that. I agree that the SEC is the elite conference, but after that its open at this point. The Big 12, PAC-10, ACC, and Big East are not much different from Big Ten.