By Blake Dowson
It was an uncommon feeling for the Iowa football players as they left Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 17 after a loss to Football Championship Subdivision opponent North Dakota State.
Again, it must have felt different heading to their weekly film session on Sunday to dissect what exactly went wrong against the Bison.
After all, it hadn’t been since Nov. 28, 2014, against Nebraska that the team left Kinnick Stadium as losers.
The 23-21 loss at the hands of North Dakota State put the team in a bit of uncharted territory and with few answers after the game.
“Am I shocked that we lost? To a certain extent, yeah,” senior Jaleel Johnson said. “I guess fatigue kind of kicked in. Maybe that’s why they gained so many yards, maybe not. I’m not sure.”
The Bison did to Iowa what Iowa prides itself on doing to other teams — imposing their will on the ground. In the second half alone, North Dakota State gained 203 yards on the ground. Iowa’s total sat at minus-7.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said that won’t sit well with him for quite some time.
“They’re a very aggressive, tough football team, and we didn’t measure up, run or pass, quite frankly,” Ferentz said.
The Hawkeyes were beaten by a team using their own bread and butter in their home stands as chants of “Let’s go Bison” were at times louder than “Let’s go Hawks” in the fourth quarter of a one-possession game.
It almost seemed unreal at times, as if the team led by quarterback C.J. Beathard — who was a perfect 15-0 as a regular-season starter — couldn’t lose at home, but they did.
“We thought we’d be able to run the ball a little better, because that’s what we do,” Beathard said. “We like to run the ball. It wasn’t working today.
“It just didn’t feel normal.”
North Dakota State didn’t surprise the Hawkeyes with anything it did, and that may be the hardest thing for the Hawkeyes to swallow.
Iowa is much the same way, in that it runs the same sets and calls the same plays week by week. The Bison simply lined up and executed better and looked like the better team.
The recently released AP Poll would agree; the Hawkeyes dropped from No. 13 to out of the top 25, receiving 47 total votes. North Dakota State — the FCS school — earned 74 votes.
“On tape, what you see is what you get [with the Bison],” Johnson said. “We knew from the start, they were going to be a very physical team. We saw on film — quarterback, very physical. Running back, very physical. The whole team’s physical. Going into the game they really didn’t surprise us.”
Any thought that the Hawkeyes overlooked or underestimated the Bison was shot down after the game by just about every player who spoke with members of the media.
A reporter could hardly get, “Did you underestimate” out before junior Ben Niemann stopped him.
“No, not at all,” Niemann said. “We had a lot of respect for them going into the game, and we knew they were a good team, well-coached. They would beat a lot of teams at this level. So no, we did not underestimate them.”
Although media members in attendance at Kinnick Stadium stayed away from questions about the legitimacy of the Hawkeyes, the players know those will arise during the coming week and the rest of the season.
Beathard said the success of last season would help drown out that noise as the Hawkeyes prep for Big Ten play and their defense of the West Division title.
“Same thing as blocking it out when you’re having success, you’ve got to do the same thing when you lose,” Beathard said. “Hopefully, this will teach us a lesson. It stinks to lose … we don’t want to experience it anytime soon.”
