Through two quarters at Kinnick, Iowa leads Northern Iowa, 21-0.

Hello, offense.

With Wisconsin on the horizon, it’s no secret that Iowa’s offense had to show up against Northern Iowa, and it did.

The Hawkeyes scored three touchdowns to take a decently large lead on the Panthers, which was three more than they had in any other first half this season.

A big part of that was building confidence in quarterback Nate Stanley’s passing game, and it turns out that all he had to do was find tight end Noah Fant.

In the first half, Fant had 99 yards on 5 catches, with wideout Nick Easley following with 5 catches for 44 yards.

Oh, and what about when Iowa was faced with a close fourth down? The Hawkeyes went 3-for-3 on conversion attempts.

The woes only appeared late in the second quarter with an interception and a blocked field goal against the Hawkeyes. But hey, Iowa actually jumped out to a pretty hefty first-half lead for once, so what does anyone have to complain about?

— Anna Kayser

UNI’s offense isn’t great, but Iowa’s defense is.

Iowa’s defense seems to have picked up right where it left off against Iowa State a week ago.

The Panthers are scoreless after two, meaning Iowa has not allowed a touchdown for six quarters in a row. That’s not too bad at all.

Much like the defense as a whole, birthday boy A.J. Epenesa hasn’t slowed down — he’s tallied a sack and 2 tackles in the first half.

But Iowa’s defense hasn’t allowed Northern Iowa to achieve any sort of rhythm — a big change from years past. The Panthers have just 22 yards of offense. Quarterback Colton Howell is 3-for-10, throwing for 22 yards and an interception, but the running game hasn’t been able to help him out — the Panthers have “racked up” minus-2 yards on the ground.

— Adam Hensley

Twitter reactions

Brady Ross did his thing once again, converting on a fourth-and-1, and Hawkeye fans could not have been happier.

Fans are happy to see that the passing game is clicking, especially on third down.