The Iowa Hawkeyes found themselves in a dog fight against the Northern Iowa Panthers, but they did enough to secure the victory, 31-23. Jake Rudock led Iowa by throwing for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Iowa started the game well by going 41 yards in 3 plays and getting a 13 yard touchdown run from LeShun Daniels Jr. Northern Iowa responded with a 36 yard field goal from Michael Schmadeke to make it 7-3.

Iowa could not convert a 4th and 1 on the UNI 19, as both teams continued to trade punts. Eventually, Northern Iowa took the lead with a 23 yard touchdown pass from Sawyer Kollmorgen to Kevin Vereen Jr. Iowa came right back down the field to reclaim the lead at 14-10 after Mark Weisman pounded the ball in from a yard out. Both teams traded field goals to get a halftime score of 17-13.

Iowa extended their lead to 24-13 with a 6 yard touchdown pass from Rudock to Tevaun Smith, but Northern Iowa had a quick response. A 70 yard touchdown pass from Kollmorgen to David Johnson made it 24-20. Iowa's Marshall Koehn missed a 37 yard field goal late in the third quarter to keep it a 4 point game.

Michael Schmadeke added a 38 yard field goal to put Northern Iowa within one point at 24-23. Both teams then traded three-and-outs, which left Iowa with the ball and less than 10 minutes to play.

Iowa got another quick drive when they went 6 plays and 88 yards in 2:50. Rudock finished the drive with a 12 yard touchdown pass to Damond Powell.

UNI had one last chance in Iowa territory, but Kollmorgen's pass was intercepted by Greg Mabin to seal the victory for the Hawkeyes.

Despite losing, UNI's Kollmorgen threw for 380 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions on 17 of 37 passing. David Johnson had a stellar game at receiver by catching 5 passes for 203 yards and 1 touchdown.

It was a typical Iowa performance with no players standing out, except for Rudock's stat line, which is mentioned above. No running back had more than 35 yards rushing, but Iowa ran for 151 yards as a team. The lead receiver was Kevonte Martin-Manley with 8 catches for 62 yards. Both of those led the team, but they finished with 250 yards passing.

Northern Iowa will take a very long road trip next week to Hawaii. It is always tough to focus on a game in Hawaii given the beautiful scenery, but Northern Iowa will need to focus on the task at hand.

Iowa will have another home game against Ball State next week.