 IOWA CITY, IOWA - After being held to five yards and no touchdowns in an Hawkeyes loss to Arizona the previous week, Adam Robinson showed he still has game. The 5-9, 205-pound sophomore gained over 100 yards before intermission and added a 45-yard reception in the third quarter as the Hawkeyes dominated visiting Ball State 45-0.
"Iowa is really well-coached," Ball State head coach Stan Parrish said. "They have the ability to run the football, and their quarterback did really good. They are a very, very complete football team. They are a physical, midwestern team that plays football the way you are supposed to play football."
Robinson's one-yard TD run capped the Hawkeyes' second drive (10 plays, 56 yards), and quarterback Ricky Stanzi provided two second quarter TDs to build a 21-0 halftime lead for the hosts. Keenan Davis scored on an eight-yard pass at 5:40 and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos tallied on a 22-yarder with 1:54 remaining.
Stanzi completed 19-of-25 for 288 yards and three touchdowns. In addition to 306 passing yards, Iowa registered another 256 yards on the ground for a total of 562 yards. Ball State (1-3, 0-0 MAC) gained 112 total yards of offense (56 yards rushing, 56 yards passing).
"We came in here and played hard, but we got discouraged. They wear you down," Parrish said. "It was a tough day. We played without two of our starting offensive lineman. It would have been difficult with those guys, let alone without them."
Robinson registered his second one-yard TD of the contest at 10:25 of the third quarter, and Johnson-Koulianos made it 35-0 with a 45-yard TD reception later in the stanza.
James Vandenberg, filling in for Stanzi, hit Colin Sandeman with a six-yard TD pass (10:28, fourth quarter), while Michael Meyer closed out scoring with a 25-yard field goal at 5:09.
Iowa (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) opens conference play next week when it hosts Penn State. Ball State, meanwhile, opens Mid-American Conference play on the road at Central Michigan Saturday with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
NOTES:
- The Cardinals 61-game non-shutout streak came to an end at Iowa. It was the second-longest such streak in school history. The longest streak was 124 games. That streak extended from Sept. 26, 1987 to Sept. 19, 1998. Prior to Saturday, the last team to pitch a shutout at BSU was Boston College (Oct. 1, 2005).
- Iowa averaged 5.8 ypc on the ground in the win. The visiting Cardinals were held to 1.8 ypc.
- Iowa owned a 28-8 advantage in first downs. The Hawkeyes were 8-of-12 on third down conversions. BSU converted 3-of-13.
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