MADISON – The fate of the Heartland Trophy was never in question.
The traveling trophy between the Iowa and Wisconsin football teams will remain in Iowa City after a 37-0 Hawkeyes’ victory over the Badgers in front of a Homecoming crowd of 76,064 at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 11.
The loss dropped Wisconsin to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the Big Ten. Iowa raised its record to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in league.
The loss was UW’s fourth straight to Iowa, its longest since the Hawkeyes’ four-year run from 2002-05. The game was also the Badgers’ eighth straight loss in the Big Ten. Their last league win came almost one year ago, Oct. 19, 2024, at Northwestern.
Iowa scored 17 points off three first half turnovers. The good news for UW is that the Hawkeyes didn’t rack up a second straight 300-yard rushing game against the Badgers. Iowa did, however, outgain the Badgers, 319-209.
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Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski, whose status for the game was in doubt due to a left knee injury he suffered two weeks ago against Indiana, completed 17 of 24 passes for 107 yards. Running back Kamari Moulton ran 15 times for 96 yards.
Hunter Simmons hit eight of 21 passes for 82 yards. He threw two interceptions and had three turnovers overall. Running back Dilin Jones posted 16 carries for 69 yards
Here are four takeaways from the game.
The poise Hunter Simmons showed at Michigan was missing
Last week Simmons played a rather composed game despite making just his fourth collegiate start and first at the FBS level. Saturday that steady hand was missing during the first half when he committed three turnovers that led to 17 points.
We’ll say his first turnover – an interception by defensive lineman Bryce Hawthorne off a deflected throw that gave Iowa a first down at the Badgers 24 – was the result of a pass blocking breakdown. The other two were squarely results of poor decisions by Simmons.
On the pass picked off by defensive tackle Aaron Graves, Simmons appeared to be on auto pilot and didn’t react to Graves, who broke off his rush and dropped to cover the flat. Simmons threw it right to him. Graves returned the pick 35 yards to the Badgers 1.
For Simmons’ third turnover, he tossed a lateral that Iowa’s Zach Lutmer recovered at the Wisconsin 28. Simmons was under a heavy rush at the time. What made the play worse was running back Darrion Dupree was hurt during his attempt to recover the ball and did not return.
Add it up and the Hawkeyes’ offense, which entered play ranked 113th in the nation, needed to move the ball 46 yards to score 17 points. They led, 23-0, at the half.
Badgers miss chance to build momentum late in second quarter
Wisconsin’s final two drives of the first half were its best of the first two quarters.
The Badgers moved six plays and 32 yards on the first of those two possessions, but that drive stalled on the Iowa 37 when tight end Lance Mason dropped a good ball from Simmons that would have given UW a first down.
Wisconsin went six plays and 40 yards on the next possession, getting as far as the Iowa 39, before that drive stalled.
As bad as the game was going for the Badgers, they had a chance to salvage something at that point and take some momentum into the half.
Considering UW opened the second half with the ball, it was a missed opportunity to get back into the game.
Dilin Jones has solid day but running game needs to show more
Wisconsin failed to reach 300 yards of total offense for the fourth straight game, but Jones had his second-highest rushing day of the season and had some success running between the tackles.
Overall, the production of that unit wasn’t good enough.
The Badgers finished with 127 rushing yards in 36 carries, an average of 3.5 per attempt. That effort ranks as third-highest total of the season, a sign of how much the team has struggled to establish a ground game this season.
Wisconsin loses game, handful of players
As far as injuries go, the Badgers had four players who didn’t finish.
Receiver Trech Kekahuna (upper body) was lost after the second play of scrimmage and Dupree (lower body) were ruled out. Receiver Tyrell Henry (upper body) and tight end Tucker Ashcraft (upper body) were ruled questionable but did not return.
Dupree’s injury appeared to be the worst, but his return was initially ruled questionable before it was changed to out.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Iowa 37, Wisconsin 0: 4 takeaways from turnover-filled loss.
