Saturday’s contest was a must-win game for the Iowa football team if they wanted to win the Big Ten West. Sitting with two losses, they essentially controlled their destiny.
A win Saturday over Purdue gave the Boilermakers three losses and Iowa the tiebreaker. A win next week over Northwestern gave the Wildcats two losses and Iowa the tiebreaker. All that was needed was the Badgers to lose one more game this season, which seems pretty doable.
The Hawkeyes potentially magical season, however, went down in flames Saturday. Despite playing from behind most of the game against Purdue, the Iowa football team fought back with the help of some timely defensive turnovers and the solid, but not spectacular play of Nate Stanley.