With No. 4 Iowa’s unbeaten regular season and, potentially, a playoff berth on the line, Nebraska is doing its damnedest to ruin their rival’s postseason plans.
Thanks in very large part to a second-quarter defensive play, the favored Hawkeyes have taken a 14-10 lead on the Cornhuskers into halftime on a windswept day in Lincoln. An interception from Tommy Armstrong Jr., his second of the contest, was returned four yards by Parker Hesse for a touchdown with 6:38 left in the second quarter and is the difference in the game.
A Drew Burns 39-yard field goal with three seconds left in the half sliced the Cornhuskers’ deficit to its current four points.
The Hawkeyes’ defense, stout all season long, was what’s everyone has come to expect, limiting the Cornhuskers to just 109 first-half yards before NU’s last drive netted 59 and led to the three-pointer. NU’s defense was very much the equal to its counterpart’s stoutness, holding the Hawkeyes to 112 yards. In fact, the two offenses combined to average just 5.4 yards per play, a number aided greatly by that last ‘Husker drive.
Armstrong now has 14 interceptions on the season; only three FBS quarterbacks have thrown more -- Virginia’s Matt Johns, Maryland’s Caleb Rowe and Hawaii’s Max Wittek, all of whom have tossed 15 with one game each left to play. Eight of Armstrong’s interceptions have come in the last three-and-a-half games.
Nebraska won the pregame coin toss and will get the ball on offense to open the second half.