Chicago Sports Then and Now

#1 Iowa Hawkeyes (#4) [defeated Indiana 42-24 in Iowa City]

Iowa continues its extraordinary winning streak.  Although the Hawkeyes trailed in the fourth quarter, they struck back like lightening to fry the Indiana Hoosier’s hopes of an upset in Iowa City.  Ricky Stanzi threw for over 300 yards for the first time in his career while also setting a career record for interceptions at five, four in the third quarter alone. This was one great Halloween special with plenty of tricks and quite a few treats for the discouraged Iowa crowd in the fourth quarter.  The Hawkeyes delivered one quintessential rally special of the year.

#2 Penn State (#11) [defeated Northwestern in Evanston 34-13]

Penn State also had its hands full and had to resort to fourth quarter heroics to win this game.  Northwestern led the Nittany Lions 13-10 at the half but the Penn State team shut out Northwestern in the second half and used a late surge in the fourth to put this game away. Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka was forced out of the game in the second quarter with a left leg injury.  Subsequently the Penn State defense denied the Cats further scoring and in time the Nittany Lions offense roared to life – better late than not at all.

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Evan Royster and Penn State have climbed to second in the Big Ten power rankings.

(1) Iowa – after a slow start on Saturday, the Iowa defense slammed the door hard on the Badger offense, completely shutting it down with 8 minutes left in the first half.  At the same time the Iowa offense found its footing as Iowa scored 20 unanswered points behind the leadership of quarterback Ricky Stanzi.  Iowa won 20-10.  At 7-0, Iowa is getting close to clicking on all cylinders.

(2) Penn State – The Penn State defense shut out Minnesota.  It was a result the Nittany Lions had to find encouraging at this point in the season because of their soft non-conference schedule.  Penn State continued to suffer with far too many miscues.  Minnesota, however, failed to answer the call and take advantage in Happy Valley.  It was a long day for Gopher quarterback Adam Weber and company.  It does not get any better as the Gophers pack their backs for Ohio State and Penn State heads off to Ann Arbor for a real challenge on foreign ground.

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