NASHVILLE, Tenn. − There’s a reason that the Iowa football program is continuing to search for a quarterback in the transfer portal.
Missouri had the quarterback advantage in Monday’s Music City Bowl. And, as it happens in high-level football, the team with the better quarterback won the game.
Brady Cook diced up Iowa’s secondary most of the afternoon and delivered when it counted most, sending the Tigers to a 27-24 victory over Iowa at Nissan Stadium.
More:Iowa football: Recap, highlights as Hawkeyes fall to Missouri in Music City Bowl
The Hawkeyes blew a double-digit lead for the third time this season and finished with an 8-5 record. Missouri notched its second straight season with double-digit wins, ending 10-3. This was not the outcome Iowa wanted, but probably the outcome it deserved.
The Hawkeyes led this one, 24-14, after Drew Stevens’ field goal with 5:19 remaining in the third quarter. Iowa’s Week 2 loss against Iowa State, 20-19, featured a blown 13-point lead in the second half. The Hawkeyes also gave up a 10-point first half lead that became a 20-17 loss UCLA.
“If the offense isn’t doing it and, conversely, if we’re struggling defensively, it sure helps if you move the ball and get some points,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said of the third blown lead of the year. Iowa entered the year with a 71-2 record in its last 73 games when holding at least an eight-point lead. “We didn’t do either of those well enough today. Every day is a different discussion, but you know, certainly if we want to be a 10-win team or 11-win team like our opponent, you have to do a better job in those.”
Blake Craig’s fourth-quarter field goals from 51 and 56 yards pushed Missouri into its first lead, at 27-24, with 4:36 to go. Craig had been wildly inconsistent all season, but he has a big leg and came through when it mattered.
And like the last time Iowa and Missouri met, the game swung on a big fourth-quarter interception.
In a battle of two ball-control teams that emphasize turnover margin, the Hawkeyes made the first big mistake. Quarterback Brendan Sullivan forced the ball on a third-down pass along the Iowa sideline. He tried to sneak a ball to Reece Vander Zee, but Missouri’s Toriano Pride made an aggressive charge for the interception with 12:50 remaining.
“They definitely had us more figured out in the second half than they did the first half,” Sullivan said. “End of the story is, you can’t turn the ball over. That’s what cost us the game. That’s something I’ve got to take and live with.”
Remember, it was an interception along the sideline of the fourth quarter of the 2010 Insight Bowl by Iowa’s Micah Hyde that turned the tables for a 27-24 victory against Missouri.
Missouri got three points out of the deal after a very questionable personal foul call on Quinn Schulte as Jamal Roberts went out of bounds, which would’ve set up a fourth-and-8 at Missouri’s 48 and probably meant a punt. Instead, the flag led to a tying Tigers field goal.
“You just try to use good judgment and don’t want to give the officials a chance to make a call like that,” Ferentz said. “Any time you’re on the boundary, you have be to really careful.
“It is what it is, and that’s uncharacteristic certainly of Quinn. He’s been an outstanding player for us.”
So, it was a 24-24 ballgame. A Music City Bowl up for grabs with 10:10 to go.
After regaining the lead, Iowa got a stop with 2:00 to go. A shanked Missouri punt gave Iowa possession at its own 45-yard line with 1:54 to play.
As a quarterback and as an offense, this is the scenario you want: To have the ballgame in your hands. But Sullivan failed in that moment, taking a sack he couldn’t take with 1:45 to go. He tried to scramble out of the pocket as he had much of the game and stumbled to the ground, forcing Iowa to burn its final timeout and set up a second-and-23 from the Iowa 32.
The moment got tense after Terrell Washington Jr. took a screen pass 19 yards to set up a third-and-4. But a quick pass to Jacob Gill was short of the line to gain, and a botched quarterback sneak on fourth down ended the Hawkeyes’ brief comeback attempt.
More:Iowa football: Hawkeyes cough up second-half lead in Music City Bowl to finish 8-5
Sullivan finished 14-for-18 for 131 yards and a touchdown, hardly a terrible stat line. But he led the Hawkeyes to only three second-half points and none when it counted most. And, he committed a terrible turnover.
Iowa’s final three drives after the Sullivan interception: three plays, seven yards; three plays, eight yards; four plays, nine yards.
Cook, meanwhile, finished 18-for-32 for 287 yards and two touchdowns to go with 54 yards rushing in a game MVP performance.
The score was tied, 14-14, with just over 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. Iowa’s offense had moved the ball effectively, and Missouri’s pass offense had been unstoppable. Kirk Ferentz could’ve gone for the first down; tried a 58-yard Drew Stevens field goal in perfect kicking conditions; or taken a delay-of-game penalty and punted.
No surprise for those who have watched Ferentz for 26 years: He chose option No. 3.
Rhys Dakin’s punt sent Missouri back to its 10-yard line. At the time, I would’ve voted for Ferentz going for a first down considering Iowa averaged 7.5 yards per play in the first half.
But, there’s a reason Ferentz has won 200-plus games as a head coach. His call was the right one.
Here’s how it unfolded. Missouri instantly started moving the ball, reaching midfield in a matter of seven plays (40 yards). But after getting to Iowa’s 48, Missouri stalled as Cook overthrew a receiver, had a dropped pass and then had another overthrow. The Tigers punted back to the Hawkeyes, who started at their own 10 with 4:39 left in the first half.
The way Ferentz thinks about it, if Missouri had taken over at its own 40, it would’ve been in the Iowa red zone after gaining 42 yards. He was asked afterward why he didn’t let Stevens try a 58-yard field goal instead when the game’s final margin was three points.
“We at that time thought it was the best thing to do,” Ferentz said. “Any time we do that, we’re playing for field position. We have a pretty good punter, and we do a pretty good job of covering. So we are trying to get that field position, and that only works if you get a stop down at that end.”
As it turned out, the extra-long field gave the Iowa defense time to make a stop – even if it was fueled by Missouri mistakes – to get the ball back for its offense with the score still tied.
The Hawkeyes took that opportunity and cashed in on an impressive 11-play, 90-yard scoring drive that swung momentum in the game. Sullivan’s crossing pass to Kaden Wetjen for 9 yards on third-and-6 was crucial. Kamari Moulton’s 38-yard burst got Iowa down to the Missouri 3. After a bad snap by backup center Tyler Elsbury pushed Iowa back to the 10, Sullivan made a wild, highlight-reel scramble to move Iowa inside Missouri’s 1-yard line.  
From there, Moulton crashed over the goal line for a go-ahead touchdown with 49 seconds left in the first half for a 21-14 Iowa lead at halftime.
Ferentz’s decisions are often gut feels. And he usually leans toward the most conservative call. In this case, the cautious call was the right call to give Iowa a chance.
Wetjen’s pregame comments this week drew attention, saying he was “98%” sure he would return to Iowa in 2025 and that he was not yet on scholarship despite a first-team All-American year as a return specialist.
Asked about Wetjen’s status among the 85 scholarship players, Ferentz replied Sunday, “We’re still contemplating that.”
More:WATCH: Kaden Wetjen goes 100 yards for kickoff-return touchdown in Music City Bowl
Well, if there was any waffling on the subject, Wetjen surely will be on scholarship come January. The senior blazed from his own end zone to Missouri’s for what was officially a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown to break a 7-7 tie in the first quarter, setting a Music City Bowl record. LeVar Woods’ special-teamers had the return masterfully blocked to the left side, and Wetjen’s speed took over from there. Zach Lutmer’s downfield hustle made sure Wetjen wouldn’t be touched in the final stretch toward the end zone.
“Well, first off, we weren’t expecting to have any returns,” Wetjen said, smiling. “They have limited returns, so that was a shock to start off. I mean, I don’t know if you guys saw it. I didn’t really have to do much. There was a huge hole. They gave me a crease, and I think it was Lutmer that was already at the 50-yard line when I popped through.”
The Williamsburg product and fastest player on the team hit paydirt for the second time this year, officially, joining an 85-yard punt-return TD he had against Northwestern. Wetjen also had a punt return for a score called back against Illinois State.
His electric play puts him on a short list of players with kickoff-return touchdowns in a bowl game for Iowa. The others? C.J. Jones in the 2003 Orange Bowl (on the opening kickoff) and Ihmir Smith-Marsette in the 2019 Holiday Bowl.
Nwankpa was looking forward to his return to Nissan Stadium, considering two years ago as a true freshman he made his first career start and delivered a 54-yard, pick-six score in Iowa’s 21-0 Music City Bowl shutout of Kentucky.
Monday, Nwankpa was in the spotlight for mostly the wrong reasons. He was beaten for Missouri’s first touchdown of the day by Theo Wease on a third-down throw from the Iowa 13. He committed a personal foul penalty on a Brady Cook slide (a late hit was ruled, though it was hard to fault Nwankpa on that one). By the second quarter, he had been benched for Lutmer at strong safety.
However, Nwankpa did return in Iowa’s dime package and returned the spotlight after being whistled for targeting on a third-and-15 throw to Wease. The replay official overturned the targeting call, meaning Nwankpa could stay in the game.
Nwankpa was not alone with his pass-defense struggles. Out of the gate, the Hawkeyes looked as bad in the secondary as they did in a humbling 32-20 loss at Michigan State. Sebastian Castro and Quinn Schulte were beaten for chunk gains. Marquis Johnson got behind a confused Iowa defense for Missouri’s second score, as there appeared to be a mix-up in coverage from either TJ Hall or Deshaun Lee.
Nobody in Iowa’s secondary seemed poised to make a play.
But after a 9-for-10 start for 122 yards by Cook (who also added 60 first-half rushing yards on too-easy scrambles), he completed just two of his next 11 passes … before heating up again late in the third quarter, including a 44-yard bomb to Johnson against Lee’s deep coverage.
Missouri wound up outgaining Iowa, 376-297, but also ran 10 more plays than the Hawkeyes did.
Let’s finish with one of the day’s bright spots for the Hawkeyes. Redshirt freshmen Kamari Moulton and Jaziun Patterson were terrific in their first game taking over for NFL-bound Kaleb Johnson, a consensus all-American running back and Doak Walker Award finalists.
Moulton showed the ability to be an every-down back, running 14 times for 96 yards, 6.9 yards per carry Patterson carried only nine times but gained 74 yards, 8.2 per pop. You would’ve thought with numbers like that that Iowa would’ve won the game.
Moulton smiled afterward about his performance, which included a 1-yard touchdown.
“It’s a big confidence booster,” Moulton said. “We already knew what we had and who we had. Being out there to show that we got it was a great feeling.”
What happened on his 38-yard burst in the second quarter?
“A playmaker being able to make plays, truthfully,” Moulton said. “I wish I could’ve scored. I appreciate the O-line for opening it up.”
As a team, Iowa rushed 38 times for 166 yards. Take away sacks, and Iowa averaged 5.2 yards per carry − right in line with their season average.
But a sluggish fourth quarter and third-down failures at quarterback doomed the Hawkeyes, while Cook and the Tigers made enough plays to win the game.
“It’s no accident they’ve won … 21 games in two years,” Ferentz said of Missouri. “A lot of that starts with quarterback play.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.

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