No. 19 Iowa beats Iowa State 18-17 after one Cyclone runs into another on a punt return

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Updated
Iowa recovered after the ball hit Iowa State's Datrone Young and won the game. (via Fox)
Iowa recovered after the ball hit Iowa State's Datrone Young and won the game. (via Fox)

Iowa literally punted to win.

The No. 19 Hawkeyes punted away to Iowa State with just over 90 seconds left Saturday night and clinging to an 18-17 lead. But Iowa State’s Datrone Young ran into returner Deshaunte Jones as Jones went to field the punt. The ball hit Young’s back on the way down and Iowa recovered.

Seriously. The play looks like a slapstick movie.

Here’s the play from another angle:

This did not go well. (via Fox)
This did not go well. (via Fox)

With Iowa State out of timeouts, the Hawkeyes were simply able to run out the clock to preserve the win. And the social media team had time to make a good tweet.

Iowa State had a great chance on what turned out to be its final possession. The Cyclones got to the Iowa 34 with 2:56 left but ended up going backwards after that and a fourth-down pass by Brock Purdy fell incomplete.

Iowa QB Nate Stanley scored his team’s only touchdown of the game with a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave the Cyclones a 15-14 lead. ISU got the lead back at 17-15 when Connor Assalley kicked a 26-yard field goal, but Iowa responded with an eight-play, 54-yard drive that resulted in a 39-yard field goal by Keith Duncan with 4:51 to go. Duncan finished the game 4-of-4 on his field goal attempts.

The game finished approximately six hours after its scheduled start time of 3 p.m. Central Time thanks to multiple lightning and thunderstorm delays. The delays plus the ending made for an absolutely terrible day for Iowa State fans after the school hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” for the first time earlier in the morning.

At least some Iowa State students had fun during the game. A group of students rushed the field during one of the storm delays after stadium security had dispersed. Security had to spring back into action to get the kids off the field after it had been intruded upon.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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