Iowa's Running Backs Run Northern Iowa Out of the Building, 55-0
Six carries, 151 yards, three touchdowns. That was Xavier Williams' whole afternoon, and Iowa had enough running backs that it did not matter. Northern Iowa, in its first game of the season, never scored, and Iowa won 55-0.
It was 21-0 before the first quarter ended. Nathan McNeil ran in from 2 yards, Hank Brown threw 24 yards to Braeden Jackson, and Williams broke off a 48-yard run with 0:24 left in the quarter. Brown added a 14-yard touchdown to Addison Ostrenga early in the second, Williams scored again from 16 yards, and McNeil's 12-yard run with 0:46 left in the half made it 42-0. Williams added a 37-yarder in the third, and Jackson ran 62 yards in the fourth (the extra point was blocked, the only point Iowa left on the board).
The ground numbers are silly. Iowa piled up 422 rushing yards on 41 carries, which is better than 10 yards per carry, and 640 total yards to go with it. Six of the eight touchdowns were runs. Iowa threw for 218 yards, with Brown tossing both touchdowns, and Iowa did not throw an interception or lose a fumble.
Iowa is 3-0 and Northern Iowa is 0-1. At 42-0 at the half, the second half was a formality: one touchdown in the third quarter, one in the fourth, and the game was over long before that. For fantasy, this was a three-man party. The top three scorers were all Iowa backs: Williams with 36.7 points, McNeil with 29.8 and Jackson with 27.9. If you had one of them, good. If you had all three, I have questions about your roster, and a compliment too.