Football: Broken Record

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- IU sophomore quarterback Blake Powers and freshman wide receiver James Hardy continued breaking records Saturday against the Iowa Hawkeyes. However, for Powers, Hardy and the rest of the Hoosiers, the most important record at Kinnick Stadium -- Iowa's 21-home game winning streak -- couldn't be broken.\nThe Hawkeyes defeated the Hoosiers 38-21 Saturday in Iowa City, dropping IU to 1-2 in the Big Ten.\n"I've been in this stadium and done this same thing," IU coach Terry Hoeppner said. "I think we ended up with more yardage and more time of possession and you don't win games doing that. We just need to coach better and play better than we did today."\nThe Hoosiers fell behind early in the game after failing to convert on a fourth down at the Iowa 30-yard line. The Hawkeyes responded with a touchdown when quarterback Drew Tate found receiver Matt Melloy in the end zone. IU failed to convert another fourth down attempt on its next series, once again resulting in points for the Hawkeyes on a 31-yard Albert Young touchdown run. The 14-0 lead added to Iowa's 70 to 0 scoring advantage in the first quarter of home games this season.\n"We gave up too many big plays to them and we didn't take advantage of some of the opportunities that we had," Hoeppner said. "The guys didn't quit though and I'm proud of the effort again."\nDespite Powers and Hardy notching career days in the passing and receiving games, the running game tallied only 86 yards, but was limited by IU's air attack. Of the 101 plays the Hoosier offense ran from scrimmage, 57 were passes from Powers.\n"We got ourselves into too many long-yardage situations," Hoeppner said. "We wanted to run the ball better than we ran it today. I really thought that once we started running the ball that we would start loosening them up a bit."\nPowers racked up 360 passing yards in the game on 37 completions, which set a new IU single-season record as well as a Kinnick Stadium record. Though the Hoosiers controlled the clock throughout the game, they were one for four in fourth down conversion attempts. \n"We knew that they were a good defense and we were going to try and take advantage of our talent at the receiver position," Powers said. "We knew that we could hit the short routes in the passing game. We had a good game plan going in."\nAfter being down 24-7 early in the second half, Powers reeled off two touchdown passes to close the deficit. However, the Hoosiers failed to score the rest of the game. Iowa running backs Damian Sims and Young each added touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to seal the 38-21 victory.\n"Our offense did an amazing job," junior defensive back Troy Grosfield said. "When your defense sees that, it's a big pick-me-up. The defense had to step it up and it just felt like we couldn't get a stop."\nThe Hoosier defense yielded 425 total yards of Hawkeye offense on 57 plays -- 44 less than the IU offense ran. Hoeppner said that while his team struggled at times with communication and execution, he is confident it can rebound from the loss.\n"At this point now, this becomes a test of manhood and finding out who the tough guys are," Hoeppner said. "It's easy to find excuses and point fingers in a game like this. The guys that I'm used to coaching and working with I think will take personal responsibility, step up, show up and be ready to play their tails off next week"