IOWA CITY, Iowa – Purdue continues to be a thorn in the University of Iowa football team’s side.

The Boilermakers won for the fourth time in the last five meetings, upsetting the second-ranked Hawkeyes, 24-7, on Saturday afternoon inside a sold out Kinnick Stadium. The loss snaps Iowa’s 12-game winning streak and it is the team’s first defeat since Oct. 31 of last season.

Purdue outgained Iowa by nearly 200 yards (464-271) and the Boilermakers’ defense had four interceptions. Purdue limited Iowa to six yards in the third quarter and 86 yards in the second half.

“Top to bottom, I need to play a lot better, as do all the other 10 guys on the field,” said Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras. “We have to play better and play harder. Credit to Purdue, they played well, but we didn’t play well enough to win as a team.”

Iowa had no answer for the Boilermaker offense, specifically wide receiver David Bell. The junior finished with 11 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown, nearly outgaining the Hawkeyes by himself. Purdue quarterback Aiden O’Connell completed 30-of-40 passes for 375 yards and two touchdowns.

Petras finished 17-of-32 attempts for 195 yards and he was picked off four times. Junior Sam LaPorta led the team with five catches for 61 yards. Iowa finished with 76 yards on the ground with junior Tyler Goodson finishing with 68 yards on 12 attempts.

Junior linebacker Seth Benson had a game-high 12 tackles (10 solo) and one sack, while senior Jack Koerner and junior Jack Campbell had nine tackles apiece.

PHOTOS

QUOTING COACH FERENTZ

“It’s really disappointing and a difficult day for our football team and certainly our fans, too. They were great. I appreciate them being there.

“Every week and basically just program-wise our goal is to try to improve and come out victorious in the football game. We certainly didn’t do that. Now we have a week to figure out some answers and see what we can do to improve. That’s what the next couple of weeks will be for.

“Purdue played a great football game. Credit to them. Basically they outdid us in every category. Certainly David Bell was outstanding and we knew that coming in. He’s a tremendous football player and we a lot of respect for him.

“He and No. 5 both played great and impacted the game an awful lot. We knew it was going to be a tough contest. Bottom line is we didn’t get it done. They moved the ball well. The last time out against Minnesota, looked very similar to that. We had a hard time getting off the field and we couldn’t keep pace offensively either.  Credit to our opponents. They did a great job.

“For our football team it’s the first time we’ve had to deal with a loss in a while. We’ll get a lesson in that. The biggest thing right now is we choose to move forward. That’s what I shared with the team a few minutes ago. We have some time to stew and sit on it, but there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to move on, see about moving forward and taking on the second half of the five-game schedule. That’s where we’ll go now.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Purdue struck first, using a 10 play, 67-yard scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead. Using three quarterbacks on the series, Jack Plummer started with a 13-yard rush to near midfield. O’Connell completed back-to-back passes for 15 and 16 yards to the 8 and O’Connell scrambled up the middle for a 6-yard touchdown on third-and-goal to give Purdue the early lead.
• Iowa drove 68 yards over 17 plays on its third possession but came away empty after Caleb Shudak missed a chip shot 25-yard field goal. Purdue followed suit, driving 67 yards to the Iowa 14 before Mitchell Fineran missed a 32-yard field goal.
• The Hawkeyes took over following the miss and went on a nine play, 80-yard touchdown drive. Iowa had two big plays – a 22-yard pass to LaPorta to the Iowa 38 and a 32-yard Goodson burst moved the team to the Purdue 25. Iowa converted a third-and-2 with a 3-yard Petras quarterback sneak and Ivory Kelly-Martin scored from 3-yards out to tie the game with 3:20 left in the first half.
• Purdue took over with 3:05 remaining in the first half before going 75 yards over 10 plays to take a 14-7 lead. O’Connell opened the drive with back-to-back completions – 15 yards to Bell and 28 to Broc Thompson – to the Iowa 32. The Boilermakers converted two third downs – a 10-yard completion to TJ Sheffield on third-and-1 and a second to the wide receiver to the 7.  On second-and-goal with 19 seconds left, O’Connell connected with Sheffield a third time for a 3-yard touchdown.
• The Boilermakers went 66 yards on their first drive of the second half to push their lead to 17-7. Bell had a 47-yard reception to the Iowa 25 and Purdue moved to the Iowa 14 before Fineran connected from 31 yards out to make it a two-possession game.
• The Hawkeyes caught a break with Purdue driving deep in Iowa territory with a chance to push its lead to 24-7. The Boilermakers went 85 yards over 15 plays before a third-and-goal play was overturned in Iowa’s favor. O’Connell connected with Sheffield in the flat and he dove for the pylon on a play that was initially ruled a touchdown.  Instant replay overturned the score, instead giving Iowa possession after Sheffield lost control of the ball before hitting the pylon, thus giving Iowa possession via the touchback at its own 20.
• On the ensuing Iowa possession, Petras was sacked on back-to-back plays before his third down attempt went incomplete. Purdue took over at the Iowa 46 following a 36-yard Tory Taylor Punt before scoring seven plays later.  The Boilermakers picked up a third-and-15 via an Iowa pass interference call before O’Connell completed two 20-yard passes to Bell, including a 21-yard touchdown pass that pushed the lead to 24-7.
• Iowa’s return game set up two short fields in the fourth quarter as Kelly-Martin had a 67-yard kickoff return to the Purdue 19 with 12:18 left and Charlie Jones had a 41-yard punt return to the 12. The Hawkeyes came away empty both times, turning it over on downs on the kickoff return before Petras threw his third interception with 2 1/2 minutes to play.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Purdue snapped Iowa’s streak of 12 consecutive overall wins and nine straight conference wins.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• Goodson rushed 12 times for 68 yards. He has 1,986 career rushing yards (16th all-time). He is 14 yards shy of becoming the 16th player in program history to rush for 2,000 yards in a career.
• Kelly-Martin’s 3-yard touchdown rush in the second quarter was his first rushing touchdown since 2018 (at Purdue). He has six career rushing touchdowns.
• Defensive back Terry Roberts made his first career start and had a career-high five tackles. Benson had a game-high 12 tackles, one short of his career high.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

• Iowa has played 29 straight games without surrendering 25 points, the longest streak in the nation among Power 5 teams. Purdue scored 24 points, the most by an Iowa opponent since the 2020 season opener (at Purdue).
• Iowa had played 36 straight games without a double-digit defeat (2018 vs. Wisconsin, 28-17).
• Purdue’s David Bell set a Kinnick Stadium record with 240 receiving yards (11 catches).

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes are idle next week and return to action Oct. 30 at Wisconsin. Kickoff for that game is 11 a.m. (CT).