At least it wasn’t a shutout.

That’s about all the NIU football team can be thankful for after its 58-7 pounding at the hands, feet and muscle of the ninth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes Saturday afternoon.

A sellout crowd of 70,220 at Kinnick Stadium welcomed the Huskies like the Romans welcomed the Christians—a group of gallant believers who would provide an afternoon’s entertainment by being slaughtered.

But it looked like the Huskies would turn the tables on their hosts—at least for a while.

Iowa (3-0) had made a habit of starting strongly, scoring on its first possession against its first two victims. But NIU (1-3) forced Iowa to punt on its first possession Saturday.

On its next possession, Iowa missed a 48-yard field goal try. And although the Huskies could generate little offense, it wasn’t until 1:16 remained in the first quarter that the Hawkeyes scored.

Tailback Lew Montgomery scampered in from 15 yards out to make it 7-0. That’s how the quarter ended. It would have been best for NIU if that were where the game had ended.

Iowa went on to explode for 24 second-quarter points to take a 31-0 halftime lead. The rest was a lesson in Big Ten football.

“Per man, their offensive line to our defensive line, they had a 30-pound weight advantage,” NIU head coach Charlie Sadler said. “They were simply bigger and stronger than us.”

But Iowa’s dominance was held in check for a while—”That’s something we wanted to do,” Sadler said. “We had some success early in the game and things didn’t totally get out of hand.”

Things started getting out of hand when Iowa quarterback Matt Rodgers started heating up.

Rodgers threw for two TDs on 14-of-23 passing while compiling 258 yards—more than the entire NIU offense could muster.

Sadler said that he did not feel that Iowa was rubbing it in by leaving Rodgers in for almost the entire game. “I don’t have a problem with that,” he said. “They have a season to prepare for, just like we do.”

The Hawkeyes outgained NIU by a 577-223 margin. The rest of the stats were equally ugly for NIU. Most telling was Iowa’s six sacks as the Hawkeyes out-muscled the smaller Huskies—Iowa frequently had more players in NIU’s backfield than NIU did.

Huskies linebacker Nick Jones was carried off the field on a stretcher after an apparent neck injury late in the game. Jones was taken to a local hospital, but returned with the rest of the team to DeKalb Saturday.

But the Huskies achieved at least a small victory as back up QB Rob Rugai hit Vaurice Patterson in the end zone with 1:30 left in the game, spoiling Iowa’s shutout bid.

“We didn’t want to give up a TD,” Iowa head coach Hayden Fry admitted.”

And although Sadler suffered the worse loss in his young career and watched his quarterbacks repeatedly flattened, he was grateful for one thing—”I’m glad I wasn’t taking the snaps today.”