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Order was restored to the B1G as Northwestern won easily over Io_a. The Northwestern offense showed up for the first time since the conference opener against Indiana, rushing for over 350 yards on the day, with both Venric Mark and Kain Colter going over 150 yards. Trevor Siemian didn't see much playing time, and Colter had a decent day throwing the ball (6-9, 80 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT). The highlight of the passing game was a 47 yard touchdown strike from Colter to Christian Jones. The special teams unit came through with a blocked punt to set up an easy touchdown in the third quarter.
On the negative side, the defense struggled with an anemic Io_a offense, allowing Damon Bullock to consistently grind out yards on the ground (22 rushes for 107 yards, with a long run of only 9 yards). James Vandenberg consistently moved the ball until the last Io_a drive, finishing 24-38 for 214 yards. The offense turned the ball over twice, one on a bad overthrow by Colter and one on a bad snap in the red zone.
Bottom line, Northwestern got a comfortable win over an inferior opponent. I will take it.