Injuries pile up in Iowa's tough loss against UCLA

When the UCLA Bruins started the season 1-5, it was not on any Iowa fan's bingo card that the Hawkeyes would fall to the Bruins 20-17 in their Week 11 matchup.

The first quarter of the game was a night and day difference from the rest of the three quarters. In the first quarter, the Hawkeye defense had two interceptions and scored 10 points on offense and it seemed like Iowa was going to run away with the game.

However, there was something to take note of, and that was the fact that quarterback Brendan Sullivan, who was starting his second game in a row, was taking a low of hits either after a big run or after completing a pass. However, it didn't seem to stop him from completing two big passes in the first quarter including one for 59 yards, the longest pass of the season for an Iowa quarterback.

If the game had ended after the first quarter, the Hawkeyes would have walked away with the win, but the ga,e had to continue, which is where everything went wrong for Iowa.

In the second quarter, Sullivan was responsible for back-to-back turnovers on the offensive side of the ball with an interception and then a fumble on a designed quarterback run. the interception leads to a touchdown for the BRuins to tie the game. Luckily the defense was able to get their third turnover of the night after Sullivan fumbled the ball, but the Iowa offense was unable to find the endzone or a field goal for the rest of the half.

It was noticeable that all the hits Sullivan took throughout the first half were starting to weigh on him as he was in and out of the medical tent throughout the first half. However, the Northwestern transfer never came out of the game until the second half.

After trading punts to begin the second half, Sullivan threw his second interception of the night and his third turnover overall and just was not looking like himself. On that drive Sullivan took several big hits and it took him longer and longer to get up after each hit.

After the interception drives, it looked pretty evident that Sullivan was done for the night as he was getting checked on the sideline by the athletic training staff. Iowa needed a quarterback on the field and with Cade McNamara still out with a concussion, head coach Kirk Ferentz chose to go with fifth-string quarterback Jackson Stratton.

With Stratton in the game, the Iowa offense became very one-dimensional, trying to ride on the back of running back Kaleb Johnson, who did not have a great night. Johnson rushed for just 49 yards and one touchdown against UCLA. The Bruins out rushed the high-flying Iowa rushing attack 211 to 80 yards.

The game was close in the end, and after a failed third down conversion by the Hawkeyes forced a punt, the defense needed to go to work. Unfortunately, the UCLA offense was able to continue to find ways to get the first down and force Ferentz to use all his timeouts, leaving the Hawkeyes with no way to stop the clock.

The good news is that Iowa is heading into their bye week this week as they had a multitude of injuries, including Sullivan and star linebacker Jay Higgins. Getting healthy will be crucial as Iowa heads to Maryland after the bye week.