Heading into Iowa’s football game against Northwestern, fears about the Hawkeye’s defensive woes seemed to linger.

The Wildcats’ first play featured a missed tackle from Iowa cornerback Deshaun Lee, allowing wide receiver AJ Henning to break free for a 21-yard gain. That ended up being Northwestern’s biggest offensive play of the day as coordinator Phil Parker’s unit dominated the rest of the way.

Highlighted by several turnovers, the defense held the Wildcat offense to 162 total yards – the fewest the Hawkeyes have allowed this season.

“Everybody’s thinking straight and happy with the way they did things and the way they came out,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said in his postgame press conference. “Everybody made big contributions. The defense played a tremendous game. It’s one of the weirdest shouts you’ll see the way they’ve gone about scoring.”

On Northwestern’s first drive of the second half, senior safety Quinn Schulte picked off Jack Lausch’s pass up the middle and returned it eight yards to the Northwestern 26 for his second interception of the season.

“It’s a really good feeling,” Schulte said. “Our job is to go out there and try to get the ball back for the offense, and creating turnovers is one of our goals. And so if we can do that, we’re just trying to help the offense, it helps the team as a whole.”

On the next defensive possession, defensive lineman Max Llewellyn put two points on the board with a sack in the end zone. The safety was only possible thanks to punter Rhys Dakin placing the ball on the NU six yard line.

“I would think it starts with special teams,” linebacker Nick Jackson said. “Rhys Dakin, he put us in some really good situations every time the ball started with five or six … it kind of restricts what they can do. And we attribute it to safety, really a heck of a game by our D-line and all that.”

Amid Iowa’s third-quarter offensive spurt, Lausch’s pass was deflected at the Northwestern 35 by Jackson and tackled by fellow linebacker Jay Higgins, returning it 10 yards and putting the Hawkeyes within easy scoring distance.

Higgins admitted he had no intention of intercepting the ball. All he wanted was at least half a sack, especially if it meant getting one from Jackson, his roommate and best friend.

Sitting alongside Jackson in a “Stepbrothers”-style postgame interview, Higgins said the ball just landed in his lap. But the sixth year had no interest in holding on to the pigskin, immediately giving it to Jackson as the pair began a game of hot potato as they jogged back to the sidelines.

“Anytime you need a play, you go to Jay Higgins,” Jackson said, prompting an embarrassed smile from his teammate. “What fun it is just to have that moment with one of your best friends, it’s just awesome.”

“That’ll make me cry,” Higgins replied with a laugh.

On the very next play, the Hawkeyes’ grins widened as running back Kaleb Johnson completed a 25-yard run to hit paydirt for his third touchdown of the game.

“It was good to put some clean football out there,” Higgins said. “Obviously, we talked last week about how we played. I thought we played great today … I think our leverage as a defense was a lot better.”

Ferentz joked that the Hawkeyes have been doing tackle drills all week. After a lackluster performance against Michigan State, where the Hawkeyes were plagued by a career-high 19 missed tackles, the remark was on point. But it was also a gentle reminder that this season’s group of veterans isn’t defined by mistakes.

“Just working on those fundamentals and just knowing you can’t back down from anything,” Jackson said. “You had a bad week. That doesn’t make you curl up in a ball. Keep going.”