Iowa beats Nebraska 31-28 with a goal placement at the final whistle

Miguel Recinos scored a 41-yard goal in the pouring rain as time passed and Iowa defeated Nebraska 31 to 28 on Friday, despite a 15-point lead.

Mekhi Sargent ran for a career-high 173 yards and scored two goals for the Hawkeyes (8-4, 5-4 Big Ten), who have won four straight wins over the Cornhuskers for the first time.

The Hawkeyes nearly spoiled this big moment though.

A curious decision by Iowa to pretend to score on the field in the 3-yard line of Nebraska failed, which led the Huskers to a 98-yard run. The score was 28-20 with 13:57 to go. Martinez then ran to 3 yards with 3:22 left and found Kade Warner at the back of the goal area to tie him up.

But late tight star T.J. Hockenson scored for Iowa with a 10-yard delay on fourth and eighths of play with 42 seconds to go – and Recinos managed to cross the post after missing his previous attempt.

Sargent scored late in the second quarter on a 15-yard run and early third on a 5-yard pass from Nate Stanley to help the Hawkeyes take the 28-13 advantage. But the Huskers and Adrian Martinez, their brilliant first-year quarterback, have shown resilience by almost stifling the stunning.

Martinez threw for 260 yards and two touchdowns to lead Nebraska (4-8, 3-6), who scored a 0-5 win on the road in 2018. The Huskers played without the star receiver of the injured JD Spielman for the second week in a row.

To take away

Iowa: After a series of three losses that denied them the Big Ten title, the Hawkeyes finished on a positive note and will now wait for their fate. It would not be surprising to see them find themselves in the holiday bowl or the citrus bowl.

Nebraska: When this rivalry began in 2011, who would have thought it would be Nebraska that could not keep up? The Huskers were supposed to be on a par with the Ohio State and Michigan, but they are embarking on the off season by looking up on characters like Iowa and Northwestern. Nebraska advanced in the second half of the season, but it took a game or two to give Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz an outright defeat.