Iowa Hawkeye Kaleb Johnson ran away with the Floyd of Rosedale as Iowa rushed to a 31-14 win at Huntington Bank Stadium over the Gophers.

The Hawkeyes lead tailback ran for over 206 yards and three touchdowns on 9.8 yards per carry. Gophers’ head coach P.J. Fleck said it was “a tale of two halves.” Minnesota thrived in the first half, faltered in the third quarter and broke down in the fourth.

“It’s a 60-minute game, I told our team. I said we played for 30 minutes,” Fleck said. “The job of the head football coach is to get his team to play hard for 60 minutes, and I failed to do that.”

Late in the second quarter, Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer led his team down the field with time running low in the first half. Darius Taylor bounced a run outside for a 17-yard gain into the red zone.

Brosmer on third-and-goal found Elijah Spencer in the flat. Spencer jumped into the air and bounced off a tackle before diving across the goal line for a touchdown.

The Gophers rode a touchdown lead into halftime on the back of Brosmer’s 165 passing yards and two touchdowns. His interception led to Iowa’s only touchdown of the half.

Minnesota outgained Iowa by 105 yards on offense, passing on 72% of plays. Fifth-year wide receiver Daniel Jackson led both teams with 93 receiving yards on seven receptions and surpassed 2,000 career receiving yards in the first quarter.

“I didn’t really get much press coverage,” Jackson said. “Just timing, running our offense. I don’t want to say anything special, just doing what we do good and executing it.”

For a moment, it looked like Floyd of Rosedale would be returning to Minneapolis with the Gophers up 14-7 at halftime.

Then the second half happened.

Iowa worked the ball into Minnesota territory with consecutive 15-plus yard gains into the red zone. Three plays later, Johnson bounced a counter run to the outside for a 15-yard touchdown to tie the game.

After Minnesota punted, a heavy dosage of Johnson led the Hawkeyes down the field. Johnson broke off a 40-yard touchdown run evading numerous Gophers tacklers and giving Iowa the lead.

Iowa continued to pound the rock down the field, wearing down the Gophers’ defense. Instead of a touchdown, the maroon and gold forced a 46-yard field goal putting the Hawkeyes up 24-14.

In the third quarter, the Hawkeyes outscored the Gophers 17-0 and outgained Minnesota by 145 yards.

Any chance of winning dwindled away for the Gophers when Johnson dashed outside again for 33 yards, eclipsing 200 yards on the night.

Iowa ran it on all six plays of the drive punching it in on a quarterback sneak with backup quarterback Brendan Sullivan.

Gophers redshirt senior linebacker Cody Lindenberg said Minnesota got Iowa’s offense in situations they liked and were able to execute in the first half.

“After that, (we) didn’t play a full game,” Lindenberg said. “Going into that second half, whatever it might have been, getting off blocks, making tackles, using tackling system … We’re gonna learn, watch the film and then get a lot better.”

At that point, fans called it a game, pouring out of the stadium.

The Hawkeyes made sure the Gophers did not get a chance to smell the endzone as Brosmer threw a pass into coverage intended for Frank Bierman that was intercepted off a deflection.

While the Hawkeyes did not control the entire game, they did have the upper hand to start.

The battle for Floyd started pass-heavy as the teams combined to throw it seven times to just two runs, both defenses forcing punts.

After a 17-yard completion to Jackson up the seam, Brosmer threw an interception to linebacker Jay Higgins.

Iowa went up first when the nation’s leading rusher, Johnson, broke multiple tackles bouncing it outside to the one-yard line. Johnson then powered it in for the game’s first touchdown.

Late in the second quarter, the Gophers marched down the field on offense.

Le’Meke Brockington was left in man coverage with Deshaun Lee on the sideline and a pass from Brosmer led to a 28-yard gain making it first and goal. Brosmer found Jameson Geers who narrowly placed both feet in the endzone for the Gophers’ first touchdown of the game.

The first half was only part of the story as Minnesota lost 31-14 and Fleck dropped to 1-7 in his career against the Hawkeyes, the lone win coming last season.