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IOWA CITY — As black-and-gold-clad Iowa fans filtered through the concourse at Kinnick Stadium and onto the street on this crisp autumn night, the sounds of disbelieving laughter stood out. The Hawkeyes faithful were celebrating their team’s 41-3 dismantling of the Gophers in front of 69,250 on Saturday with an aura of, “Can you believe we beat them that bad?!?” A pair of teams entered the game with identical 5-2 overall records and 3-1 marks in the Big Ten. One left with ownership of the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy. The other left wondering how it could be so thoroughly dominated by a rival. Yes, it was a blowout. But the final score might not do it justice. This stat sums it up best: Through Minnesota’s first four possessions, the Gophers had 1 yard of offense. The Hawkeyes had 31 points. “They absolutely dominated the football game from start to finish,’’ Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. “I told our football team that those were three hours of not very good football. … We did not play our best when we needed to play our absolute best.’’ A Gophers team that eight days earlier played a complete game in a 24-6 thumping of Nebraska at Huntington Bank Stadium suddenly looked shell-shocked.
