IOWA CITY, Iowa — There wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about Saturday evening in Kinnick Stadium.

Nate Stanley threw for 190 yards in Iowa’s 17-10 win over Minnesota, its eighth-straight in Iowa City over the Gophers.

After missing the last game against Northwestern, linebacker Josey Jewell made his return for the Hawkeyes (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) and led the defense with 11 tackles — six of them solo.

Each team converted just 15 first downs and committed three turnovers. Iowa and Minnesota combined to be 7-of-30 on 3rd downs.

Rodney Smith led the way on offense for Minnesota (4-4, 1-4 Big Ten), rushing for 82 yards on 15 attempts, although his efforts did not prove enough to push the Gophers to their first win at Iowa since 1999 — Kirk Ferentz’s first year at the helm for the Hawkeyes.

The pass game was not there for the Gophers. Demry Croft completed just nine passes throughout the game, five in the second half.

“Offensively, I thought we ran the ball well,” P.J. Fleck said. “However, we didn’t execute well enough. It came down to execution. We had guys open down the field, open for big plays, but dropped the ball or overthrew it. The plays were there to be made, we just didn’t make them.”

The Hawkeyes’ only touchdowns came on their first drive of each half, which combined to be 10 total plays for 147 of Iowa’s 315 yards.

“It was clean. That’s a good thing certainly,” Ferentz said about the first drive of the game. “Same thing with the second half. That wasn’t scripted. But we talk about it. We always gather thoughts at halftime, what do we think might be good, what do we need to toss out, that type of thing.”