IOWA CITY, Iowa — Adam Korsak had Iowa’s offense pinned near its end zone again and again.

And then Rutgers let the Hawkeyes get away.

The Scarlet Knights’ 30-0 loss to Iowa in Saturday’s Big Ten opener at Kinnick Stadium was all about Korsak, the punter, who kept flipping field position.

When it's all about the punter, it's going to be a long day.

“Winning in this league is hard,” Rutgers coach Chris Ash said. “It’s difficult. You’ve got to be able to run the ball, and stop the run. To score points, you have to be able to throw the ball and get explosive plays. Today, we didn’t do very good in any of those categories.”

Iowa (2-0), ranked 19th in the coaches poll and 20th in the Associated Press poll, outgained Rutgers (1-1) 438-125. The Hawkeyes had more than a 15-minute edge in time of possession, and ran 73 plays compared to the Scarlet Knights’ 49.

“The second half, we just kind of wore down at the end,” Ash said.

“Even though they had the ball for a huge amount of time, we were used to that,” said linebacker Tyshon Fogg, who had seven tackles.

Rutgers lost starting quarterback McLane Carter, who was 5-of-15 passing for 22 yards and one interception, to an injury late in the first half.

Ash said he would not comment on the extent or details of Carter’s injury.

“I won’t know until we get back,” Ash said.

Backup quarterback Artur Sitkowski completed just 4-of-11 passes for 19 yards with one interception.

“We didn’t play very good on offense overall, so it’s hard to say how one individual performed,” Ash said.

“It felt great to play, to out there and just have fun with those guys in a hostile environment and sling the ball around and be able to do what I love,” Sitkowski said. “Coach Ash told me at halftime that you need to be ready to go in and then he threw me out on the field after that.”

Rutgers had 554 yards of offense in last week’s 48-21 win over UMass, but the Hawkeyes didn’t let the Scarlet Knights get anything close to that number.

Korsak had five punts that were downed inside Iowa’s 5-yard line, four inside the 3. Iowa turned one of those into an 11-play, 97-yard touchdown drive, and moved 32 yards on one drive and 43 on another.

Rutgers had three first-half drives that started between its 40 and the 50-yard line and moved 20 yards on the three possessions.

“I think, for the most part, when Adam punted, we got some pretty good punts,” Ash said. “We had some opportunities to flip the field position. We got the ball at midfield a couple of times. But you have to turn that into points, get something on the board if you do that.”

“He did a good job of putting them back by their end zone, but they were able to get out of there,” Fogg said.

“It makes it really tough and kind of restricts what you can do, obviously,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But we fought our way through it. It was a really challenging game that way.”

It was a punting battle all game. Korsak, who is from Melbourne, Australia, averaged 47.6 yards on 10 punts, while Iowa’s Michael Sleep-Dalton, who is from Geelong, Australia, averaged 48.3.

“It was a nice competition, me and him,” said Korsak.

Rutgers could get nothing going offensively. The Scarlet Knights had five first downs, rushed for just 84 yards, and threw for 41. It was the fourth-lowest total allowed by an Iowa team in Ferentz’s 21 seasons.

Iowa was credited with eight quarterback hurries.

“We disrupted their quarterback,” Ferentz said. “Part of it is because we were covering really well, so he didn’t have a place to go with the ball and then threw it away or whatever he did.”

Rutgers has next Saturday off before playing a road game against Boston College on Sept. 21.

“Nobody flinched. Nobody quit,” Ash said. “They believe in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

“This game is not going to define our football team or our season.”

Special thanks to John Bohnenkamp for this article. Find him at Bees-Blog.com and http://IowaCollegeHoops.com.