Iowa City, Iowa — Loyal Hawkeyes fans know the fight song: “Roll along, Iowa, Roll down the field. … Roll along, Iowa, Don’t ever yield.”

On Saturday, Iowa’s football team stayed true to these lyrics — rolling down the field, right over Northwestern.

The No. 6 Hawkeyes (10-1, 7-0 Big Ten) dominated the Wildcats (3-8, 1-6) from the opening kickoff in a 62-10 victory at Kinnick Stadium in front of 68,728 fans.

“We took some chances coming out of the blocks, and we felt they were a good enough team that we had to do that,” NU coach Randy Walker said. “But we couldn’t make those plays, and they got up and rolling, and before you knew it wasn’t much of a ball game.”

The final 20 minutes were more of a ceremony for Iowa’s seniors than a football game.

The biggest cheer came when the Hawkeyes’ starting offensive line, which has four seniors, left the field hand-in-hand after the team built a commanding 56-10 lead.

Neither team’s first-string quarterback was in the game at that point, and both teams’ third-string running backs carried the ball more times than they had in the entire season.

“The second half might have been the most disappointing half of football that I’ve ever been a part of in my life,” senior guard Jeff Roehl said. “For whatever reason, we fell apart. It was embarrassing.”

The Hawkeyes scored a touchdown on eight of their first nine possessions, and the seventh-highest scoring offense in Division I-A took advantage of NU gambles that didn’t pay off.

The Cats failed to recover an onside kick on the opening play of the game and couldn’t convert on a fourth down in their own territory on their first possession.

“We were pretty high-risk today, ” Walker said. “We didn’t want to get in a contest where we stood toe-to-toe with Iowa and try to pound it out. We had to make some things happen. We didn’t execute some of those things, and it came back to hurt us.”

NU freshman cornerback Terrell Jordan leaped into the air and was the first player to get his hands on Brian Huffman’s onside kick. But the ball was knocked out of his hands and recovered by the Hawkeyes, who proceeded to drive 25 yards for a touchdown.

On the ensuing possession, the Cats turned the ball over on their own 40-yard line after running back Jason Wright was stopped behind the line of scrimmage on a 4th-and-1.

The swing pass to Wright, which was set up with four wide receivers and the quarterback in the shotgun, was the result of a miscommunication.

Following a third down, officials needed to measure for the first down. Walker said he decided if they were short, the Cats would punt.

During the measurement, coaches signaled a play to run for a first-down situation to quarterback Brett Basanez. But Basanez said he didn’t know about Walker’s intentions to punt, and he ran the intended first-down play on 4th-and-inches.

Walker said he had switched his headphones to the defensive signal and didn’t realize the problem in time to stop the play.

“My decision to go for the onside kick gave them seven points, and … on fourth down the miscommunication was my fault,” Walker said. “So I feel coaching cost us 14 points, and that’s my fault. But I came out and wanted to make a play or two early.”

The NU offense responded after falling behind 14-0. Jeff Backes returned the kickoff 49 yards and Basanez drove the Cats 51 yards for a touchdown.

Basanez, who was 19 of 29 for 166 yards, was 5-for-7 on the drive that was capped off with an eight-yard slant to Ashton Aikens in the endzone. Basanez also led the team on a 65-yard drive in the second quarter that ended with a 26-yard David Wasielewski field goal.

“We were moving the ball against them,” Basanez said. “We just needed to do it more frequently and consistently. We needed to make some plays as the game started to get out of hand.”

Basanez was out of the game after the second possession of the second half, and the Cats failed to score with freshman Derell Jenkins and sophomore Tony Stauss under center.

Jenkins played five series and threw four passes — two of them interceptions — before he broke a bone in his left hand.

Third-string running back Kevin Lawrence led the team in rushing with six carries for 38 yards. Iowa, which entered the game with the best rushing defense in the nation, held Wright to just 32 yards on 11 carries.

“I thought we were making some things happen as an offense early, but we just got too far behind and we weren’t ready for a shootout like that,” Walker said. “We need to get some stops on defense to stay in the game.”

The defense failed to even slow down the Hawkeyes, who had seven scoring drives consisting of five plays or fewer.

Iowa’s quarterbacks, starter Brad Banks and backup Nathan Chandler, did not miss a pass and combined to go 12-for-12 for 230 yards and four touchdowns.

“Obviously, we couldn’t have played well in the back half,” Walker said. “We weren’t close to some guys.”

While the Cats praised the play of the Hawkeyes, they were understandably upset with their own play.

“They’re a great team,” cornerback Raheem Covington said. “But at the same time, we played terrible.”