Friday night's contest between Iowa and Maryland draws big numbers for FS1
Friday night’s game between unbeaten teams turned into a blowout, but the FS1 broadcast still earned big marks.
Iowa made the road trip to Maryland and went to work in a big way. QB Spencer Petras earned a weekly honor for his 5 touchdown performance, but the real story of the game was the work of the Hawkeye defense.
The Hawkeyes forced the Terrapins into 7 turnovers. That number included 6 interceptions with Taulia Tagovailoa responsible for 5 of them in the 51-14 blowout.
Though the score got out of hand, the FS1 broadcast generated a big number in terms of Friday night viewership. According to John Ourand with the Sports Business Journal, the game drew 1.381 million viewers:
That Iowa-Maryland blowout? That drew 1.381 million viewers to FS1 on Friday and helped the network rank No. 2 among all cable channels in primetime that night behind only Fox News.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) October 4, 2021
Iowa’s win kept Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeyes undefeated and in the top 5 nationally heading into a showdown with Penn State. It will be interesting to see how Mike Locksley and Maryland respond after the first loss and with a matchup against Ohio State on deck.