Halftime update: Iowa 9, Purdue 7

IOWA CITY, Ia. — On a cool, sunny and windy afternoon, the Iowa Hawkeyes lead Purdue 9-7 in a low-scoring Senior Day affair at Kinnick Stadium.

Here's what we've seen so far:

If you like points or yards or much of any offense ... sorry: Both teams have combined for 227 yards. Purdue quarterback Elijah Sindelar has a nice 14-for-21 line, but he's only passed for 87 yards. On the other side, Nate Stanley has a tepid line of 5-for-10 for 77 yards so far. The ground game hasn't exactly shimmered, either. Purdue has a net of a whopping 9 yards, while Iowa has 54.

This game changed with the safety: All momentum swung Iowa's way when Nathan Bazata sacked Sindelar in the end zone for a safety early in the second quarter. It helped that the Boilermakers sent their ensuing free kick out of bounds. The Hawkeyes amassed a good chunk of their offense on the next drive. Akrum Wadley rushed for 28 yards, including his 2-yard score. Stanley found Matt VandeBerg for 18 yards on a fourth-and-5 at Purdue's 20. Before that safety, this was was starting to look a heck of a lot like Iowa's flat-line performance in Madison.

Sacks. Sacks all day: As we alluded to earlier, defense has been king so far. Especially for the big dudes attacking the back field. Iowa has four tackles for loss (all sacks) for 29 yards, and Purdue has five tackles for loss (three sacks) for 26 yards.

Matthew Bain covers college football and basketball recruiting for the Des Moines Register. He also helps out with Iowa and Iowa State football and basketball coverage for HawkCentral and Cyclone Insider. Contact him at mbain@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewBain_.