I felt like Horton had finally gotten a certain amount of stability back from the turmoil of early and mid season.
Offense had played in the new offense for enough games, defense gained experience and Stoudemire made a difference with big plays in both those games at CB.
The Illinois game featured some very clutch plays from Weber and the runningbacks, Stoudemire in the kickoff game.
The Iowa game was preceded by a bye week which was sorely needed to rest and recoup several key players, and was obviously used well by the coaching staff in putting together an aggressive gameplan.
Plus you can't discount the rivalry factor, even though we hadn't played well in a number of rivalry games recently, records can be thrown out when teams are supermotivated like a trophy game against a bitter rival.
I'll say the Iowa players also looked soft and cold that day, ours were excited and seemed to embrace the home atmosphere, frozen field and all.