IOWA CITY, Iowa -- On an afternoon highlighted by explosive plays, the No. 22 Iowa Hawkeyes continued their winning ways on Saturday, defeating Illinois, 29-20, to move to 2-0 in the Big Ten and 6-0 overall for the first time since 2009.

This marks only the third time Iowa has started 6-0 since 1985 and only the eighth time in school history the Hawkeyes have opened a season by winning their first six games.

There were three key moments in the game for Iowa, two of which came in the first half courtesy of true freshman wide receiver Jerminic Smith.

The first came in the closing minutes of the first quarter, with the Hawkeyes facing third-and-27 from their own 39-yard line. Junior quarterback C.J. Beathard found Smith deep down the sideline for a catch-and-run that covered 46 yards to the Fighting Illini 15-yard line.

The Hawkeyes were unable to capitalize on that 46-yard reception, but Smith, who was making only his second career start, delivered on the following series, on which Iowa took the lead for good.

Trailing 7-6 and facing third-and-13 and again from their own 39-yard line, Beathard scrambled around the pocket and found Smith wide open for a 49-yard catch to the Illinois 12-yard line.

"That was just kind of a spur-of-the-moment type thing," Beathard said of Smith's second big catch. "I was flushed out of the pocket and saw him down there and he made a good play."

Two plays later, Beathard connected on a screen pass to senior running back Jordan Canzeri for a 17-yard touchdown that put the Hawkeyes ahead, 13-7.

Iowa took a 16-7 lead into halftime and Illinois (4-2, 1-1) began to click offensively despite senior running back Josh Ferguson being out Saturday because of a right shoulder injury.

After completing only six passes in the first half, junior quarterback Wes Lunt connected on his first eight passes of the third quarter and two field goals by senior kicker Taylor Zalewski got the Fighting Illini to within 16-13.

"We just decided to play fast," Lunt said regarding second-half adjustments. "Coach (Bill) Cubit just made a great call of playing high tempo. We do it every day in practice.

"It just forced (Iowa) to get lined up faster and that was the biggest thing."

Then Canzeri took over the game for Iowa.

On the first play from scrimmage following a touchback, Canzeri found an opening and burst all the way for a 75-yard touchdown to extend Iowa's lead to 23-13.

"The defense they put up for the original play we had, their scheme, we knew it would have wrecked the play," Canzeri said. "C.J. just checked the ball into a run that we actually hadn't done in a good while. He knew to check us into the play and knew that it would work.

"There was a great hole. The line blocked it perfect and we had guys blocking downfield, receivers blocking downfield. It was just a whole collective effort for the team."

From that point forward, Iowa placed an emphasis on running the ball with Canzeri and he finished with career-highs of 256 yards rushing on 43 carries (a new school record).

On one drive alone following his touchdown run, Canzeri was handed the ball on 11 consecutive plays.

"I don't count them," Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said of Canzeri's 43 carries. "I'm not keeping track and there's no pitch count. As long as he could go, we were going to go with him."

Right when it appeared Illinois would respond with another score, the Fighting Illini's first play of the fourth quarter backfired. A reverse pass was called and senior wide receiver Geronimo Allison threw an interception to Iowa junior defensive back Greg Mabin.

"With what we had, there were three options," Cubit said. “If I knew now what happened, I wouldn't have called it. But that's the way we are. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."

Allison made up for his mistake on the following drive with an explosive play, catching a 53-yard touchdown pass from Lunt in the fourth quarter to cut Iowa's lead to 23-20.

But Illinois' opportunity to climb back ahead abruptly ended when Iowa sophomore linebacker Josey Jewell recovered a fumble by Illinois true freshman running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn.

Kicker Marshall Koehn added field goals of 34 and 40 yards for Iowa in the final minutes.

Illinois goes on its bye next week and will look to bounce back at home against Wisconsin on Oct. 24.

Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes head to Evanston, Ill., for a date with No. 13 Northwestern, one that could potentially determine which team represents the Big Ten's West Division in Indianapolis on Dec. 5.

NOTES: Despite being in the same conference, Saturday's game marked the first time since 2007 that the Hawkeyes and Fighting Illini played each other at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa and Illinois went five consecutive seasons without meeting head-to-head as a result of Big Ten realignment. ... Illinois true freshman Ke'Shawn Vaughn's four-yard touchdown run during the first quarter marked the first time all season Iowa surrendered a touchdown on the ground. The Hawkeyes came into Saturday's game as the only team in FBS to not give up a rushing touchdown. ... RB Jordan Canzeri's 75-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the longest touchdown run by an Iowa running back since Shonn Greene's 75-yard touchdown run against Purdue in 2008. Canzeri is also the first Iowa running back to go for over 200 yards on the ground since Mark Weisman rushed for 217 yards against Central Michigan in 2012.