Here we are on a Monday, lamenting a lack of offense. Again.
284 yards of total offense. 3 yards a carry. 192 yards passing. 15 points. Can that side of the ball earn their keep in a big game one freaking
time, please?
Over and over and over again, Iowa gets an elite game from its defense. Last week against Rutgers? Rough. This week? Huge improvement and a winnable performance. Indiana’s high octane offense just rung Illinois’s bell for 63 points a week ago. Iowa kept them to 20. Under 400 yards of offense. Those are winning numbers.
And yet here we are, with another loss and another to a ranked team because Iowa doesn’t score. They don’t score touchdowns. Iowa’s now 0-11 in their last 11 games versus ranked opponents going back to the 2021 Penn State game. Losses to Michigan, Kentucky, Michigan again, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan a third time, Tennessee, Ohio State again, Missouri, Iowa State, and now Indiana. And in those games Iowa’s scored 3, 17, 14, 10, 0, 0, 0, 7, 24, 13, and 15 points. 9.36 points per game. Sure – 9 of those 11 were road or neutral sites, and Michigan and Ohio State make up 5 of the 11 matchups right as they each win national titles and are constantly in the College Football Playoff. Unfortunately, Iowa just doesn’t win these games anymore, and they get next to nothing from their offense in all of them. We’re in a perpetual loop that I would LOVE to break, but we seem unable to break it despite a great offensive line, improved quarterback play, and a well-rounded running back room. We just can’t break it.
Making it worse for any future matchup, ranked team or otherwise, is that the offense we thought we’d possibly have after last week – was last week due to Iowa’s offense figuring things out or the quality of the opponent? I’m going with the latter – had to leave the game with a leg injury. It didn’t sound serious for Mark Gronowski, though saying he worried he wouldn’t be able to decelerate is a major concern. Hank Brown is a young guy and by all accounts had a really good fall camp, but he’s not ready yet and that’s a terrible spot to have to throw him out there. This could really run off the rails if Gronowski is going to miss time.
The bye comes at a good time for Iowa. Get some time off for Gronowski, get Kamari Moulton in better shape – one of our contributors, Thad, mentioned in Discord (join our Discord!) that Iowa with Gronowski and Moulton both at 100 percent would be 5-0 right now, and I think that’s 100 percent on the money – and Iowa can still win some games. But Iowa also enters the meat of the schedule. Wisconsin away feels like a win but they’ve been pointing to the Iowa game all year after the rout in Iowa City a season ago. It’s going to be an interesting two weeks in Madison – Wisconsin is at Michigan next weekend and if the Badgers lose badly, is Luke Fickell retained? If he’s not, is Iowa going against a New Coach Bump in Camp Randall? Penn State and Oregon loom. A trip to the Coliseum remains. Nebraska tripped over Michigan, but they look improved overall. 4-1 and crucially 2-0 would’ve felt amazing this morning. 3-2 and again saddled with an offense that cannot score? Not amazing.
Other thoughts:
- I feel bad for Drew Stephens. A lot rides on that kid having to be near perfect. He’s not the issue – the fact that Iowa doesn’t score touchdowns is the issue. But he’s now missed a kick in three-straight games, none more crucial than yesterday’s late miss that would’ve put Iowa up 3 with time evaporating in the fourth quarter. He’s had dips in form like this before – he had a stretch in late 2023 in which he was 4-8 to end the regular season.
- Kirk’s timeout usage continues to be among the worst in the sport, at possibly any level. Iowa fails to convert on their final drive and they still had all three timeouts remaining. That’s absurd time management. You can’t get the time back, and you don’t start next week with 6 timeouts in the first half.
- Indiana is a great team, but I think they know they got away with one. That adds to the frustration from yesterday – that felt more like Iowa lost the game than Indiana won it.
- I’m down after yesterday. Really down. Someone help. Yesterday was one of those sports days we all get now and then – the teams you support either all lose or get bad injury news, or sometimes get both. I got both. So I’m going to drink more today than yesterday.
