Not to be lost amid the controversial ending, the reason the Iowa Hawkeyes were even in the mess that they wound up in was another offensive eyesore.
Iowa (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) registered 12 yards of total offense in the second half of its 12-10 loss versus Minnesota (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten). The Hawkeyes’ second-half drive chart featured five punts, a lost fumble at its 11-yard line and the game-sealing interception.
For the game, Iowa amassed 127 yards of total offense and nine first downs. Three of those nine first downs came via Minnesota penalties on the Hawkeyes’ lone touchdown drive of the day.
Afterward, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz wasn’t ducking from the reality that it simply isn’t nearly good enough offensively.
“They did a really nice job, but we have to find answers. We’re going to have to find answers moving forward. They clearly made Deacon (uncomfortable and that led to some bad things for us. We have to find a way to protect him a little bit better and get the ball out of his hands a little quicker, and he’s got some ownership in that, too.
“Those are some of the things I think we saw maybe back in August, and I thought he moved past it, and there was a little bit revert on it. We have to get him back on his feet and get him playing a little bit more decisively, and we have find a way to get the running game going because that’s obviously going to take some pressure off of him,” Ferentz said.
Even on a day where Deacon Hill completed 10-of-28 passes for 116 yards and the rushing attack mounted 11 yards on 28 attempts, there were several final hopes that Iowa could embark on a go-ahead scoring drive.
Instead, the Hawkeye offense stalled after a pair of first downs on its penultimate drive. After Hill’s 11-yard, third-down completion to Addison Ostrenga was reviewed and confirmed, Iowa sputtered with a pair of incompletions sandwiched around an underneath completion to Nico Ragaini that went for no gain.
Iowa was faced with a decision. Gamble on fourth down, or punt it away and lean on its defense and the fact that it still had three timeouts in its back pocket?
Kirk Ferentz and Iowa opted to punt, a decision that did work as intended. Minnesota’s Sean Tyler rushed for just one yard and three yards around an incompletion from Gopher quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis.
Iowa had the football back with 1:32 remaining and with one timeout.
“That was the strategy. Hopefully, you know, get a stop and then get the ball back in better (position). I couldn’t predict Cooper’s return. Like nobody could do that.
“The idea was to get the ball back and they even helped out, they had an incomplete pass in there so we still had a timeout when we got the ball back. You would like to think in that situation, you could still find a way to win. That’s a winnable situation, and we weren’t up to that challenge. Of all of the things today, that’s as disappointing as any, and maybe we had a little residue from the call, and everything that happened. You have to be above that. You have to focus on what’s in front of you, so hopefully it’s a chance to learn. Hopefully that situation next time we’ll be able to nail it, but couldn’t do it today unfortunately,” Ferentz said.
Set up from its own 46-yard line, Iowa didn’t need much yardage to position itself and sophomore Drew Stevens for a potential game-winning field goal. The Hawkeyes promptly went backward. Hill was sacked for a loss of seven, and two plays later he threw an interception to effectively end the game.
“Absolutely. Yeah, so that’s the rest of the story. The game wasn’t over, despite that interesting call. So that probably wasn’t soft enough, was it. I’ll still get fined. Screw it. You know, just to the kids’ hospital, please, any kids’ hospital.
“To that point, as disappointing as that was, we still had an opportunity to win that football game, and I was confident we would. I just was hoping we could piece it together, to answer your question directly, probably needed about 25 yards, maybe 37, 38 stretching it but preferably get it inside the 30. You know, so it was still a winnable game for us. Many things went wrong, and it’s still a winnable game. We weren’t good enough to get that done, and that part’s disappointing,” Ferentz said.
Iowa has several weeks to try to improve itself before it returns to play for the stretch run. It begins versus Northwestern (3-4, 1-3 Big Ten) on Nov. 4 from Wrigley Field at 2:30 p.m. CT in a game that will be streamed on Peacock.
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