The Iowa Hawkeyes had quite the tough day against the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes last Saturday. Things were not great in the first half and quickly went to worse in the second half with an onslaught of turnovers that immediately gave the Buckeyes points or resulted in gift-wrapped points on extremely short fields.
One analyst from ESPN, Bill Connelly, did some digging into the impact the Hawkeyes’ offense had on the game and what he found may be surprising, even among what this year has entailed. It takes things to a new level. It proves something many probably didn’t realize could be real.
Connelly did some digging into the yardage and field position that this game saw. When looking at what the turnovers and lack of offensive production yielded, he proved that the Iowa offense, and team overall, would have had more success had they simply chosen to punt the ball on every single first down.
With a 40-yard net avg on each first-down punt, doing so would've created an extra 14.3 yards of field position for the Iowa D per drive. It would've taken a FG off the board, but it would've also taken off a pick six, so that's a net gain there too.https://t.co/Nj4IzIZVu3
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) October 25, 2022
As he states, this would have eliminated the field goal the Iowa offense put on the board but also would have eliminated the interception returned for a touchdown. Punting on every single first down would have yielded a +4 point different as opposed to running their offense.
The offense gave Ohio State so many short fields off of turnovers and lack of movement that rather than gaining any yards on offense to flip the field, taking a net of zero yards and immediately punting would have provided over 14 more yards of relief and better field position for the defense.
Even with data showing that Iowa would be better off simply punting and not running an offense at all, they will stay with things as is until the end of the season it appears.
“Yeah, well, so I answered that question two weeks ago. I’ve never done that in my career. I don’t plan on starting right now. Our approach has always been to address what’s out there and see what we can do to improve and it’s been pretty consistent for 24 years, almost 24 years now and that’s the plan moving forward. It’s been fairly successful,” Ferentz said when asked if he would consider any change regarding the offensive coordinator.
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