It’s no fun for Iowa fans right now as the Hawkeyes’ offense has officially become a national laughingstock.
After getting bulldozed by No. 2 Ohio State 54-10 where Iowa was limited to just eight first downs and 158 total yards of offense, national writers and talking heads aren’t holding back to start this week.
USA TODAY Sports’ Scooby Axson absolutely lambasted Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeyes. Cleveland.com‘s Doug Lesmerises penned that Kirk Ferentz is failing Iowa fans and that Iowa offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Ferentz should be fired.
That duo isn’t alone. While handing out his weekly college football winners and losers, naturally Iowa made the losers cut for USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerberg.
The offense is so bad — so historically bad, so inept, so absolutely putrid — that it’s become almost enjoyable to watch. (This doesn’t apply to an up-in-arms fan base that’s had enough of this nonsense.) Despite holding No. 2 Ohio State to a season-low 360 yards and keeping C.J. Stroud in check for the first half, the Hawkeyes committed six turnovers and suffered a 54-10 loss to the Buckeyes that stands as the program’s worst margin of defeat since 1999, Kirk Ferentz’s first season. – Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports.
Remarks like that show where the national discussion is on Iowa. And, really, it’s hard to blame Myerberg at all. The Hawkeyes’ offense is a national laughingstock and has reached the “so bad, it’s good” territory.
“We’ll go back to Iowa regroup like we do after every football game. Reassess things tomorrow and then we’ll turn our focus to the next game. Big picture wise, you know, we’ve got five left, five on the schedule and that’s our plan just like it was a week ago to play these six games out. Needless to say, we’re not where we want to be right now, but we’re going to keep pushing forward,” Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said after the loss to the Buckeyes.
Backup quarterback Alex Padilla finally got his chance against the Buckeyes and it didn’t go well. Hopefully, if he’s the starter against Northwestern, a full week of practice taking the No. 1 reps can help both he and Iowa figure something out against the Wildcats.
Northwestern enters this weekend with the nation’s No. 97 total defense. The Wildcats surrender 28.14 points per game, which ranks tied-81st. Iowa kicks off against Northwestern at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday from Kinnick for the Hawkeyes’ Homecoming game.
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