by First off, no disrespect to the Iowa Hawkeyes because they are a consistently hard-nosed, disciplined program that pumps out 8-to-9-win seasons on a regular basis. In fact, Iowa’s worst and only below .500 season in the past 17 years came in 2012 when Kirk Ferentz’s squad went 4-8, with five of those losses being decided by six points or fewer.
However, finishing with a winning record clearly isn’t the issue in Iowa City. Having a competent offense is.
Iowa is currently ranked dead last in the FBS in total offense. The Hawkeyes have scored just 13 touchdowns while averaging an abysmal 247.4 YPG through seven games this season. They also have more total punts (47) than total rushing first downs (40) and total passing first downs (34). Additionally, they just handled a Wisconsin team on the road by only putting up 37 yards through the air.
This team is 6-1 by the way.
Of course, much of this team’s success is accredited to its elite shutdown defense, which ranks 10th in scoring (yielding just 14.8 PPG) and T-4th in yards per play (4.28).
The Hawkeyes currently lead the Big 10 West and are favored in all of their remaining games by a comfortable margin.
Projected winning percentages in remaining five games (via ESPN’s FPI):
vs. Minnesota (73.1%)
at Northwestern (83.5%)
vs Rutgers (70.5%)
vs Illinois (75.6%)
at Nebraska (67.5%)
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may need to start facing the reality that Iowa could very well go 11-1 and play in the Big 10 title game with the worst offense in the entire country.
How can you not be romantic about college football?