Iowa Hawkeyes: The Good and Bad in Their Insight Loss to Oklahoma Sooners

Coming up on the short end of a 31-14 score wasn't what Iowa fans hoped for or expected from their team in Friday night's Insight Bowl showdown with Oklahoma. Their recent history in bowl games had led many faithful (myself included) to believe that the Hawkeyes had an honest shot at upending the Sooners.

Obviously, that didn't happen and Iowa fans can only look back now at what transpired and try to put the whole thing into context. What worked? What didn't work? Why did it or didn't it work and what can we take into next season?

In truth, the performance wasn't all bad. There were moments when it looked like Iowa could pull off a fantastic upset.

Then again, there were times when the Hawkeyes looked thoroughly outmatched.

How did the Hawkeyes perform overall and what does it mean moving forward?

Good: Defense

While Iowa's defenses under Norm Parker have typically been stout, this season was something less than a banner year for the black and gold in that area. In fact, the Hawkeyes have been in the bottom half of the conference in virtually every major defensive category.

However, facing a very potent Sooner offense, the Hawkeyes looked a lot more like the defensive juggernauts we're used to seeing than the inconsistent and porous unit we've seen all season.

Landry Jones was held to just 161 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception. The Sooners as a team were held to just 114 yards rushing.

Sure, the averages of several runners appear somewhat gaudy and Jones did open up the pass game a time or two. However, a late 21-yard burst lifted Blake Bell to his 5.1 yard-per-carry average, and the story was mostly the same for Brennan Clay and Trey Millard.

On top of that, Mike Daniels laid a pair of sacks on Jones as the Hawks shut down the Sooner attack throughout most of the game.

Moving Forward: This is the hardest area to predict. With Norm Parker's retirement, it's difficult to say how the Hawkeye defense will respond next season. Daniels is a senior, as is Broderick Binns and a number of Hawkeye defenders, adding still more uncertainty to the mix.

Still, there's talent coming back and Norm has taught these guys well. Whoever ultimately gets Norm's job (likely Phil Parker) will have a solid core of defenders to work with.

Look for this unit to come back strong in 2012.

Bad: The Run Game

First, an admission: I was terribly, terribly wrong. I was not only wrong once, but twice. I was absolutely certain that De'Andre Johnson would be the featured Iowa back in the bowl game and moving forward.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Johnson didn't even touch the football Friday night. In fact, I'm not exactly sure, but he may have been about the only Hawkeye runner not to see time on the field.

Second, a caveat: parts of the run game looked very good.

Early in the game Jordan Canzeri looked like the next great Iowa running back. He's short in stature (listed as 5-9) and small in size (listed at 172 pounds), but he ran right past several would-be Sooner tacklers and managed to keep his feet even after first contact.

For a short while, I thought that maybe Canzeri would burst open with a huge, Coker-esque performance, if only the pass game would wake up a little bit.

That never really panned out, even when the pass game did take off. Canzeri ended the day with just 58 yards on 22 carries for a minuscule 2.6 average.

The rest of the Iowa backs didn't fare any better.

Jason White did post a respectable 5.0 average, but only carried the ball four times. Brad Rogers amassed a grand total of six yards and Damon Bullock posted negative numbers (two carries for negative two yards).

In total, the Hawkeyes ran for just 76 net yards and a team average of just 2.1 yards per carry.

Moving Forward: There's talent to be developed here. Canzeri did look pretty good early in the game and proved to be somewhat hard to bring down. He's young and hasn't yet reached his full size or potential yet.

No, he likely won't grow any taller, but he can bulk up a bit and become much better at dozing his way through some tackles while relying on his considerable balance to carry him past others. That great balance could just serve to make him an even tougher back to bring down, if he can add some mass to the equation.

He's still no substitute for getting Marcus Coker back, however. While Coker may not have break-away speed, he's a tough, physical runner and built much better than Canzeri currently is for taking on big tacklers.

Good: The Hurry-Up Offense

There are myriad reasons why hurry-up offenses can work better than a slow-paced attack. The fast pace doesn't allow the defense much time to read the set and make adjustments. Young players sometimes telegraph what they're going to do.

Players have a tough time getting out of their own head.

There are plenty of reasons why it doesn't work also. Namely, there's ample opportunity for confusion and miscommunication on the offense as much as the defense.

For whatever reason, Iowa has largely been more effective in the hurry-up offense this season than they have at the slower-paced attack coach Kirk Ferentz prefers. They used that attack to stage a 21-point comeback to beat Pitt early in the season. They used it to blow past Lousiana-Monroe.

They pulled it out a few other times during the season to mixed results, but mostly it worked.

QB James Vandenberg couldn't buy a completion with a suitcase of money until Iowa went into up-tempo mode. Personally, I think he's a very smart player and smart players tend to over-think things.

He couldn't find a rhythm. He threw ill-timed passes. He missed reads and nearly threw the ball to the wrong team a time or two. That is, until he no longer had time to think and just had to play.

I'm a firm believer that sport is as much "feel" as it is "trained." Certainly, you have to know your position and its responsibilities, and you have to be technically sound if you're going to ultimately be successful.

However, I also believe you have to feel the game. You have to feel the rhythm, feel the timing and feel the momentum. You have to sense what's coming and what's happening around you.

Once the ball is snapped, you really don't have time to analyze everything. You just have to play.

Iowa was getting beat and beat soundly. Once they opened up the game and sped up the tempo, things started to click.

The offense was more productive and moved the ball more consistently. Vandenberg was far more accurate and his receivers did a better job of hauling in the passes.

Iowa erased a 21-0 deficit and pulled within a score late in the game. Though they weren't ultimately able to complete the comeback and steal away the win, they looked like the better team for nearly a full quarter under the hurry-up offense.

Moving forward: I'd really like to see this style of offense used more consistently next season. I understand Ferentz's desire to slow things down, think about the plays and execute accordingly.

However, Vandenberg has shown a propensity for playing fast ball. He appears more comfortable and the team around him responds nicely.

Considering that Iowa will be bringing back five of its top six receivers and virtually all of its running backs, why not play the kind of ball this offense works best with? There will be some bumps along the way and certain defenses will be able to respond to it quickly.

You'll have that in any style of offense though. I'd like to see the Hawkeyes open up their play a little and allow their quarterback to play more comfortably. They might just put together a pretty exciting offense for once.

Bad: Dropped Passes

I'm looking at you, Mr. Davis.

I will admit that I didn't look up the stats for dropped passes. I didn't want to be depressed on New Year's Day.

The number isn't nearly as important as the timing and significance of them. To say the offense struggled throughout the first half would be an understatement, and dropped passes were a big part of it.

Iowa had opportunities to move the ball and keep the chains moving. They had opportunities to take pressure off of Marvin McNutt and potentially open up opportunities for Canzeri and "the committee" to find new holes in the ground game.

Instead, they wound up punting because the receivers couldn't hang onto the football.

In fairness, McNutt was blanketed pretty much all day. We knew that would be the case. A player of his talent is going to draw the attention of opposing coaches and they'll plan accordingly.

Had Davis, Kevonte Martin-Manley and C.J. Fiedorowicz been able to get the ball moving in the first half, things could have looked very differently though. Their success could have drawn some of the attention away from McNutt and opened up the ground game.

Instead, McNutt was held silent through the first half of the game and the ground attack sputtered to a halt.

Moving Forward: No one can deny the raw talent Keenan Davis and Kevonte Martin-Manley have displayed. They're exciting players that could one day be as good as McNutt.

However, Davis in particular has got to start looking the ball into his hands better. Iowa can't count on him making circus-style catches every time he runs a hot route.

He runs decent routes and positions himself nicely in respect to his defenders. He has to do better at securing the catch.

I'd also like to see Fiedorowicz get more involved in the pass game. He showcased his catching abilities in this bowl game and his size makes him a naturally difficult target to defend. I understand that he hasn't done as well as hoped at blocking, but he can still be a highly valuable asset as a receiving tight end.

Good: Gutsy Calls

I know plenty of people, including a few in my own family, who don't like leaving points on the field. When put that way, it doesn't sound all that appealing.

However, I appreciated Kirk Ferentz's call to go for it on fourth down early in the game, inside the Red Zone.

It's rare for Iowa to show a lot of aggression. I've been critical of Ferentz and offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe for their lack of a killer instinct.

While it might be a stretch to call going for it on fourth down while trailing the game a "killer instinct", it was gutsy to go for the touchdown rather than settle for three points.

Certainly, a field goal would have been the safer bet. It would have likely been points on the board, rather than a turnover on downs.

I liked it, though. Trailing just 7-0, Ferentz and staff showed that they believed they could go punch-for-punch with the Sooners.

Looking Forward: I'm not sure I'd call for the Hawkeyes to go for it on every fourth down in similar circumstances, but I definitely want to see more risk-taking. The talent is there for some exciting things to happen.

Sometimes a gamble is a good thing. The upside is worth the risk.