Iowa Football: Difficult to Point Fingers in Hawkeyes' Loss to Penn State

That was a head-scratcher.

After opening the season scoring 30 points or more in each of its first four games—only the fourth time in the Hawks' 123 years that they have done that—the 2011 Iowa Hawkeyes failed to score a touchdown against Penn State en route to a 3-13 loss.

That is the first time the Hawkeyes have been kept out of the end zone since 2007, when Iowa lost 31-6 to Purdue. And we all remember that offense. The 2007 Hawks were the 110th-ranked scoring offense in the country, and they only put up more than 30 points twice on the season—against Syracuse and against Michigan State.

In fact, this was only the sixth time the Hawks have failed to score a touchdown during the Kirk Ferentz era. The other five were the previously mentioned Purdue game, 2004 Penn State, 2000 Illinois, 1999 Michigan State and 1999 Wisconsin. The only one of those games in which the Hawks were victorious was Penn State in 2004.

Those Iowa teams, without exception, did not have good offenses. Even the 2004 Big Ten championship team didn't have a good offense. It was efficient and exciting, but one can't reasonably call the 68th-ranked scoring offense in the country "good," especially when it was also ranked 101st in total offense.

The difference between the 2011 team and those teams is this Iowa team has a good offense.

Or does it?

Obviously, people are going to begin the criticism of the Penn State game by pointing to the play calling and the conservatism and that is not completely without merit. After all, when will Kirk Ferentz learn that sitting on the ball at your own 20, while trailing 6-3 with 1:51 left in the half, so as not to risk a turnover—that's just giving a possession away. And giving a possession away is a recipe for failure.

Time of possession is not a contributing factor to winning a football game. On the other hand, possessions and the amount of plays that a team runs are.

This is especially true when, by this point, everybody west of the Mississippi—as well as those east of the Mississippi that have paid attention—knows that this year's Iowa defense is not good enough to win football games.

In the coaching staff's defense, the plays were there for the Hawkeyes. I counted at least six dropped though very catchable passes, and my estimate may have been generous.

On top of that, James Vandenberg was off all day. He missed multiple open receivers, and skipped a few balls ala Jake Christensen on that 2007 offense. He also threw two interceptions and took five sacks, not all of which were on the offensive line.

Finally, Penn State has arguably the best defense Iowa will face all season, and it was at Happy Valley, which is a tough place to play.

As for the Iowa defense, they weren't good. On the other hand, they also weren't worse than expected, especially when considering how tired and undermanned they were at the end of the game.

At one point, after Mike Daniels went down with cramps and Broderick Binns came out with a tweaked ankle, Iowa had Joe Forgy, Carl Davis and Joe Gaglione in the game along with a not-100 percent Dominick Alvis playing on the inside of the line.

Under no circumstances is that a recipe for successful line play. One could, of course, blame the coaches for poor recruiting or failure to develop players, but that is being a bit ridiculous.

In short, we are now five games into the season, and the only things we know are that the defense is average-at-best; and the offense can be explosive if given the opportunity. Nonetheless, they still have to be called inconsistent.

Needless to say, that is hardly much of a personality profile.