Iowa Football: The Hawkeyes Are out-Iowa'ed by Michigan State

In the better years and the better games of the Ferentz era, the Hawks have won by a few simple rules.

They have played fundamentally sound football on both sides of the ball. The offense didn't turn the ball over, take backwards plays or take undisciplined penalties. The defensive line played assignment football, the linebackers made tackles and the secondary kept everything in front of them.

Finally, and just as importantly, the Hawks won the special teams battle.

All of this led to, among other things, winning the field position battle.

With that in mind, Michigan State's recent thrashing of Iowa shouldn't have looked entirely unfamiliar to Hawk fans.

Of course, Kirk Ferentz would never employ some of MSU head coach Mark Dantonio's strategies. For example, Ferentz would never run a fake field goal or a reverse pass if his team was up by three scores, though this is the aggressive philosophy for which Dantonio is known and for which one can't blame him.

Ferentz also wouldn't have resorted to massive amounts of flopping—faking injuries to buy time—which is something for which one can blame Dantonio.

However, while the philosophies may differ, the method of MSU's win was pure Iowa football under Ferentz. In fact, during the first quarter, Ferentz must have been salivating on the sideline, wishing the Spartans were his team, as, for the most part, they did what he would have liked the Hawks to have done.

Specifically, the defense played aggressive, fundamentally sound football. They swarmed to the ball, gang-tackled and took advantage of Hawkeye mistakes.

The offense didn't take backwards plays or take risks. They led with the run and took advantage of short fields.

And finally, they won the special teams battle.

Ultimately, Iowa fans may look to point fingers after the loss. After all, the refereeing wasn't good and the flopping got to the point of absurdity.

However, the Hawks were down 31-7 long before any of that happened.

They killed themselves with turnovers and penalties, which is something they couldn't afford to do against a team as good as Michigan State.

It has been said all season that the 2011 Hawkeyes lacked an identity or that they were inconsistent.

Now, Iowa is 6-4 (3-3 in conference), and at this point in the season, the team's identity is what its record says.

This team is inconsistent because it is inexperienced. However, in the end, this is an average team.

Hopefully, that "average" will translate to seven or—dare I dream—eight wins rather than six.