Iowa football: What can Iowa improve on from the Wisconsin loss?

IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 22: Quarterback Alex Hornibrook #12 of the Wisconsin Badgers scrambles on a keeper in the second half in front of linebacker Djimon Colbert #32 of the Iowa Hawkeyes, on September 22, 2018 at Kinnick Stadium, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 22: Quarterback Alex Hornibrook #12 of the Wisconsin Badgers scrambles on a keeper in the second half in front of linebacker Djimon Colbert #32 of the Iowa Hawkeyes, on September 22, 2018 at Kinnick Stadium, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
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IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 22: Quarterback Alex Hornibrook #12 of the Wisconsin Badgers scrambles on a keeper in the second half in front of linebacker Djimon Colbert #32 of the Iowa Hawkeyes, on September 22, 2018 at Kinnick Stadium, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 22: Quarterback Alex Hornibrook #12 of the Wisconsin Badgers scrambles on a keeper in the second half in front of linebacker Djimon Colbert #32 of the Iowa Hawkeyes, on September 22, 2018 at Kinnick Stadium, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

The Iowa football program lost to the Wisconsin Badgers Saturday night, and while Iowa played well, there are still plenty of opportunities for improvement.

If you compare the outcome of this game to last year’s, the results are the same. Iowa still walked away from this game disappointed. If you watched the game, however, the Iowa football program looked heads and toes better than the team that took the field last year and suffered an embarrassing loss to the Wisconsin Badgers 38-14.

Nate Stanley was dreadful in that game accounting for 41 yards on 8 of 24 passing. The run game couldn’t get anything going, and Wisconsin capitalized on every mistake Iowa made. The Hawkeyes were very clearly not the better team last year.

Fast forward a year, and the Iowa football teams played like they deserved to win the Big Ten West. They played confident and made big plays throughout the night, and if it wasn’t for a few mistakes, could have walked away victorious Saturday night.

As we all know that isn’t the case, but with any game, there are always a few takeaways. In losses, especially, there are always areas or moments you can look at and say, “Alright, we need to improve on this for next week.”

In Iowa’s case there is really one big, gigantic gaping thing that needs to be looked at from the Wisconsin game, and two minor things that are me just trying to nitpick. We will start with the small things first.