Iowa football: How can Hawks improve after shootout victory over Gophers?

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - OCTOBER 06: The Iowa Hawkeyes hoist the Floyd of Rosedale trophy after defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the game on October 6, 2018 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Iowa defeated Minnesota 48-31. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - OCTOBER 06: The Iowa Hawkeyes hoist the Floyd of Rosedale trophy after defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the game on October 6, 2018 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Iowa defeated Minnesota 48-31. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 06: The Iowa Hawkeyes hoist the Floyd of Rosedale trophy after defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the game on October 6, 2018 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Iowa defeated Minnesota 48-31. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 06: The Iowa Hawkeyes hoist the Floyd of Rosedale trophy after defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the game on October 6, 2018 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Iowa defeated Minnesota 48-31. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

The Iowa football team secured the win Saturday 48-31, but it wasn’t a flawless game by any means. Here are the three areas that need to improve.

First and foremost, the Hawks won Saturday, so the number one goal was accomplished. How they won though wasn’t exactly in line with how the Iowa football program typically wins games. There were a few glaring issues that need to be resolved as Iowa continues its Big Ten conference gauntlet which includes three away games out of the next four.

One of those away games is against top-ranked Penn State who barely lost to Ohio State, which is widely considered the best team in the Big Ten this year and a serious contender for the College Football Playoff.

There are, however, still two games to clean up some items before the Iowa football teams heads to Happy Valley to play a potentially high-stakes game with the season on the line. Next weekend, Iowa takes on Indiana in Indiana before facing Maryland at home for homecoming.

It’s also worth noting that Iowa has been getting hit by the injury bug on defense, and while there are a few items that could definitely use improvement, I’ll cut them slack this weekend.

With that said, here are the top three areas that need to be improved after the Minnesota victory.