The Iowa football team fell yesterday to the Penn State Nittany Lions. Here are the three most disappointing performances from the loss.
Saturday did not end the way any Iowa football fans wanted it to. It was Iowa’s fifth straight loss to Penn State and just like last year, it was pretty soul crushing. The Hawks clearly had the talent to match up with a strong Nittany Lion team that had Ohio State on the ropes, but unfortunately on Saturday, they were their own worst enemy.
I wish I could blame it on the weather, but it didn’t appear to be the main issue. Nate Stanley appeared off for literally the entire game, the offensive game plan, for some reason, went away from Iowa’s two best weapons in tight end duo TJ Hockenson and Noah Fant, and the offensive line failed to stop a meager Penn State pass rush.
What’s worse is that Iowa played what I could consider their “C” game, and they were still in a position to win the game. Defensively, the team showed up ready to battle and the special teams did a great job of providing (or taking advantage of for that matter) momentum changing plays, but the offense hurt the team the entire day.
Any good play was followed by a bad one. A good play call was followed by a horrendous play call, and it didn’t appear like Iowa was learning from their mistakes. Despite running back Mekhi Sargent finding quite a bit of success running up the middle, the Hawks kept going for the outside runs resulting in loss of yards.
It wasn’t an enjoyable game to watch, and I for one, am very excited to move on and look ahead to next Saturday’s game against Purdue. Before we do that, here are the three most disappointing performances from yesterday’s game.