Iowa football: Three things that went wrong vs Purdue Boilermakers

Special teams mistakes cost Iowa dearly

Let me be first to say that this wasn’t a huge issue, but it definitely didn’t help. Most people may point to Kirk’s decision to go for two points twice in this game, but those same people were probably jumping up and down when Iowa has scored twice on fake field goals this season. You have to be willing to embrace the bad in those situations. It’s a risk for a reason, and sometimes the risk doesn’t pay off.

Either don’t get excited and love Kirk when he risks it or don’t act like Kirk is an idiot for going for two twice. He made two football decisions.

The first two-point conversion would have put the game to just a three-point deficit. The second two-point conversion would have put Iowa in the lead by three points. Ultimately those two failed conversions were the difference as two extra points would have given Iowa the cushion they needed for that last second field goal that Purdue kicked.

Hindsight is always 20/20. With that said, those two special teams mistakes were costly and did hurt Iowa.

Additionally, the punting game was woeful. Colton Rastetter only averaged 35 yards per punt on five punt attempts. Some of that was by design. The shorter kicks towards the sidelines put dangerous return man Rondale Moore in a position where he couldn’t advance the ball. However, he also didn’t flip the field hardly at all. There were multiple opportunities to back Purdue up against their end zone, and he failed to do so.

Furthermore, on his fourth punt attempt, with Iowa down five points and punting from his own 11-yard line, Rastetter kicked a line drive to Moore who returned the ball to the Iowa 18-yard line. Purdue would score a touchdown six players later to make it a two-score ball game.

Again, on his fifth punt attempt, with an opportunity to flip field position, Rastetter, punting from his own 19-yard line only kicked the ball 31 yards giving Purdue the ball on the 50-yard line. We all know how that ended.

Against Northwestern, Iowa will need to be willing to pull the plug on their youth movement and they need to tighten up their punting game in a game that will show whether Iowa is still going to play hard or limp to the finish line.