Iowa football: Hawks still have a shot at the CFB Playoffs

Yesterday’s loss might still be stinging, but this season isn’t over. The Iowa football team still has a chance at the College Football Playoffs.

If the wound of yesterday’s destruction is too much for you still, then please don’t read this article because you won’t be able to read it without yesterday’s bias. Yes, the loss was absolutely atrocious mostly because the Iowa football team’s offense picked a bad day to have it’s worst offensive performance in a decade.

But if you are one of those Iowa football fans who have accepted yesterday as reality, understood that these are young adults playing a game, and moved on, this might be the article for you because let me tell you, this season isn’t over.

It’s far from that. This is still a good football team despite what we saw yesterday. Teams have that, and Iowa football fans are well aware of Kirk Ferentz-led teams having that (just look at Purdue last year).

If the Hawks can rebound from yesterday’s performance and come out and kick Penn State’s butt this upcoming Saturday, this team is very much back in the mix of the College Football Playoff talk, and here’s how.

First, they’ve got to win out. That means taking care of Penn State this week, not losing the winnable games in the middle and then taking care of business in Madison versus Wisconsin, a team they haven’t beaten in quite some time.

Is that easy? Ha. No. But it isn’t impossible.

From there, it only gets harder because an 11-1 Iowa football team would then be heading to Indianapolis to likely take on the Ohio State Buckeyes, who have looked unstoppable through the early part of this season.

That being said, we’ve seen unstoppable Buckeye teams be beaten by Iowa football teams before. It can happen, and in a one-game, winner takes all situation, I have to believe the Hawks have the ability to be a spoiler to Ohio State’s playoff dreams.

If Iowa wins this game, they have to be under strong consideration for one of the College Football Playoff spots especially if Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan all finish strong this year. Yes, we want all of those teams to look good as we do Iowa State because this gives the committee the impression that Iowa is a worthy team that has beaten other worthy teams.

In year’s past, we’ve seen a one-loss Big Ten team skipped over (Ohio State last year), but this year, Notre Dame doesn’t appear to be a spoiler, and Clemson is looking a bit weaker than before (maybe they stumble). More so though, I think the SEC is losing a bit (a very slight bit but a bit) of the allure. Instead of going with two SEC teams (one likely having two losses), the committee could choose to go with a one-loss Big Ten team like Iowa.

Now, I’m jumping a bit ahead of myself certainly, but I just want to point out, even the grandest of goals this year are not completely lost. It will take a lot of work, a few solid bounces, and some convincing wins, but it’s doable.

So buck up Iowa football fans, the season is about to get a lot more interesting now as we see what this Hawkeye team is truly made of.