Iowa Football: 3 reasons to be frustrated with loss in Ann Arbor

How did Iowa only lose by 7?

Iowa football did not play Iowa football last Saturday.

The Hawkeyes couldn’t get the ground game going, gave up eight sacks, committed eight penalties, and lost the turnover battle 4-1.

If I told you that before the game, would you have guessed a 10-3 final score? I certainly wouldn’t have.

Therein lies my final reason for frustration. I made a very confident, perhaps arrogant statement about Iowa football before the game – that Iowa was a more talented football team than Michigan.

I still believe that maybe even more so than before the game. The Hawkeyes made about as many mistakes in about as many ways that any Iowa football team has made in a single game.

In virtually every other season where Iowa doesn’t play a perfect game on the road against a ranked team, Iowa loses by a lot more than seven points.

Michigan won a one-score game and let’s give them credit for that. But this game was not won by Michigan ‘out-talenting’ Iowa.

The very imperfect game yielding a one-score loss is indicative of how talented Iowa is this year.

I am not entirely biased. Iowa is not the most talented team in the Big Ten.

Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State all appear to have talent advantages to our Hawkeyes. Michigan State may also, though we don’t play them this year, so the point is moot.

Iowa cannot play like this against Wisconsin or Penn State (or Ohio State, if Iowa winds up winning the West).

Hopefully, the Hawkeyes get angry and use this loss to propel them back into the national conversation. This was a frustratingly winnable game, but this year’s Iowa football team has the talent to overcome this loss.