Iowa football: What went wrong against Penn State

Last night’s loss by the Iowa football team to Penn State was frustrating. Here is what went wrong in all phases of the game.

There are a lot of hot takes being thrown around on Twitter about what went wrong and after rewatching the game this morning, here is a summary of what I feel went wrong with the Iowa football team last night in their loss to Penn State.

Guard play was atrocious

This was a huge weakness as it killed the run game and it allowed significant pressure on Nate Stanley throughout the contest. Robert Windsor had no sacks coming into this game and left with 2.5 sacks. And these sacks didn’t just come when there were blitzes. No, this was just a standard four-man rush where our guards got beat.

Last year, our run game struggled because of the interior offensive line and a similar issue appears to be taking effect now especially with Banwart now out for the year.

Wide receiver drops are killing the Hawks

There were two key drops on third down by the Iowa football team. One on Tyrone Tracy Jr and one on Tyler Goodson. These drops ended two different drives. Drops will happen, but I’m starting to notice a trend of some of the younger guys letting a ball or two slip past them each game.

Nate Stanley’s accuracy continues to kill

Remember when the Iowa football team had the ball in the red zone and came away with just three points? Well, had Nate Stanley not thrown a slant completely behind Brandon Smith, we could be talking about a completely different story this morning. Nate Stanley’s accuracy has always been a big weakness, but it didn’t seem to be much of an issue earlier in the season. Now though, it’s costing the Hawks opportunities and points.

Hawks couldn’t win the field position battle

The Iowa football team prides itself on playing great defense, running the ball, and winning the field position battle. They’ve only been playing great defense and the other two keys have fallen to the wayside. Not only is Iowa getting opposing team’s best from a special teams perspective, but our own punter Michael Sleep-Dalton is beginning to look a lot more like Colten Rastetter than we would like to admit. Last night, he had a punt for 11 yards.

Yes, you read that right, 11 yards. Iowa’s defense is being required to shut down teams on a short field meanwhile their offense is consistently having to march 80 to 90 yards down the field. We can’t win games like this.

Phil Parker was slow to switch to a better suited defensive scheme

How does anyone think Nick Niemann should be covering KJ Hamler? He shouldn’t, and it hurt the Iowa football team last night.

Despite having most guys back that would allow Phil Parker to play a 4-2-5, it took nearly half of the game to see it show up. Hamler had already done his damage by that point taking a 22-yard reception to the house for a touchdown on coverage by Niemann.

Brian Ferentz’s struggles continue

Brian Ferentz can’t control Nate Stanley’s accuracy, and he can’t control his guards forgetting how to block, but his play calling has also been suspect. Iowa continues to struggle on anything and short unless it’s third and one and Nate Stanley rushes forward, and the Hawks failed to convert an opportunity five yards from the endzone into a touchdown.

This offense is bad and it starts with the guy running the show.

While it’s easy to place the blame on just one thing, it ultimately was still a team effort in all three phases to lose a close game at home to Penn State. With Purdue next on the docket, the Iowa football team better begin fixing some of the items above or it could be quite a rough patch for the Hawkeye faithful.