Iowa football: Three reasons the Hawks can win remaining four games

Hawks are not hurting themselves with penalties

I realize penalties are not the most important aspect of a team being good or capable of winning four straight games, but it’s a core principle of the Iowa football team, and outside of the Michigan game, they’ve been pretty good at limiting penalties.

But it goes beyond penalties, it’s more or less the concept of limiting mental errors and mistakes.

And historically, the Iowa football team has been pretty good with that, and this season is no different (again, except for the Michigan game and the general interior offensive line play).

As of right now (before the week 10 games), the Hawks ranked 13th in the nation in penalties per game at 4.5. They are slightly worse on the road with 5.3.

Both Minnesota and Wisconsin rank in the top-10 though which makes penalties even more pivotal in both of those games. These teams don’t lose games because of penalties, and the Iowa football team is typically no different. Because they aren’t making these types of mistakes, they will not be putting themselves in bad situations, which is a huge piece to Kirk Ferentz’s game plan.