Iowa's game against Troy did not go the way anyone expected it to go, and I'm sure no one thought the Hawkeyes would actually be losing 14-10 at halftime to the Trojans. The Hawkeyes were able to overcome the four-point deficit in the second half and beat Troy 38-21, but head coach Kirk Ferentz stated the obvious in his postgame press conference.
"We're going to enjoy this one, but obviously there's a lot to work to do," Ferentz said.
Duh.
Clearly, there is a lot to work on for Iowa because they were down going into halftime against Troy, who was 0-2 to start the season. There has to be some disagreement with Feretnz saying they are going to enjoy this game because other than a couple of plays in the second half, Iowa did not play well and needs to go back to the drawing board.
Iowa struggled yet again on offense for the third week in a row and at this point, it is probably safe to say this is how the offense is going to look for the rest of the season unless Ferentz is willing to make a change at quarterback.
Backup quarterback Brendan Sullivan did make an appearance on a few plays against Troy, but what is interesting is that Iowa's first two touchdowns came on plays when Sullivan was in the game. It seems like Sullivan was the one getting the goal-line snaps, leaving fans wondering if a change could be coming.
"This week when we were talking about those situations, we just thought maybe it would be good to have that in our pocket," Ferentz said. "How much we utilize it or not utilize it, we'll figure
that out as we go."
It doesn't seem like a change at the quarterback position is on the table right now, but that doesn't mean it won't happen sometime in the future.
Something that troubled Iowa fans against Troy was the fact that the defense gave up three big plays to the Trojans and all three plays resulted in a touchdown. Phil Parker's defenses are not known to give up big plays like that very often, let alone three times in a game.
"We're known for not giving up big plays, we're known for not doing that on special teams," Ferentz said. "We're going to have to get that addressed real quickly because it's going to be hard to win games moving forward doing that."
Iowa is going to have to get something figured out fast because they don't have any more non-conference games, now it is Big Ten play the rest of the way and it is going to be tough.