re: Will Iowa's offense be one of the best stories of the 2023 CFB season?

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In their combined meetings against OSU/Michigan from the last 2 years they gave up 42, 27, and 54 points for an average of 41/game.

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Take a look at what Iowas offense did to Iowas defense in the tOSU game.

1st Quarter Iowas offense ran 12 plays, gained 12 yards, and turned it over 3 times inside their own 35 and only trailed 16-7, even led the game briefly.

-1st play of game, INT at own 30. D held to FG. 3-0tOSU
-Next Iowa series - 3 and out, punt
-Iowa D forces strip sack fumble, returns for TD. 7-3 Iowa.
-Ohio state 75 yard drive. 10-7tOSU
-next Iowa series, fumble at own 30. D holds to FG. 13-7tOSU
-next iowa series, TO on downs @ own 30. D holds to FG. 16-7tOSU

Second quarter
-Iowa mounts 44yard FG drive. 16-10tOSU
-Iowa D forces punt
-Iowa goes 3 and out, punts to Iowa 32
-Iowa D holds to FG, 19-10tOSU
-Iowa throws pick six on 1st play of drive 26-10tOSU at halftime

Third Quarter
-iowa D picks off stroud in tOSU territory on opening play
-iowa proceeds to fumble the next snap
-iowa d returns to field, forces 3 and out, Ohio state punts
-iowa offense throws INT @ own 15 two plays later
-tOSU scores, 33-10
-iowa mounts 7 play, 22 yard drive, TO on downs at tOSU 45
-tOSU drives 55 yards for TD 40-10
-@end of 3rd, Iowa had surrendered just 208 yards.

When it was all said and done, Iowa offense committed 6 turnovers and 3 TO on downs—9 total, nearly all in own territory. The defense still kept it a two score game into the third quarter and gave Iowas offense the ball in Ohio state territory in the third quarter with a chance to cut it to a 1 score game. tOSU ended up 360 yards and were 3/13 on 3rd down.

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Only the most homerific UW fans think we really had the best D in the country. Just like only homer Iowa fans think they have the best D in the country. It's pretty decent. Not anywhere near the best.

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Iowa had a legit top 5 D this year. I agree they’re never the best, but they’re better than decent. A decent D paired with the 2022 offense would have yielded a 2 win team and that tOSU game would have been like 77-3.

The Iowa Wisconsin game this year was the first time a team won a big ten game with <150 yards offense since the 90s. And they won it 24-10, never trailed, and only had 2 drives over 20 yards with a long of 39.

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“Iowa was in no threat of losing that game.” Wut? Lol

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As fricked up as it sounds, they really weren’t. SDSU had 32 total yards in the second half. 120 total. Longest drive was 23 yards. There was no way SDSU was getting one over the top or breaking one.

Iowa was content punting it to them and pinning SDSU back deep over and over. They started 5 drives inside their 8. Their only points followed an 11 yard drive after an interception. Their QB was 10/26 and they averaged 1.1 YPC. After going up 5-3, Iowa attempted 5 passes in the final 20 minutes and even punted them the ball from the 37 instead of trying to go up a full TD with :45 remaining.

Iowa would have scored but fumbled at their 11 on a first down after driving.

I get it. I’m not saying it was 0% probability, but it was clear watching the game that they weren’t moving the length of the field on Iowa and Iowa would have to turn it over in their own territory. They had 32 total yards in second half.

Iowa went into a shell and protected the ball. They didn’t need points the last 20 minutes. The odds of Iowa making a mistake were really low. They all but quit throwing forward passes.

And there was no chance of a long TD. Iowa was sitting in base coverage in their zone D. They rarely give up long scores to anyone, let alone to a team that can’t move the ball on them.

Regardless of any pressure on the OC... your score is more likely than 56-7. It's just how Kirk Ferentz coaches football.