After a lifeless 7-point effort against Purdue two weeks ago, the question Iowa fans wanted to know after a bye was this: would things look any better on the offensive side of the ball after a week off to recuperate and recharge and extra time to gameplan?
The answer? Absolutely not.
Iowa followed up that miserable 7-point outing against Purdue with... an equally dismal 7-point display against Wisconsin today, en route to a 27-7 defeat to the Badgers, their seventh loss to Wisconsin the last nine games between the teams. And even that undersells how abysmal the Iowa offense was in the first half, when this game was truly lost.
Iowa's first half stats? 0 points, 1 first down, 17 yards, and a 20-0 deficit.
There's been no shortage of lousy halves of offensive football for Iowa during the Kirk Ferentz Era, but this performance might still be the very worst we've seen. Iowa could do nothing at all on offense? Run the ball? No. Pass the ball? Not a chance. On top of the futility of numbingly repetitive three-and-outs, Iowa also mixed in two lost fumbles (a strip-sack on Spencer Petras deep in Iowa's own territory and a fumbled handoff by Ivory Kelly-Marton when Iowa was backed up to their own end zone). (The special teams unit decided to get in on the fun and added their own fumble in the first half, too.)
The unifying element behind Iowa's offensive futility in the first half? The offensive line was a complete and utter tire fire. There were a few dropped passes, too, as well as some poor pocket presence from Petras, and some uninspired playcalling as well... but nothing on offense will work if the line can't block and in the first half, Iowa's line couldn't block a light breeze. Wisconsin's front seven basically lived in Iowa's backfield, making life miserable for Petras, Kelly-Martin, and Tyler Goodson, who rarely had any space to move before being met by a Badger defender. It's been a long time since we've seen an Iowa offensive line as bad as this year's unit -- and that's with All-American Tyler Linderbaum holding down the middle of the line. (We shudder to think how bad they might be without Linderbaum there.) Iowa's offensive line performance has traditionally improved over the course of the season (unless injuries prevented that), but this year's offensive line isn't getting better -- it might even be getting worse.
Credit is due to Wisconsin, of course -- they have an excellent defense and looked the part pretty much all day long (but especially in the first half). Their looks kept Iowa off-balance regularly and, as noted, they had no trouble generating pressure and smothering the running game. They were as advertised. But it surely doesn't hurt for them to get to against a unit like the Iowa offense that would almost make the Keystone Cops look competent.
The second half wasn't quite as grotesque for Iowa, though it was far from anything approaching "good." Iowa gained seven points, eight first downs, and 139 yards of offense in the second half -- hardly sizzling stuff. The lone touchdown came midway through the third quarter and was set up by -- what else? -- a short field generated by a three-and-out created by Iowa's defense and a good punt return by Charlie Jones. That score cut the Wisconsin lead to 20-7 and after the defense was able to force another three-and-out, the offense took the field again with a chance to cut the deficit to a one-score game for the first time since the first quarter. Iowa drove 24 yards on seven plays to the Wisconsin 40 before being faced with a 3rd-and-2 (and then a 4th-and-1) to keep the drive going and possibly make the fourth quarter of this game more interesting than it honestly deserved to be.
And then they called consecutive fullback dive plays.
They were not successful.
The second fullback dive run -- on 4th-and-1 -- was even preceded by a timeout call. Iowa had several minutes to think about it and decided that, yes, using the same play that wasn't successful on third down and running the ball directly into the teeth of a Badger defense that was selling out up the middle of the field was what they wanted to do. Again: it did not work.
Wisconsin took over on downs, shook off the offensive slumber they had been in for the entire third quarter and promptly drove 60 yards on 11 plays for their third and final touchdown of the game. 27-7 Wisconsin, game, set, match.
The Iowa defense was largely fine. Half of the 20 points they gave up in the first half were set up by extremely short fields. After an impressive goal line stand that kept the score at 10-0, the defense was betrayed by the offense when Kelly-Martin fumbled the ball two plays later. Wisconsin took over at the 1-yard line and -- shocker -- scored a touchdown. A few minutes later they added a field goal after Max Cooper's fumble on a punt return set them up at the Iowa 18-yard line.
Overall, the defense allowed 270 yards and just 3.9 yards per play. Wisconsin averaged just 3.5 yards per carry, though their 166 rushing yards did (obviously) dwarf Iowa's grand total of 24 rushing yards. (So, yes, the team that outrushed the other won this game for the 10th consecutive time.) About the only thing you could fault the defense for was not forcing a turnover. That's two straight games that Iowa has failed to force a turnover; it's also been two straight losses. Might not be a coincidence there.
The other silver lining for Iowa in this otherwise wholly forgettable game? Tory Taylor is still pretty damn good at punting. He had seven punts that averaged 49 yards per kick, with four of them going 50+ yards and three being downed inside the 20. (And a fourth just barely missed being fielded inside the 20.) We have no complaints about Tory, aside from the fact that it would probably be nice not to see him so much during the game? Turns out that punting the ball seven times is probably not a good sign for the offense.
According to their record (6-2) and the standings (3-2, tied with Wisconsin and a half-game back of first-place Minnesota as of this writing), Iowa is still very much alive in the Big Ten West race, though they no longer control their own destiny. But we can't look at this offense and think that Iowa is any sort of remotely serious challenger for the division. The offense is not just one of the worst in the Big Ten, it's one of the very worst in the entire nation. It is a tire fire that refuses to stop burning. It is horribly broken and the performance today offered no suggestion that anything was fixed or improved over the bye week.
The offensive gameplan today was woefully ineffective and any adjustments that were made were just as ineffective. The poor play of the offensive line lands partly at the feet of first-year offensive line coach George Barnett (what, exactly, are they doing during practice all week?), but most of the blame for this offense should fall at the feet of Brian Ferentz, the offensive coordinator whose gameplans and play calls the players are tasked with executing, and Kirk Ferentz, the head coach whose offensive philosophies shape everything Iowa does (or tries to do) on offense. They're overseeing one of the worst Iowa offenses of the last 30 years right now and there's no indication that they have any ability to fix it.
Unless the turnover train starts rolling again and Iowa is gifted with defensive scores or extremely short fields (or both!), this team is going to have to battle to beat any of their remaining four opponents this season. The rulebook is annoyingly clear that you have to outscore opponents in order to win games and right now Iowa's offense is so helpless that it would drown in a puddle.
