Bohnenkamp: Takeaways from Iowa-Illinois Game

Hawkeyes Fall to Illini in Champaign Saturday Night

Spencer Petras echoed all of Iowa’s frustration after Saturday’s 9-6 loss at Illinois.

“It sucks,” the Iowa quarterback said. “It sucks putting up six points.”

Iowa has held five of its six opponents to 10 points or less this season, and the Hawkeyes are 3-3 overall, 1-2 in the Big Ten.

“We just have to figure out a way here to muster up some points,” coach Kirk Ferentz said on his post-game radio show.

Iowa had 222 yards on 66 plays, an average gain of 3.4 yards per play. That doesn’t

It’s hard to call this defeat a low point, because it’s hard to distinguish the low points at this point of the season. The Hawkeyes head into their bye week at the halfway mark of the season with no answers.

A breakdown of some of the takeaways (hint: they’re all about the offense).

THE PENALTIES

Iowa was penalized eight times for 67 yards, and Ferentz had no complaint with the officiating.

“Today, the ones we got were valid calls,” he said. “There’s no argument there. Part of it is youth, part of it is just a little bit of sloppiness.”

With an offense that can’t get points, the last thing you need is fundamental imperfection, and the kind of penalties the Hawkeyes had in this game fall into that category.

“We don’t think it’s a matter of effort,” tight end Sam LaPorta said. “We think it’s a matter of execution. We’ve been hurting ourselves on offense — penalty yardage and negative plays — and we’ve got to clean that up during the bye week.”

THE FAILURE TO RUN

Iowa had 30 rushing attempts for 52 yards against one of the nation’s best run defenses.

Leshon Williams had seven carries for 32 yards. Kaleb Johnson had nine carries for 26 yards. Gavin Williams had four carries for four yards. Iowa got just three first downs on rushing plays.

“It’s a little tough when you can’t run the ball successfully,” Ferentz said. “I thought we had a chance to do that tonight, and it didn’t materialize.”

Ferentz knew it would be a struggle to run the ball.

“They made it tough,” he said. “All that being said, I thought we would run it better tonight. That was a little disappointing.”

THE FAILURE UP FRONT

Iowa’s offensive line had trouble containing the Illini all night.

Besides the poor rushing numbers, Petras was sacked five times. And Petras’ interception late in the game as the Hawkeyes were trying to rally came under a heavy rush in which linebacker Seth Coleman tipped the ball as Petras released it.

“We’re learning on the job, and we need to learn faster,” Ferentz said. “We’re going to have to. It showed today. Some of the younger guys, it was a little bit stressful for them. We knew they were a good defensive front. We knew that. I was hoping we would do a little better, quite frankly.”

PETRAS

The quarterback was 18-of-36 passing for 170 yards. He was visibly upset in his post-game press conference.

“I feel like a lot of it is self-inflicted,” he said. “It starts with me. We can’t keep doing this. So, it just sucks.”

He did show a good rhythm with LaPorta, who has been a favorite target throughout his career. LaPorta was targeted 16 times, with nine catches for 100 yards. Wide receiver Nico Ragaini was targeted 10 times, with seven catches for 46 yards.

STREAK SNAPPED

Illinois scored its first win over Iowa since 2008, snapping an eight-game Hawkeye winning streak in the series.

The 15 points were the lowest combined total in the series since Illinois’ 14-0 win in 1948.