The Day After: The Takeaways From Iowa's Loss To Penn State

Where do the Hawkeyes go from here?

That was the biggest question after Saturday's 17-12 loss to Penn State at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa fell to 4-2 overall, 1-2 in the Big Ten, but stayed in the national rankings at No. 22 in the coaches poll and No. 23 in the Associated Press poll.

An undefeated start to the season has collapsed in back-to-back games against Michigan and Penn State, winnable games had the Hawkeyes put together any sort of offensive threat.

"It's a tough game for us," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "But we'll get back on our feet tomorrow. That's going to be the biggest challenge I think for our football team, get back on our feet, take a look at this, then we have to try to move on, see if we can't do some things next week to push forward, get back where we want to go."

Iowa has just one touchdown in the last eight quarters, and that came late in Saturday's game on a pass from Nate Stanley to Brandon Smith.

And that's where we'll start with this week's takeaways.

1. The Hawkeyes can't get into the red zone.

Looking back through the drive charts of the last two games, and you can see the immediate problem for the Hawkeyes.

They aren't getting inside of the opponents' 20-yard line.

They've only done it twice in the last two games, and came away with field goals both times.

In the second quarter of the 10-3 loss at Michigan, Iowa had first-and-goal at the Wolverines' 10-yard line. Two Toren Young runs netted six yards, then Stanley missed a fade pass to Oliver Martin in the left corner of the end zone.

In Saturday's game, Iowa had first-and-goal from the Penn State 4. Mekhi Sargent lost a yard on a run, then Stanley threw two incompletions.

To win games against the best teams, those drives have to end in touchdowns.

2. The Hawkeyes can't convert on third downs.

Iowa was 6-of-17 (35.2 percent) on third downs against Michigan, 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) against Penn State. The Hawkeyes were at 50 percent for the season, now down to 46.4 percent.

3. They need to get the running game going.

The three-back attack of Mekhi Sargent, Tyler Goodson and Toren Young has rushed 45 times for 142 yards in the last two games. That's an average of 3.2 yards per carry.

If anything, the Hawkeyes seem willing to get away from the running game earlier than they probably should. Which means...

4. Stanley is throwing too many passes.

Yes, some of this is determined by the game situation — the Hawkeyes have had to press the offense because they've been behind late.

"Last week wasn't a big surprise," Ferentz said. "Tonight we were trying to get points. We got ourselves in a position where we were trying to catch up on the score a little bit. But you do what you think is going to give you the best chance to move the ball and ultimately score points.

"I'm not too upset about that. We just got to do a little bit better."

5. Ferentz isn't panicking.

Ferentz was unhappy about Saturday's loss, but expressed confidence in his team.

"I think we have a good football team. We didn't play good enough this week or last week against two really good football teams. I think we have a good team, we'll get better, as long as we keep our attitude the way we need to.

"It was a tough challenge getting back up on our feet this week. The guys did that well, which goes right to our leadership I think, I'm confident they'll do that again. Really no magic formula to it. It's a matter of executing a little bit better, doing some things that are going to be helpful."

That was the message last week. It's a message the Hawkeyes have to get soon.