Iowa Football's Biggest Offensive Question in Week 2 is a Kirk Ferentz Special

Week 1 gave the Iowa Hawkeyes their first look at the quarterback situation between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski.

Hank Brown looked sharp and had the better stats, but the box score is only part of the story. Jeremy Hecklinski's numbers were hurt by drops, and the quarterback battle remains closer than meets the eye.

While both sit atop the depth chart as the top quarterback, it brings a question into play for the Week 2 showdown versus Iowa State: can Iowa be even better on offense?

A big part of that answer rests in the philosophy of head coach Kirk Ferentz, which is to make the simple plays and avoid the self-inflicted mistakes - two things his teams have been exceptional at throughout his tenure at Iowa.

What would it look like for Iowa to be better on offense?

It's more and deeper than simply scoring points and yards. That's obviously the biggest chunk, but for Iowa, a team rooted in discipline and making the easy plays look easy, there is plenty of room to grow.

Would you believe me if I told you Iowa left an easy 21 points on the board last weekend? It's true. And it came from missing the easy throws in the passing game.

If you recall, Iowa had DJ Vonnahme and Tony Diaz, twice, streaking open down the right side of the play, and missed them each time.

On two of the misses, the throws were put over the outside shoulder of the receiver, making them flip their head around, battle the sun, relocate the ball, and try to make an unorthodox catch. Those misses are fine against Northern Illinois, but those points left on the board are critical against better teams.

Where can Iowa improve on offense?

The run game is no issue. That part of the offense is going to run itself like a well-oiled machine. The passing game is where this unit can continue to grow.

While it felt more explosive, Iowa completed just 19-of-36 passes when Hecklinski and Brown were in the game. Completing 52.7% of your passes isn't going to get the job done.

If you fix even two of those throws, the day nears the 60% completion mark, adds on two more scores, and the national narrative is around Iowa having a passing attack.

Iowa has to stop hurting itself

Iowa, a team known for avoiding penalties, also had some rust here. Iowa had three false starts and an offensive pass interference, totaling 25 penalty yards.

For an offense that is predicated on being ahead of the sticks, these are drive killers that force Iowa into uncomfortable down-and-distance situations.

All three false starts were in Northern Illinois territory, as well. One came when Iowa was knocking on the door at the one-yard line, while the other two made a field goal attempt longer.

Iowa went on to score a touchdown after a pass interference call bailed them out, but missed a field goal immediately following the other two penalties. The offensive pass interference also forced Iowa to kick a field goal.

On the surface, Iowa's offense looked fantastic. It scored 40 points. It ran for almost 300 yards. The passing game had some chunk plays. That was all great.

But Iowa was supposed to do that regardless. It's not an unrealistic world where Iowa left at least 20 points on the board by self-inflicted misses on errant throws on easy passes and pre-snap mistakes.

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