The path for Iowa doesn’t get any easier to start out of the bye week. The Hawkeyes travel to take on No. 2 Ohio State.
Iowa owns the nation’s worst total offense and the Hawkeyes score just 14.7 points per game. Meanwhile, Ohio State boasts the nation’s No. 5 total defense, surrendering just 253.5 yards per game. Iowa’s offense averages less total offense per game than Ohio State’s defense gives up. The Buckeyes are No. 10 nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 15.67 points per game.
Suffice it to say that there’s no path to victory for the Hawkeyes that doesn’t include offensive improvement. During Iowa’s bye week, Iowa offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Ferentz was asked how he evaluates himself as an offensive play caller.
“How do I evaluate myself as a play caller? It’s pretty simple. Are we doing the three things that I mentioned at the beginning. Are we possessing, advancing, and scoring the football? I don’t think we’re doing any of those things very consistently right now, so how I would evaluate myself is I need to improve. I need to work on ways to get better. How do I help the guys do those things?
“How do I put us in positions to be successful and to advance the football without taking unnecessary risk, and then certainly we get down in the low red area, we need to score. We need to score touchdowns. We’re looking to score touchdowns. Certainly field goals are preferable to the alternative, but touchdowns are the goal. My evaluation, I need to do better. How do I find ways to make us more successful and improve as we move into the next six games?” Ferentz said.
Ferentz was also asked what tangible differences the offense can show out of the bye week and beyond. The reality is Iowa is looking at all options from a play call standpoint.
“Look, if the run game is not effective, if we are not being able to move the ball on early downs with the run game, can we find a way to do it with the passing…
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