In retrospect, we could have expected that Iowa would struggle at Indiana today, given their struggle earlier this season at Syracuse. In any event, it's a bad loss for a team that wants to be considered at least near-elite, and has been from 2002 on.
There were three huge offensive mistakes in the second half that greatly contributed to Indiana's turning a 21-7 first half deficit into a 31-28 win.
- On Iowa's first second half drive, which started on the Iowa 4, Damian Sims fumbled inside the red zone. It was his third fumble in three games. Maybe that's a main reason why Albert Young has been the feature back when healthy the past season-and-a-half, despite Sims's big play ability.
- On Iowa's second to last drive of the game, offensive lineman Mike Jones was charged with a dead ball personal foul, killing a drive at midfield.
- And finally, Iowa's last possession, which should have been the game winning drive, ended with an interception when a Drew Tate pass was missed by receiver Andy Brodell into the arms of an Indiana safety. Tate gets charged with the interception, but it wasn't his fault.
As I said, these three mistakes were huge, but two other matters bear mentioning. First, Kyle Schlicher, normally dependable, missed his two field goal attempts (51 and 34 yards). The 34-yard miss was his first miss inside 50 yards this year.
Second, Indiana freshman quarterback Kellen Lewis entered the game just about as more of a running threat than a passing threat and ended up shredding the Iowa secondary with his arm. Lewis (pictured above) entered today having completed just 50% of his passes for 5.9 yards per attempt. Today, he went 19-25 (76%) and 10.2 yards per attempt, without an interception. Indiana also rushed for 153 yards.
Iowa was without two defensive starters today -- safety Marcus Paschal and defensive tackle Mitch King -- but it's clear that Iowa's defense this season is nowhere near what it has been the previous five.
Iowa's offense, on the other hand, did rack up 467 yards today. But as the Gazette's Mike Hlas said on the post-game show, "every play counts."
Iowa goes to Michigan next week a humbled team.
