Iowa football

Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras throws a pass during a football game between Iowa and Illinois at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill., on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022 ...

On the Hawkeyes’ last drive of the first half, Stevens missed a 45-yard attempt with 12 seconds left on the clock. But allowing three fourth-down conversions — two in the same drive — certainly impacts a game. The drive that started at the 33 ended with a Tory Taylor punt to the Illinois 14-yard line. The senior quarterback was picked off on a second-and-3 from his own 47-yard line. The first of those possessions ended via a Spencer Petras interception. Drew Stevens finished the Hawkeyes drive that began at the 5-yard line with a 27-yard field goal.

I had to settle down a crying, overtired baby last night. Still preferable to watching Iowa's offense.

The defense was tasked time and time again to put out the fire and they did every time. But instead of doing what’s best for us and adapting to new circumstances we’re just going to fuss, spit up on ourselves, and do things the hard way. This game was the perfect encapsulation of the failures and shortcomings of Iowa’s offense. Every damn time there was a glimmer of hope in this game that the offensive line, Petras, Brian, or Kirk or any combination of those four could pull some shambling facsimile of a functioning offense together, the entire thing blew up in their face like a Wile E. They’d give the odd scare here and there, but it was never a game that you seriously dreaded. This was Illinois’ first victory in the series since 2008, and only their third in this millennium.

Here's everything Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said after the Hawkeyes' frustrating 9-6 loss at Illinois.

We’ll just try to reassess and see what we can do and try to get them to play a little smarter. We’ll see what we can do to improve things and do what we can do coaching. As coaches, we have to do better to try to help them and we’ll try to move forward. Missed a couple throws and that’s probably going to be every quarterback every game. I mean, I think we have a good plan right now in working the younger guys a little bit more than the older guys. We’re going to have to shore up whatever weaknesses we have and see what we can do. Obviously their guy did a good job getting up the field and containing,” Ferentz said. They already know in the offseason who’s going to be good and who isn’t. We had a player on the field, too, so I guess we got two of them on the same play. It looked like he got him more in the chest area, so, they called a personal foul and that’s probably appropriate,” Ferentz said. We’ll head into a bye week 3-3 and just reassess things and try to take advantage of that and get ready for the second part of the season,” Ferentz said. It’s a team thing and right now we’re certainly more experienced on the defensive side and that’s showing.

What does the report card look like for Iowa following the Hawkeyes' 9-6 setback at Illinois? Let's take a peek.

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I know in the past five games, the Illinois defense has been great. But on Saturday night, this defensive performance was one for the ages. Illinois could have ...

Out of these two drives, the Hawkeyes only scored three points. Holding any team to six points is a great feat, but Iowa had back-to-back drives in the first half where they started at the Illinois 35-yard line and the Illinois 5-yard line. The fact Iowa only scored six points is incredible. [Tommy DeVito](https://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/illini/what-we-know-about-illinois-quarterback-tommy-devitos-injury-vs-iowa-football/article_1a8f4c78-5c76-5fcc-a2e5-8da1eff15094.html) in the second drive. Illinois being able to stop Iowa’s passing attack wasn’t the most impressive thing on the night, though. [Illini](http://www.writingillini.com) would turn the ball over three times, our quarterback would get hurt on the second drive, and Iowa would start multiple drives inside of Illinois territory.

The Hawkeyes suffered a 9-6 loss to the Fighting Illini and finished the game with just 222 yards. With OC Brian Ferentz's seat getting scorching hot, his dad ...

Things might get real ugly for Iowa by the time the year ends. The Hawkeyes are averaging just 14.6 points a game. Iowa’s offense isn’t just bad. With OC Brian Ferentz’s The Hawkeyes suffered a 9-6 loss to the Fighting Illini and finished the game with just 222 yards. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz wasn’t in the mood to discuss the team’s offense after a Saturday loss to Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Quarterback Spencer Petras saw “a lot of self-inflicted” mistakes by the offense in Iowa football's 9-6 loss to Illinois.

[John Steppe](https://www.thegazette.com/john-steppe/) [Iowa Football](https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-football/) Oct. 9, 2022 9:04 am10h ago [Mike Hlas](https://www.thegazette.com/mike-hlas/) [Iowa Football](https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-football/) Oct. 9, 2022 1:13 am18h ago [Iowa Football](https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-football/) Oct. 9, 2022 11:32 am8h ago [Iowa State Football](https://www.thegazette.com/cyclone-football/) Oct. 8, 2022 4:57 pm1d ago [Iowa Football](https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-football/) Oct. Bryant forced Ragaini to run farther behind the line of scrimmage. Another costly example came in the final minute of the second quarter. More predictable calls on early downs do not help the Hawkeyes’ trend of having to dig out of third-and-long holes. When counting a replayed second down because of an offensive penalty, that goes up to seven of nine occasions. The one pass was on a second-and-22. Gavin Williams never turned around on a third-and-4 in the second quarter when Petras threw to him. A first-and-goal pass from Petras to running back Leshon Williams bounced on the ground two yards short of where Williams was.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz says he and the staff are working on offensive solutions, but the Hawkeyes probably aren't.

“We’ll just try to reassess and see what we can do and try to get them to play a little smarter. It’s a team thing and right now we’re certainly more experienced on the defensive side and that’s showing. As coaches, we have to do better to try to help them and we’ll try to move forward. And don’t expect to see a different quarterback get a look either. Missed a couple throws and that’s probably going to be every quarterback every game. Obviously their guy did a good job getting up the field and containing,” Ferentz said of the reverse that blew up in Iowa’s face. After a pair of completions to wide receiver Nico Ragaini and tight end Sam LaPorta of 15 and 32 yards in the first half’s final minute drove Iowa from its own 35-yard line to the Illinois 18, the Hawkeyes inexplicably tried a reverse that lost nine yards to Ragaini and ultimately led to a 45-yard field goal miss from Stevens. We’ll head into a bye week 3-3 and just reassess things and try to take advantage of that and get ready for the second part of the season,” Ferentz said. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, but…so, I look at that, and we’ve won a lot of games since 2015. The first was a forced fumble by defensive back Riley Moss that Seth Benson recovered to set Iowa up at the Illinois 5-yard line. The defense allowed just the three field goals on 12 Illini drives, forcing six punts and coming away with a pair of turnovers. The Illini grabbed their first win over Iowa since 2008 and the first in the last nine meetings.

Well, we've hit an interesting point of the season for Iowa football. Entering the year, the Hawkeyes were expected to be near the top of the Big Ten West.

After falling on the road at Illinois on Saturday, the Iowa Hawkeyes enter a bye week before they head to Columbus to take on a top-five team in Ohio State.