Public Service Announcement: now that Iowa is a future opponent, that means they can be added to Opponent Watch! We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious…Opponent Watch. Iowa is as frightening as many things in this world, most of them hilarious, and we need to know about it! Just sayin’.
Intro: What’s the German word for “genuinely and sincerely rooting for someone’s success, but also vindictively satisfied - in a way I’m more than a little ashamed of - when that certain someone learns a hard lesson about their skill set and the decisions they’ve made”? There MUST be a German word which encapsulates that specific emotion.
Intro: I try to differentiate between process and results: for instance, I can deal with losing to a significantly better team. Context matters. Michigan’s opponents lose to a significantly better team all the time. What I can’t deal with is fielding a poorly-prepared team, which is what Iowa is doing right now on offense. They don’t run routes well. They don’t block well. They drop passes at a pretty astounding rate.
Last week, we got a question: Has a power conference program ever seen such a drastic difference in offense and defense as Iowa? I already had this data set ready to go (yes, I’m a nerd), so let’s answer the question from a full-season Points Per Drive perspective, shall we?