It’s hard to miss the theme from Iowa’s loss to Ohio State: too many self-inflicted hits, not enough answers when the game tightened up.
The numbers tell part of the story, but not all of it. Iowa’s offense never found the balance it had been chasing, and the running game, which was supposed to be the steadying force, never really got rolling.
Against Iowa State, Iowa managed 93 rushing yards and 191 passing yards. Against Michigan, it was 58 rushing yards and 227 passing yards.
Against Ohio State, the Hawkeyes were held to 39 rushing yards and 199 passing yards.
That’s especially frustrating because this was supposed to be the year Tim Lester’s offense took a real step forward. The ingredients looked promising.
Reece Vander Zee was healthy again. Tony Diaz and Evan James arrived through the transfer portal.
DJ Vonnahme emerged as a young freshman player in 2025. Addison Ostrenga returned from a season-ending injury.
Other receiving options were back too, giving Iowa depth at wide receiver and tight end. And for the first time since Lester arrived, the Hawkeyes were not breaking in a quarterback who was brand new to the team and the system.
With the Shanahan system in its third year, the expectation was that Lester could build on what was already in place.
Instead, the run game has been the part that slipped.
That’s what makes Saturday sting. Even when Ohio State wasn’t crowding the box, Iowa struggled to handle the defensive line and prevent penetration.
The issue showed up most clearly when Iowa tried to slant toward its tackles and Ohio State came through quickly up the middle. Kamari Moulton’s best run of the day went for 8 yards late in the second half, and LJ Phillips followed shortly after with an 11-yard run on the same drive.
Both came on power runs through the middle - exactly the kind of one-two punch Iowa had hoped to see from those backs at the start of the season.
Iowa still needs that identity. Power running, personnel packages that wear teams down, and a passing game efficient enough to complement it. That’s the formula the Hawkeyes have been searching for.
What made the loss even harder to absorb was how much of it Iowa handed away.
Penalties showed up at the worst possible times. Turnovers hurt.
The opening kickoff of the second half went out of bounds. It was a familiar stack of mistakes, and one that left Iowa chasing the game instead of controlling it.
Confidence and focus matter in moments like this, and the margin gets thinner if Iowa is ever in a setting where the pressure rises even higher than it did against Ohio State.
There were bright spots on defense, at least early. Julian Sayin had plenty of time to throw during Ohio State’s first three series, which gave Jeremiah Smith and Devin McCuin room to work free.
Then Iowa started to create some pressure on the Buckeyes’ fourth possession of the second quarter. The edges got involved, and Cam Buffington helped force Sayin into trouble at middle linebacker.
Sayin was in the act of being sacked when he fumbled, though Ohio State recovered. On the next snap, Iowa blitzed again, hurried Sayin’s throw, and forced an incompletion.
It was the first punt of the game for Ohio State, and for a moment it looked like Iowa had found something.
That pressure didn’t carry over often enough after that.
Still, there were defenders who stayed active throughout the game. Jayden Montgomery, Zach Lutmer, Deshaun Lee, and Jaylen Watson all stood out at different points.
But Lutmer and Lee both left in the third quarter with injuries and did not return. Kirk Ferentz said after the game that both players were dealing with cramping, and once they were out, Iowa’s secondary had a much harder time dealing with Jeremiah Smith.
Special teams, meanwhile, did its job. Boston Everitt gave Iowa a field-position edge again, just as he has all season.
His first punt traveled 50 yards and was downed at the 2-yard line. His second was downed at the 16.
On the season, Everitt has 9 of 13 punts downed inside the 20, good for 69 percent, and his longest punt has gone 58 yards. By comparison, Rhys Dakin, who followed LeVar Woods to Michigan State after last season, has 4 of 12 punts inside the 20 for 33 percent.
There was even a little off-field change in the mix. Jeremy “Heck” Hecklinski showed up with a new haircut for the Ohio State game, and when asked about it afterward, he said he wanted a “fresh start” moving forward.
Iowa could use one. The next chance comes Friday against Washington, and the running game feels like the obvious place to start. The false starts up front need cleaning up too.
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Jeremy Hecklinski also stays in the conversation after stepping in and handling himself well when Brown went down, giving Iowa an alternate option if the situation shifts before kickoff. Behind them, Kamari Moulton is listed as the lead back, with other running backs expected to share the workload, which suggests the Hawkeyes may lean on a committee approach in the backfield while waiting to see how their quarterback situation sorts itself out. [Read more 🡒]