Iowa Football: 3 takeaways from loss to Penn State

In one of the weirder Big Ten games you will ever see, Penn State was able to outlast Iowa football in a war of attrition. Here’s what we learned.

It’s tough to win in the Big Ten Conference, and it is even tougher to win on the road against another ranked opponent. Iowa (6-2) found that out the hard way as they saw their early 12-0, yes, Twelve to zero lead slip away from them in the second half. In the end Penn State (6-2) ended up making a few more plays than Iowa at the end of the game. Iowa’s offense seemingly struggled all to get anything going all game long, and Penn State wasn’t much better.

While this loss does kill the hopes any Iowa fan had of making the College Football Playoff, the Hawkeyes are still in prime position to make a run for Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship Game as Northwestern knocked off a struggling Wisconsin team and Michigan State upended a hot Purdue team in East Lansing. Northwestern currently leads the Big Ten West with a 5-1 conference record, however the Wildcats travel to Kinnick Stadium in two weeks to face off with Iowa.

As for Penn State, their hopes of at least making the Big Ten Championship Game are still on life support as they need to beat Michigan and hope the Wolverines lose another game down the road and hope Ohio State loses another game, preferably Michigan if the Nittany Lions want to sneak into the championship game.

But without further adieu, here are the big takeaways from Saturday’s slugfest.