Iowa suffered a dispiriting 12-10 loss to Minnesota on Saturday, losing possession of Floyd of Rosedale for the first time in eight years and seeing Gopher celebrations on the Kinnick Stadium turf for the first time in 24 years. So what are some of the biggest takeaways from that defeat, as Iowa heads into a much-needed bye week?

I don't have anything new to add about Cooper DeJean's disallowed punt return touchdown that wasn't already said on the new episode of the HawkCast podcast or by Adam in this post. But obviously that play has to be acknowledged; it was the biggest play of the game -- and the season -- for Iowa.

It seems obvious, but it's worth reiterating: the defense did enough to enable Iowa to win this game. In fact, this was one of Iowa's best efforts of the seasons, statistically.

Iowa held Minnesota to 239 total yards (tied with the Western Michigan game for the fewest allowed) and just 3.4 yards per play (the fewest Iowa has allowed this season). 12 points allowed, 239 yards, 3.4 yards per play -- these ought to be winning numbers for the Iowa defense.

Two of Iowa's three turnovers occurred in Hawkeye territory, yet led to just three points for Minnesota. Minnesota took over on the Iowa 32 after the first fumble recovery, but gained only seven yards in three plays and missed the ensuing 43-yard field goal.

The Hawkeye defense’s performance was arguably more impressive after Iowa’s second fumble. The Gophers took over on the Iowa 11 after the second fumble, and the defense allowed just one yard — its reward an easy field goal attempt for Minnesota, who converted the 28-yard try.

This is the third game that Iowa has lost since the start of the 2022 season despite allowing 12 points or fewer (joining the 9-6 loss to Illinois and the 10-7 loss to Iowa State from last season).

Not to belabor the obvious, but teams should not lose a game in which the defense allows fewer than 13 points — but that becomes a significant risk when the offense fails so regularly.

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All the gains made by the Iowa running game against Purdue (208 yards by running backs, 6.9 ypc, 1 touchdown) and Wisconsin (209 yards by running backs, 5.0 ypc, 1 touchdown) disappeared against Minnesota. Kaleb Johnson ran for 18 yards on six carries. Leshon Williams ran for 13 yards on 11 carries. (Nine of his carries went for 22 yards, but he also had two carries that lost a total of nine yards.)

Iowa's longest run of the game was a 7-yard gain by Deacon Hill on a QB sneak in the fourth quarter.

The only comparable performance this season for Iowa's running game came against Penn State, in which Iowa running backs were held to 27 yards on 12 carries. Some notable caveats apply to that comparison, though -- against PSU, the Hawkeyes were relying on a true freshman to help shoulder the load (Kamari Moulton had six carries for 19 yards). They were also facing a strong run defense -- PSU currently ranks 4th nationally in rushing yards allowed per game (73.4), as well as 3rd nationally in yards per carry allowed (2.3).

Against Minnesota, Iowa had its top two running backs available and healthy; it didn't seem to matter, as neither had any success cracking the Gopher defense. That Gopher defense ranks a merely-decent 36th nationally in rushing yards allowed per game (119.7), and 59th in yards per carry allowed (3.9). Minnesota bullied Iowa at the point of attack and smothered Iowa around the line of scrimmage.

The run game has been the only marginally successful aspect of the Iowa offense in 2023; removing it from the equation left Iowa bereft of any way to maintain possession, gain first downs, or score points. Getting the running game back on track must be a top priority for the offense during the upcoming bye week.

The good news: wide receivers caught 9 of Deacon Hill's 10 completed passes on Saturday. That is a season-high for Iowa, topping the previous season-high of six against Michigan State.

The bad news: Those nine receptions went for just 105 yards. Iowa completed just two passes to receivers in the second half (and just three passes total).

There were a few signs of passing game life on Iowa's first drive of the game; Hill went 3/6 for 64 yards on that drive, with all of the receptions going to receivers. He opened the game with a sharp 18-yard completion to Diante Vines and connected with Vines again for an impressive 36-yard completion down the sideline. The good vibes in the passing game completely disappeared after that; Hill went 7/22 the rest of the game, with his longest completions being a pair of 11-yard passes to Nico Ragaini and Addison Ostrenga.

Eight games into the season and no Iowa wide receiver has more than 14 receptions (Ragaini) or 125 yards (Vines) -- for the entire season. Transfer portal additions Seth Anderson and Kaleb Brown have combined for seven receptions for 94 yards and one touchdown this season.

Luke Lachey has not played in a game since injuring his leg in Week 3 against Western Michigan -- and he still ranks second on the team in receiving yards (131) and tied for third in receptions (10). That Lachey has not played in over five games and still ranks second or third in key receiving categories is a damning indictment of the Iowa passing game.

Iowa ranks 131st in passing yards per game (116.5 ypg), ahead of only Navy and Air Force, triple-option teams that have combined to throw the ball 50 times fewer than Iowa this season. Iowa's completion percentage of 44.1% ranks dead last in the NCAA (133rd) and the Hawkeyes rank second-from-last in yards per attempt (5.0) and QB rating (89.9).

To the (very) limited extent that Iowa's offense has been working this season, it's primarily been through the ability to hit on big plays. Iowa ranks 4th in the Big Ten in plays of 30+ yards (13); if you can't move the ball consistently, then you need to be able to hit a few chunk plays to cover a lot of yardage in one play.

Iowa had been able to do that just enough in many games this season to either set up scoring plays or score directly on chunk plays (like Leshon Williams' 82-yard touchdown run against Wisconsin). Against Minnesota, Iowa had two offensive plays longer than 11 yards: an 18-yard completion to Diante Vines on the first play of the game and a 36-yard completion to Vines six plays later. Iowa did indeed score on that drive, settling for a 23-yard Drew Stevens field goal.

The Hawkeyes were unable to hit any plays longer than 11 yards in the remaining 3.5 quarters. That is, unless you want to count the big yardage penalties that Iowa benefited from on their only touchdown drive of the game. Iowa's second quarter touchdown drive began on the Minnesota 46 after a poor Minnesota punt; only 13 of the 46 yards on that drive were gained via successful offensive plays. The other 33 yards of the drive came via Minnesota penalties, most prominently a 15-yard personal foul facemask penalty and a 15-yard pass interference penalty.

That inability to hit on big plays left Iowa reliant on moving the ball through small, methodical gains... which, again, is not something this offense has proven capable of doing. Predictably, the Hawkeyes were not able to move the ball in that fashion, resulting in punts on 9 of their 13 remaining drives and seven three-and-outs.

Iowa needed so little offense to win this game. One more field goal likely would have been enough to get a victory. At the end of the game, even after the drama from DeJean's miraculous punt return touchdown (and the officials' subsequent overturn), Iowa had a first down on their own 46-yard line with 1:32 to play. Per Kirk Ferentz after the game, the Hawkeyes needed to gain just 20 yards to give Drew Stevens a reasonable field goal opportunity. Even that meager amount -- 20 yards -- was beyond the capability of the Iowa offense.

The disparity between the defense (and special teams) and offense within the Iowa team is as stark as it could possibly be. The Iowa defense and special teams are strong enough to enable Iowa to compete in virtually every game. But the Iowa offense is poor enough to ensure that every game is a potential loss as well.