Full disclosure: I am an Iowa coaching staff apologist (I think they do a great job), and a coach apologist in general (it is a really hard job, try it sometime). That said, Iowa moved the ball well all day on offense and when they did have issues, it was usually execution problems, not schematic problems. Take a look at their drives.
Red-zone drives:
1. Iowa moves the ball to Indiana 12
1st and 10 from the 12 - fade, open but overthrown
2nd and 10 from the 12 - pass complete for 6
3rd and 4 from the 6 - fade, DJK did not get open
FG
Iowa thought they could exploit the fade, and they could have with a perfect throw on the 1st play. Hard to argue with 2nd and 3rd down calls. Although some think the quick slant is the solution to every short yardage/goal-line situation, sometimes the D takes it away.
2. Iowa moves the ball to the Indiana 9.
1st and goal from the 9 - Indiana blitzes, Iowa tries quick pass, incomplete. Based upon defensive play call, a run almost certainly goes for no gain/loss.
2nd and goal from the 9 - rush, loss of 1.
3rd and goal from the 10 - incomplete pass.
FG
Not sure what else coaches could have done on this one other than "picked a play that works" (stupid coaches, that should have been obvious).
3. Iowa moves the ball to the Indiana 6.
1st and goal from the 6 - rush, 1 yard
2nd and goal from the 5 - PA pass, 1 yard (nice tackle by IU in open field)
3rd and goal from the 4 - well designed routes on roll out, Sandeman open, Stanzi pass not perfect but hits him squarely in both hands, dropped.
missed FG.
Coaches do not do the throwing and catching, hard to hang this one on them.
4. Iowa moves the ball to the Indiana 9
1st and goal from the 9 - rush, 2 yards
2nd and goal from the 7 - nothing has worked so far, so they shake things up. Unbalanced right, flood right side of field with 4 receivers, doesn't work, incomplete.
3rd and goal from the 7 - Delay, partly coaches fault, partly Stanzi's fault
3rd and goal from the 12 - False start, partly coaches fault because again the team was scrambling to the line with the play clock winding down, partly player's fault
3rd and goal from the 17 - pass complete to Morse for 8 yards
FG
The coaches screwed up on this one, no excuses. For those complaining about 3rd down play call, not sure what else you want, a throw to the end-zone is more likely to end up bad than good, and Iowa got points.
5. Iowa moves the ball to Indiana's 20.
2nd and 6 from the 20 - False start
2nd and 11 from the 25 - rush, no gain
3rd and 11 from the 25 - incomplete
FG
Penalty took Iowa out of rhythm, they tried to re-establish normalcy with a 2nd down run, did not execute, could not convert a difficult 3rd and long. Again, they got points.
Now look at their non-redzone drives:
1. Moved the ball 17 yards, interception on 1st and 10, apparently a receiver ran a wrong route.
2. Chance to get points before the half, holding penalty botches drive.
3. Moves the ball 39 yards in the 3rd quarter, came up 1 yard short on 3rd and 11 (Stanzi sack took them out rhythm and put them in 3rd and long).
4. They had one 3 and out, spanning the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th quarters. 3 passes. Probably could have tried running the ball, but I thought Coker was pretty obviously gassed in the second half. He was likely worn down from nerves before the game even started, and that was by far his most significant workload of the season.
5. Game winning drive, 3 plays, 88 yards, TD.
So what makes that coaching performance so bad? They screwed up one drive, from which they still got points. Better throws and catches gets them TDs on the 1st and 3rd red-zone drives. Avoiding penalties perhaps gets them a TD on their 4th, and likely gets them a FG attempt before half. And, of course, the bad luck of always starting 1st and goal from around the 10 yard line doesn't help. Perhaps not the coach's finest effort, but certainly not the shame-worthy debacle many want to make it out to be.
