Hlas: Hawkeyes’ offense has offended the senses

This isn't 30 years ago when college football offenses were more conservative, and most of the talent was hoarded by the top 15 or 20 programs.

Now we see offensive fireworks shot off hither and yon. Teams like Oregon and Baylor have video game attacks. It wasn't that long ago when both were college football afterthoughts.

Turn to virtually any network showing college football on a Saturday and you'll see aggressive, athletic, entertaining offense. The SEC is filled with them. The Big 12 has some doozies. Even the Big Ten has some. A few, anyway.

Iowa's certainly isn't one. Not now. It's not even close. It's an offense that, so far, has flown in the face of modern-day college ball and been excruciating to watch.

On its home turf against the less-than-overwhelming defenses of Ball State and Iowa State, Iowa scored 17 points and 17 points. It had 275 total yards against the Cyclones, a team that had been allowing an average of 267 yards of rushing alone.

Yes indeed, the improvement Iowa State has made from Week 1 to Week 2 to Week 3 this season is significant. ISU game-planned smartly, played very well.

But 2.9 yards per rush and just 4.0 yards per play for Iowa against that defense? Something's haywire there, Hawkeyes.

Through one-fourth of this season Iowa doesn't appear to have offensive coordination. The best offense it has shown was when it was in desperation mode late in the Ball State game.

We believed Iowa had a high-quality offensive line and a bevy of capable running backs. Maybe we over-believed it.

The promise of playmakers at wide receiver this year wasn't dimmed by the performances of Tavaun Smith and Derrick Willies in the first two games.

What a rare treat having potential game-breakers at that position was going to be, given there are no former Iowa wide receivers on active NFL rosters.

We're still waiting for a vertical passing game to surface. Smith, Willies and Damond Powell (who had a fourth-quarter touchdown against Northern Iowa) played Saturday. Smith had four catches, none over 14 yards. Willies and Powell were never targeted.

Meanwhile, Iowa State got five catches from first-year freshman Allen Lazard Saturday. Part of that was based on need since top returning receiver Quenton Bundrage is lost for the season with injury and Jarvis West got hurt in the second half Saturday. But the Cyclones see they have a playmaker, and are asking him to make plays.

Lazard had a second-quarter drop of what would have been a gain of 11 yards, maybe more. The next play, a 3rd-and-7, ISU quarterback Sam B. Richardson went right back to the kid and he made a grab for 19 yards. When you have a talent, you use it.

It's three games into a 12-game season. September often doesn't equal November when it comes to Hawkeye football. It sure didn't last year.

And in case you haven't noticed, college football teams nationwide have been kind of schizo in the first three weeks.

But this 3-game homestand to start the season was supposed to be a launchpad to an entertaining and successful season. Right now, an Iowa team that hasn't been in the national rankings has still managed to look overrated.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com