Halftime -- The horror . . . the horror

When will Kirk Ferentz feel heat?

His buyout is nearly $21 million. So, forget about that.

This team wasn't prepared to play today. Somewhere in the quarter, Iowa's offense unplugged and Central Michigan simply kept plugging.

Iowa's defense, locked in full-on "hanging for dear life" mode, kept the Chippewas to field goals on two short fields (15 Iowa and 48 Iowa) and Iowa hung around at halftime, trailing 23-14.

It should've been more.

Iowa had three personal foul penalties and two pass interference penalties. In total, Iowa had seven penalties for 86 yards. CMU came into the game without a penalty and were without one after one half.

The time of possession was all Chippewas, holding a 19:14 to 10:11 advantage.

Iowa has been a second-half team this season. It will have to be all of that and more. The wind also was a factor. In the first quarter, when Iowa had the wind (gusting to 25 mph out of the north), quarterback James Vandenberg completed 8 of 8 for 129 yards and a TD. In the second, he was 3 of 8 for 14 yards.

Vandenberg missed a wide-open Kevonte Martin-Manley for what would've been a 37-yard TD. After that, Iowa's offense shrivled. Iowa had a first down at CMU's 40 going into the wind -- behind three straight Mark Weisman runs, including a 24-yarder -- but went 0-for-3 through the air. The drive died and, arguably, so did the Hawkeyes.

The Chippewas outscored Iowa 13-0 in the second quarter.

Iowa held CMU to a 20-yard field goal just before half, but had to go back-to-back timeouts because of 12-men on the field coming out of a timeout. Remember, defensive coordinator Phil Parker is in the press box this season. Communication breakdown, but Iowa held for whatever it could.

Weisman had nine carries for 87 yards, 9.7 yards a carry, but the Chippewas' veteran QB Ryan Radcliff faced no pressure and dinked and dunked on an Iowa defense that was straining to find the right mix of personnel at linebacker and on the D-line. At one point, junior linebacker Anthony Hitchens was pushed out of the lineup. Junior linebacker James Morris limped off the field, but returned.

Radcliff completed 13 of 15 for 155 yards and a TD.

Ugliest quarter of the season for Iowa, which hasn't allowed a point in the fourth quarter this year.

KF on the radio: "We've done a lot to hurt ourselves . . . we're making it hard on ourselves. We need to stay on schedule offensively and get them off schedule. We've not done a good job with that."