Uncharacteristic penalties among what-ifs in Iowa’s narrow Music City Bowl loss to Missouri

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a football game as close as the 2024 Music City Bowl — a three-point game with a late-fourth-quarter lead change — there naturally are going to be many what-ifs for Iowa on the losing sideline.

“I don’t play that game,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said initially when someone asked about a decision to punt on fourth-and-2 on the opposing 40-yard line.

But if one does play the postmortem what-if game, Iowa’s penalties — and a no-call at the end — certainly would be an interesting case from the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Missouri.

“One costly one there certainly in the second half,” Ferentz said. “That was a judgment penalty, and that’s disappointing.”

That was a clear reference to the late hit penalty called on Iowa safety Quinn Schulte. Instead of Missouri facing a fourth-and-8 on its own 48-yard line — a likely punting situation — the Tigers had a new set of downs on Iowa’s 36-yard line on a drive that ended with 51-yard field goal.

Don’t let Ferentz’s disappointment with the penalty be confused with any criticism of the ACC officiating crew, however, as the out-of-bounds activity was “probably going to get a call.”

“You just try to use good judgment and don’t want to give the officials a chance to make a call like that,” Ferentz said. “Any time you’re on the boundary, you have to be really careful, I think. It is what it is, and that’s uncharacteristic certainly of Quinn. He’s been an outstanding player for us.”

While the late hit was Iowa’s last penalty of the game (and consequently the easiest to remember), it was not the only costly penalty for a team that is usually well-disciplined. One of the other penalties was a personal foul on Xavier Nwankpa that gave Missouri 15 yards on an eventual touchdown drive.

Iowa went into bowl season as the least penalized team in the country with only three penalties per game. On Monday, Iowa had five penalties that cost 46 yards.

Another interesting what-if was on a no-call situation on Iowa’s last play of the game — the failed quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 — which drew ire at the time from Ferentz on the sidelines.

“On the board, it looked like one of their guys had his hand in the neutral zone, but that wasn’t the deciding factor in the game certainly,” Ferentz said after the game.

The hypothetical five yards and first down from a penalty would have advanced Iowa to the Missouri 41-yard line. Iowa would then theoretically only need to go another nine yards in about a minute for kicker Drew Stevens to have a 50-yard field goal opportunity.

As for the fourth-and-2 decision in the first half that prompted a question in the news conference, Ferentz’s decision did not necessarily backfire at the time. The yardage netted on Rhys Dakin’s punt appears to be the difference between Missouri punting near midfield versus being in field-goal range. Of course, in hindsight, the shot at another three points sure would have been helpful as well in the 27-24 loss.

“We at that time thought it was the best thing to do,” Ferentz said. “Any time we do that, we’re playing for field position. We have a pretty good punter, and we do a pretty good job of covering.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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