Hlas column: This loss was bad for Iowa, folks. Real bad.

MINNEAPOLIS – On the bright side, Iowa's football team probably got through airport security a little quicker Saturday night without having to wait for that bronzed pig to get X-rayed.

Floyd of Rosedale probably didn't want to return to Iowa City with the Hawkeyes, anyway. The pig has been surrounded by a Minnesota squad that has done a lot of losing in a dispiriting way since he moved here late last November, but the Gophers sure showed more heart and aggressiveness and smarts than their more-heralded border rivals to the south.

The swine, like most of the humans who follow the fortunes of Hawkeye football, is probably wondering what has become of the Hawkeyes. Their 22-21 loss to Minnesota in TCF Bank Stadium supplants a season-ending defeat to Western Michigan four years ago as the darkest on-field moment in the Kirk Ferentz era.

A “team loss,” Ferentz called this.

You could say that. You could also call it an utter debacle.

Look, a lot of us thought the other shoe might eventually drop on Iowa. This team lost at Iowa State, could easily have fallen to Pittsburgh, let a lousy Indiana team hang around far too long, and gave up mass quantities of rushing yardage to all its Big Ten foes to date.

But fading against the Michigans and Michigan States and Nebraskas would have been one thing, and not terribly shocking. Getting decked by the punch-less Gophers? A good program should never lose to a team like Minnesota even if the good program isn't anywhere near its best.

You know what the scores will be in the next two weeks when the Gophers play Michigan State and Wisconsin? A lot-to-a-little, that's what.

Minnesota is one of the worst teams in any BCS conference, and Saturday's result didn't change that. In their three previous Big Ten games, the Gophers were outscored a total of 103-3 in the first-halves. It was 7-7 at halftime here Saturday.

When Iowa finally did pull out to a 21-10 lead and should have been slamming the lid on a sixth win and bowl-eligibility, it instead seemed to leave the stadium for an early dinner.

The Big Ten's worst offense cut through the Hawkeye defense for touchdown drives of 80 and 59 yards, and a 22-21 lead with 2:48 left. When Dan Persa and Northwestern had a similar fourth-quarter against Iowa last year, well, at least Persa and the Wildcats' offense were pretty good. But this? Really?

Hey, Minnesota quarterback MarQuies Gray played his heart out, and made a wonderful running play on fourth-and-goal at the 3 for the game-winning score. But Gray can't carry Denard Robinson's shoelaces, and D-Rob and the Michigan offensive machine are next up for Iowa's defense.

The Gophers might not have been in a position to march for those game-winning six points had Iowa considered the possibility of an onside kick after Minny made it 21-16 with 8:22 left.

What is it about bold and aggressive play-calls from opposing coaches that seem to leave Iowa's so stunned? The Wisconsin fake-punt of last season lives in Hawkeyes infamy. They never saw it coming. So what about this onside kick, the second Minnesota had successfully pulled off against Iowa in two years?

Did Iowa's coaches assume Minnesota would kick deep because they thought Jerry Kill had faith in his defense making a stop? That defense which had allowed 252 rushing yards to Marcus Coker?

“Not totally surprising,” Ferentz said of Kill's gamble, which made the rest of Ferentz's comment about his kick-return personnel perplexing. Namely, “I didn't think it was a situation where you throw our hands team out there.”

Wouldn't your mindset as Iowa be, we're playing a team that is sniffing one of its few chances to spring an upset so it might throw everything including the locker room sink at us?

The Gophers raised their level of play late in the game with the realization their coaches had put them in a position to win, had been on the attack instead of being button-down.

The body language on the two sidelines couldn't have been more different, all game. Minnesota's bench players seemed to leap up and down the sideline after every big play their teammates made. The game looked fun to them, not a bloodless assignment.

It's up to the more-talented opponent to take the fun out of the equation early, and keep it out. Iowa did neither.

You miss a 24-yard field goal, your quarterback gets sacked twice on a single possession in the red zone, you give up long pass plays to a team that isn't exactly on friendly terms with the forward pass … yeah, it was a team loss.

But when you have a guy run for 252 yards, 249 of them in the first three quarters, and you don't win, let alone win big? That does not compute.

The yardage, Coker said, “means nothing. I want to win football games. That's what I came here to do. If I get 30 yards on 30 carries, as long as we're winning I don't care.”

Coker is bound to be the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Week come Monday. Seldom will that honor have felt so hollow.