FanPost

Heart-attack Hawkeyes

Hawkeye fans from Iowa to New York to Hawaii watched the Insight Bowl last night with a feeling we are completely accustomed to now. The 4th quarter. Last year, the comebacks, this year, the breakdowns. But we are forgetting even further. 2008 was a mixed year with breakdowns early followed by comebacks. How close have Iowa's games been lately? Stats time:

-Iowa hasn't lost by more than 7 points since losing by 9 to Western Michigan on November 17th, 2007.

*-Iowa has gone 28-11 the last 3 seasons: Average of 9-4 regular season (with bowl win) and a 5-3 conference record.

*-Largest margin of win: 45 points against Ball State '10; Largest margin of loss; 7 points (Northwestern '09 and Arizona '10)

-Iowa has played 19 games decided by 7 points or less over the last 3 seasons: That is 48.7% of Iowa's games.

*-12 of those 19 games were decided by a field goal or less: That's 30.7% of Iowa's games since 2008.

-Iowa has gone 8-11 in that stretch winning by an average of 2.75 points, and losing by an average of 3.64 points.

-Iowa has played an incredible 4 games decided by 1 point in this stretch.

*- 2-2 in those games: Losses at Pitt in '08 and Wisconsin '10, and wins against Penn State '08 and UNI '09.

-Iowa has only lost by 7 twice since 2007, coming against Northwestern in 2009 and Arizona in 2010.

-Iowa is 6-4 against Top 25 opponents and 3-0 in bowl games in this stretch.

*-Average win by: 12.83 points; Average loss by: 3.75 points

*-Largest win: 31 point win over #5 Michigan St.; Largest loss: 7 point loss at #24 Arizona

*- 4-1 against Top 10 opponents and 3-0 against Top 5.

*-Also brought to my attention in the comments is the struggles against unranked: 7 unranked losses to 4 ranked.

-Iowa has gone 13-2 against non-conference opposition.

*-In the 13 wins, Iowa averages winning by 21.5 points a game.

-Iowa went 3-0 against Iowa State (Iowa went 3-7 in 10 previous seasons), but went 0-3 against Northwestern (Iowa went 26-6 from 1974-2007).

-Multiple games decided by a score in last minute include Illinois '08 (L), Penn State '08 (W), UNI '09 (W), Michigan '09 (INT with 46 seconds left) (W), Michigan State '09 (W), and Ohio State '09 (L).

-Last list doesn't include games decided by winning drives earlier in the game or failed 4th down conversions (we have seen too many).

-Iowa has forced 4 shut-outs in the 3 year span (FIU '08, Minnesota '08-'09, Ball State '10).

I would go on with my statistics but I have lost interest. I will update if I find the drive.

*indicates updated info

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