Passing game woes continue after 1-1 start for Hawkeye offense

IOWA CITY — The stat book reads an average of just 65.5 passing yards per game.

Despite Iowa football’s determination to prove its receiver room has made lengthy strides, it hasn’t correlated on the gridiron. Two games into the season, it’s a quickly grown into a major concern.

The Hawkeyes (1-1) brought in quarterback Mark Gronowski — a wildly successful player at the FCS level — to potentially bring the passing game back to Iowa. Yet in two games, Iowa has just 131 passing yards. Its opponents have double that so far, with 268.

“We need improvement,” Coach Kirk Ferentz said flatly after the 16-13 loss to Iowa State. “We know that we need to continue to improve.”

The offense took too long to find a rhythm on Saturday, and when it did, it was via mostly short runs. Gronowski threw the ball once every few plays, but it was mostly short routes.

He had one deep ball that nearly worked for an 81-yard touchdown. It was ruled incomplete with a pass interference call as a consolation prize.

The short routes were really the only sign of a passing game, and it felt fleeting even then.

“Some shorter slants, and then take shots when we had the opportunity,” Gronowski said when describing the offensive plan.

Both of his all-important deep shots were incomplete. This doesn’t completely fall on Gronowski, though. It takes the quarterback and the receivers to make the passing game work.

“Mark’s been doing a great job,” receiver Jacob Gill said. “We see it everyday. We’ve just got to be better as a total offense.”

Gill had a team-high five receptions against the Cyclones. His teammates all had just one.

Dropped passes were a problem, as well as winning one-on-one matchups against Iowa State. Suddenly losing receiver Reece Vander Zee to a preseason injury feels a lot weightier than it did originally.

Things just haven’t clicked.

If there’s any silver lining, the Hawkeyes face a miserably struggling UMass team next. There’s a chance for Gronowski and the receivers to try and create some form of a passing game beyond a handful of 5-yard completions on comeback and curl routes.

Iowa’s MO always has been stellar defense and a run game. There was just a tiny bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, there’d be a spark.

So far, nothing’s been lit in front of fans.

“We need to make sure we're having 11 guys doing the right thing and 11 guys executing every single night for us to be successful,” Gronowski said.

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