After games against Utah State, Iowa State, and Western Michigan to open the season, the road for Iowa's offense to put up points was going to get considerably more difficult as they entered Big Ten play.
On Saturday, the opened their Big Ten slate with Penn State, one of the league's top teams, and a College Football Playoff contender.
As we continue to outline each week in our Contract Tracker update, last week's update showed that Ferentz and the Hawkeyes offense had been on track to average at least 25 points per game and seven wins, as his contract stipulates.
Heading into this weekend's game against the Nittany Lions, Iowa was 3-0 and the offense was averaging 28 points per game, thanks in large part to a 41-point offensive explosion against Western Michigan last week.
However, this week against Penn State, things did not go well for Brian and the Iowa offense.
The Hawkeyes managed just four first downs on the night - which matches the amount of turnovers they had after fumbling the ball six times (losing four of those).
The program, which has long prided itself under Kirk Ferentz on their ability to run the ball posted, a total of 20 yards rushing on 17 attempts, and the passing game wasn't much better as they managed just 56 yards passing.
Penn State got off 97 total plays in the match up. Iowa? Just 33.
The offensive struggles dropped the Hawkeyes scoring average to just over 21 points per game, and the win meter sticks at 3 for the week, as his contract states a need to win 7 games.
The Hawkeyes will see a Michigan State team with plenty of issues of their own this weekend at home, followed by a Purdue squad in back-to-back games they should be able to score and move the ball in.
After traveling to Wisconsin, they will get Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers, and Illinois all at home in four-straight games at Kinnick before wrapping up the regular season at Nebraska.
