COLUMBUS, Ohio — The distance between a good and a great football team is around 730 miles and eight hours in a vehicle. On the scoreboard, it’s about 200 yards and 28 points. Ohio State confirmed itself to be a national title contender on Saturday, with elite performers at every position.
Iowa , as it has displayed repeatedly the last few years, revealed that it’s a quality program with capable pieces at many spots but not enough juice to compete at the highest level. Advertisement Once again, No. 3 Ohio State towered above Iowa with a 35-7 win at The Horseshoe.
It marked the Hawkeyes’ ninth straight road loss in the lopsided series, and it should come as no surprise that the Buckeyes’ margin of victory in those games is 20.7 points. Only twice has Iowa has come within single digits over that span in Columbus; the program’s most recent win at Ohio Stadium came in 1991.
But losing at Ohio State in decisive fashion isn’t Iowa’s problem. Far from it, in fact. Those losses have taken place for generations and will occur every four or five years from now until the apocalypse comes or private equity buys Big Ten football.
The larger issue is that Iowa has struggled to contend against all ranked opponents, something it used to do regularly. And the separation is growing by the year. Beginning with a 42-3 loss to Michigan in the 2021 Big Ten championship game, the Hawkeyes have been outscored 270-51 by their last eight ranked foes.
Only one of those games was competi.