Losing to Northwestern always sucks. No matter how good they might be in any given year, they will always be considered the team you should be able to beat. This year they are not very good. They are worst in the Big 10 in offense and defense. That is quite an accomplishment.
Sometimes a couple of unlucky plays and/or questionable calls can swing the game Northwestern’s way like what happened last year. That is not what happened this year. Northwestern started the game playing better than Iowa and never had a moment where they were not the better team. I have watched Iowa for so many years now that bad years do not phase me that much. They normally bounce back quickly.
Here are a couple events during the game that show just how bad things were.
There are a couple bench warmer guys that like to dance around and joke around during the game. They have a ton of positive energy and great for getting the team fired up. When Iowa was down 14-0, they were still dancing around. The long snapper came over and started yelling at one of them saying, “We’re losing 14-0 to **** Northwestern.” They started yelling back and forth for a few minutes before other players settled down the situation. You know you are playing poorly when players
are not interested in watching a couple of scrubs enjoy themselves on the sideline.
After the Northwestern band played at halftime, one of the Iowa fans yelled, “Now go put your uniforms back on.” Funny, but he had the wrong team. I yelled it correctly at the Iowa band after they played their set.
Losing isn’t the worst thing in the world especially if the Hawkeyes look like they are putting forth any kind of effort. Paying $100 for a ticket and watching Iowa dominated by a bad team really sucks. If there was any time for Iowa to need a good year, this would have been the one. They just spent a ton of money on renovations that added fancy seats for the rich people but did nothing to help the bathroom or concession stand problems. If you leave at the beginning of half time to
get a snack you will not get back until five minutes into the second half…if you do not go to the bathroom. Then they jack the season ticket prices way up to take advantage of the recent success of the team.
It will be interesting to see if they have trouble selling season tickets next year with the prices this year greatly exceeding the outcome on the field. They don’t have to worry about me. If I ever decide to give up my season ticket it will be because of wanting to be around my family more on those weekends. After all, I have watched plenty of bad years and good years and do not base my enjoyment strictly on wins and losses. At the current prices, there will probably be a fair number
of people not willing to pay for season tickets for a team that could end up at the Motor City Bowl.
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