Originally Posted by Gary_ISU 
I think it is a stretch to say Iowa improved. They won some games but if you breakdown the results they were un-impressive wins against bad teams.
Nov. 17 L - total meltdown against WMU
Nov. 10 W - beat a bad Minny team 21-16, outgained 315 to 296
Nov. 3 W - beat Northwestern 28-17, outgained 393 to 369. NW threw interceptions on back to back plays in the 4th quarter.
Oct. 27 W - beat MSU 34-27 in OT. Outgained 468 to 283. MSU lead 17-3 at half and pissed it away.
Oct. 20 L - got beat 31-6 by Purdue. Outgained 436 to 254.
Oct. 13 W - beat Illinois 10-6. Had more total yards 323 to 287. This was a good quality win for Iowa.
I think Iowa was much worse than their 6-6 record would indicate. They were a couple plays away from 4-8. Iowa was consistenly dominated in the first half. Sports is all about winning so Iowa did improve in that aspect but were they a better team at the end of the season then the beginning. I think the answer is no.
I dunno, I consider "becoming a better team" a team that wins more as the season goes on. Iowa started 2-4, and finished 4-2. Stats are stats, but the defense helped the inept offense enough to get the wins.
