Until the last couple years, Iowa's offenses have complimented their approach to winning- above average defense, special teams and run game. They were bland offensively, but it didn't matter because they were above average where they wanted to be.
The last couple years that 3 legged stool is missing a leg - an elite OL. The whole foundation of Iowa's program takes a hit without a great OL that enabled them to run consistently. For Kirk's 20 years, their passing game was opportunistic. Their QB's don't throw interceptions, they complete the easy passes and they complete long passes off play action. After all Stanzi, Beathard and Stanley all made NFL rosters.
It seems Iowa's talent evaluation of recruits has been poor, basically since Brian Ferentz became OC. Didn't their best OL, Tyler Lindebaum, come to Iowa as a DL?