Iowa football navigating a balancing act of strong run game while growing passing attack

If there has been a silver lining for the Iowa Hawkeyes on offense this year, it is the ground game and its depth.

Iowa has a strong offensive line and a stable of backs that all appear ready to be the lead back if called upon.Although that has been successful, the passing attack has been equally disappointing.

The Hawkeyes essentially have no balance on offense right now, as they struggle in obvious passing situations.Week 3 presents Iowa with an interesting dilemma.

They should be able to run the ball with relative ease against UMass and keep that part of the offense churning, but is it time to try and revive the passing game?Head coach Kirk Ferentz talked about the balancing act of keeping the ground game strong while also trying to infuse some life into the passing attack."Yeah, our approach, just in general terms, is going to be -- again, I don't know what's going to come up in three weeks or four weeks or what we're going to look like at that point, but typically every game we'd rather be balanced, and that's going to be our approach going in, at least hopefully, unless you'd rather just step on a land mine.

We've been down that road, too, so then you have to do what you have to do to win a game.

"But an ideal situation, what we're trying to do is be balanced, and that will be our approach Saturday.

We want to run and throw the ball effectively, and throwing play action but also drop-backs, and how much drop-back you do or don't do depends on your team and also the game, but going into the game we've got to be prepared to do all those things, and hopefully we'll be able to do some of that stuff again and do a little better.

Just keep moving it forward," Ferentz said about managing both attacks offensively.Through two games, Iowa has more than three times as many rushing yards, 441, as they do passing yards, 131.

What is even more startling is that while Iowa averages a strong 4.8 yards per rush, they are averaging just 3.3 yards per passing attempt.This weekend could be the chance for Iowa to find some confidence in the passing game, and that may be the right decision, as the ground game can come back to life much more easily.Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions.

Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa football balancing strong run game while growing passing game.

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