Many college football fans have criticized the Big Ten in recent years for the stigma that offenses in the conference leave a lot to be desired. And Saturday’s game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Northwestern Wildcats may be a new low for just how bad offenses can look…
Coming into the game, it was obviously expected to be a low-scoring affair. In fact, the over-under for the game was set at 29.5 points combined for these teams. That is the lowest over-under for a football game in the history of college football.
Well, it’s safe to say that the oddsmakers set this line accurately, as it was as low scoring as advertised through one half of football.
Neither team scored a point in the first half, as the teams combined for just 110 yards of offense in the half. The live over-under at the half shot all the way down to 16.5 points.
AT THE HALF: Iowa 0, Northwestern 0
– 110 combined total yards
– 61 penalty yards
– 20.6 PPR fantasy points by all players combined– Live over/under of 16.5
– Drive list: punt, punt, Missed FG, punt, INT, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, end of half
— Kevin Pulsifer #SkyPulse (@imPULSEivity) November 4, 2023
This has led a large majority of college football fans to call this game the worst game of the season for viewers at home.
Is Northwestern v. Iowa THE worst college football game… ever? pic.twitter.com/VydSJ4OhY1
— Ron Sandack (@RLSandack) November 4, 2023
The Iowa Vs Northwestern game maybe the worst college football game of all time. Maybe it’ll end at 3-0 or even 2-0
— MLBNeedsPitchChallenges (@BetTipsJr1) November 4, 2023
I fell asleep watching Iowa and Northwestern.
90 minutes ago.
It appears I didn't miss much.
— Andrew (@HuskerPower66) November 4, 2023
Instead of subjecting someone to torture, you can force them to watch this Iowa-Northwestern game. That would suffice.
— Robby Donoho III (@RobbyDonoho) November 4, 2023
To all the people posting about northwestern vs iowa don’t worry we got the Chiefs vs Dolphins at 9am that will flip the script for your timelines
— J (@jasonmezrahi) November 4, 2023
It's time to fall back. We gain an hour of sleep. Actually, if you're watching the Iowa-Northwestern game, you gain about five hours of sleep.
— Brad Dickson (@brad_dickson) November 4, 2023
To be fair, you have to at least credit both defenses in the game for their impressive job at shutting down the opposing offense.
However, that isn’t exactly all that impressive of an accomplishment. Iowa’s offense ranks dead last in all of Division-1 college football in yards-per-game offensively, while Northwestern ranks as the 13th worst team in that category.
If you like offense, it may be best to look elsewhere when looking for a game to watch…
