Mark Gronowski on the Iowa offense struggles in second half

The Iowa offense looked like a finely tuned machine in the first half as they rolled up 21 points on USC, including the perfect execution of a trick play that resulted in a pass to quarterback Mark Gronowski. But the second half was another story as the Hawkeyes couldn’t sustain drives and capitalize on opportunities to make plays, resulting in no points after halftime.

Following the loss, Gronowski discusses his receiving touchdown, the struggles in the second half, the loss of several members of the offensive line and the impact that had on the game, and how they were able to get off to a fast start in the game.

On catching a touchdown pass:
“We’ve been working on that play for a while. It was cool. Reece (Vander Zee, WR) played quarterback in high school, so we tried to give him an opportunity to throw the ball for a little bit, and ended up being pretty cool.”
On the interception:
“I think if I would have thrown it a step sooner, maybe it would have been an incomplete, or would have been a completion. I was kind of reading more the front side of that play, a little too long on that one, but again, tried throwing it away from the defender on that one. Ended up hitting Gill’s (Jacob Gill, WR) knee popping up. It’s just super unfortunate in that situation, and in that time of the game for that to happen. But, that’s a little execution thing, I could’ve thrown that ball maybe 0.2 seconds earlier, and it might have been a different outcome.”
On first half success:
“We brought our own energy to start the game off. I’m really proud of the guys. In that sense, we were ready to compete right out the gate. We were executing at that point in time. We were taking some shots. We started off with a big play to Gill (Jacob Gill, WR) that was a really good motivator, good confidence builder to start off thegame. And you know, the defense was playing great to start off the game. We got a good, short field position on our second touchdown drive. And you know, when you start fast, like that, it really puts your team in a good momentum. Obviously it didn’t end up rolling into the second half, but it was a good way to start out this game.”
On the close incompletion at the end of the game:
“I mean, that’s football, that’s all sports. It’s all a game of inches. And it really sucks to see the game end like that. And you know, if he was a size 10 size instead of a size 12 or 11 or whatever, maybe it would’ve been an bit different. But, you’ve got to take chances in those opportunities. When there’s a fourth down, give one of our best players on our team an opportunity to catch the ball, go make a play. That’s what I did on that assault, one on one coverage, gave him a shot and obviously just a couple inches out.”
On the lost of three OLs:
“I’m still happy for those guys that came in. They did a great job. There’s a couple plays in there that they ended up bringing some different pressures, trying to confuse those guys up front a little bit. But those guys have worked hard all season. They’ve got a lot of reps under them, just in practice in general. And obviously it always hurts to lose guys like Dunker (Genning Dunker, RT), Beau Stephens (LG) , Kade Peiper (RG), but I’m proud of the way that those other guys stepped up, and were ready for the challenge when they got it.”
On repetitive close losses:
“There’s a lot of plays throughout that second half that I wish we could have back, that could have changed the outcome of that game. And you never know what plays it’s going to be. There’s opportunities before that drive that maybe we didn’t even have to have that drive. We could have been the reason earlier in that game, and really kind of put it out of reach. But again, the game flowed that way. We had an opportunity at the end there. I wish we could have completed that last play, but obviously the ball was just a little too wide, a little too couple steps out. We’re trying to always try to be the reason, but we just didn’t end up being the reason this second half.”
On keeping focus after so many close losses:
“Again, kind of what I said last week, it’s always tough. It’s devastating to lose like this, and for it to be again, a one possession game. Again, it really sucks. But again, we got to go back to the film room and learn from it. Learn those little different things that we didn’t execute correctly, and kind of bring it into those last two games and hopefully a bowl game after that. But again, just got to go back and learn from it, practice on those things and execute a little bit better.”