Is Iowa really the fourth best team?

Are the Iowa Hawkeyes really the fourth best team in the country?  I get it that they are 9-0 and one of just seven remaining unbeatens.  But this is a team that has had to rally four times in the fourth quarter for wins.  They have trailed in eight of their nine games this season.  Four times they’ve trailed by double digits.

Last Saturday they not only needed a stunning fourth quarter comeback, but some very curious officiating and replay calls that cost Indiana two touchdowns.  Everybody needs luck in their great seasons, but this is beginning to border on the ridiculous.

Just when it looked like Indiana was going to go up by 21, Tyler Sash picked off a pass that had pinballed off four players and raced 86 yards for a TD.  An Indiana TD pass minutes later was overturned by a replay official who apparently was watching another game, because it was clear the catch in question was a TD.

Quarterback Ricky Stanzi had his worst and greatest game both on the same day.  Stanzi threw four interceptions in the third quarter alone and five overall, yet he also threw for a career high 337 yards and two TD’s of 92 and 66 yards in a 28 point fourth quarter explosion.

This is a team that needed two blocked field goal’s at the end of the game to win their season opener.  Blocked a punt for a TD against Penn State.  This is a team that has made things happen with big plays by their defense and special teams.  But does the fourth best team have to come from behind in eight of their games?

Some of the BCS computers have the Hawkeyes ranked number one which even coach Kirk Ferentz has questioned by saying, “They don’t have eyes, because if they did, they’d say are you kidding me?”  

Iowa has Northwestern, Ohio State and Minnesota remaining on their schedule and only the Buckeyes are on the road, but when you constantly have to draw from the well to come from behind and win, the odds of going unbeaten keep getting longer.  An unbeaten season in the Big 10 this year doesn’t mean you’re one of the top four teams in the country.  Cincinnati shouldn’t be ranked 5th by the way.  

But this is about Iowa.  They’re having a season to remember, but I’m not sure they’re the fourth best team in the country.  Then again, I’m not sure who is, but at the moment I think I’d have to go with Boise State and Oregon to round out the top five.  Oregon may be playing the best at the moment, but they lost to the Broncos in their opener, so I can’t put them on top of Boise.