MINNEAPOLIS — Iowa’s highly ranked rushing offense couldn’t run the football with any consistency. Offensive coordinator Tim Lester tried multiple quarterbacks with fizzling results. Top wide receiver Tony Diaz didn’t have a single reception through 3½ quarters. Top rusher Kamari Moulton left with a game-ending shoulder injury in the first half. The Hawkeyes committed four turnovers and had a punt blocked.

Save one miracle drive in the fourth quarter, the No. 14 Hawkeyes were a perplexing offensive disaster at Huntington Bank Stadium on Oct. 24. And ultimately the mistakes were too much to overcome in a 13-10 loss to Minnesota on the Big Ten Conference road.

Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey didn’t do anything all night until an improvised 39-yard completion to Jalen Smith on third down, setting up the winning field goal by Luke Drzewiecki as time expired from 46 yards out.

Iowa dropped to 5-2 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten with the deflating loss. Minnesota improved to 5-2, 3-1.

The Hawkeyes had 12 possessions on this unfortunate night, but one of them provided hope. Apparently, Hank Brown just needed a fourth-quarter deficit and improbable circumstances to deliver big moments on the Big Ten road.

Brown’s 37-yard touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee with 3:46 remaining jolted Iowa into a jarring tie, seemingly out of thin air, and put the Hawkeyes in position to have a chance. Diaz's lone catch of the game, a 57-yarder, set up the four-play, 98-yard scoring drive. But another failed offensive possession gave the Gophers one more chance.

And the Iowa program took a step backward with the loss and must regroup for an Oct. 31 game against Wisconsin (11 a.m. CT, FOX).

If you have two quarterbacks, you have none?

Kirk Ferentz touted both Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown earlier this week, saying he felt good about both quarterbacks and that both gave Iowa a chance to win.

“I think we'll be successful with either guy in there,” Ferentz said Oct. 20. “We'll play it out and see how it all goes. That's assuming everybody else is doing their job, too. It's more than just the quarterback. Everybody has to help him out. It certainly helps us if we have a good run game.”

That entire quote was important, perhaps, to the greater context. Iowa’s running game was slow out of the gates, and Hecklinski was shaky in his second career start. He led five possessions, and three of them didn’t gain a first down. The one good possession he led — 12 plays, 65 yards — resulted in a red-zone interception.

Hecklinski was pulled in a 3-3 game after going 9-for-16 for 62 yards and an interception.

Offensive coordinator Tim Lester had to be frustrated that Hecklinski missed a deep-shot touchdown to Tony Diaz on the first play after Cam Buffington’s successful fake-punt rush. On first-and-10 from Iowa’s 42, Hecklinski uncorked a play-action shot to Diaz, who ran a post against one-on-one coverage. The throw didn’t have enough air under it and was too far in front of Diaz, who made a diving attempt but couldn’t get to the ball. A better throw, and that was a 58-yard touchdown.

Brown entered late in the second quarter and promptly got one first down on a bailout throw to LJ Phillips, but then misfired on an easy out throw to Jarriett Buie. Then in a two-minute drill, Brown panicked in the pocket and was intercepted as he tried to throw the ball away with 10 seconds left in the half. Even an incompletion there would have allowed Buhr to try a 51-yard field goal. Instead, the score was 3-3 at half.

Brown got the start in the second half, and his two drives in the third quarter lacked inspiration: five plays, 30 yards, punt; five plays, 24 yards, punt. The first drive of the fourth quarter went backwards, then ended with a lost fumble. The second drive of the fourth quarter resulted in another interception, this one not Brown's fault ... as the ball came out of Reece Vander Zee's hands and into the arms of Matt Kingsbury at the Iowa 46.

Brown finished 11-of-21 for 136 yards with two picks ... and Iowa departed with more quarterback uncertainty than it's had all season.

Iowa defense puts out some first-half fires to hang tight

The game’s first “uh-oh” moment occurred just 75 seconds in, as Boston Everitt’s punt was blocked by Minnesota’s Mason Carrier and recovered at the Iowa 13-yard line. Minnesota wasn’t even coming after the punt aggressively, it appeared Carrier just rolled through the middle of Iowa’s protection and stuck his hand out, clipping the punt.

It was a jarring start after a three-and-out for Iowa’s offense. But credit to the Hawkeyes’ defense for forcing their own three-and-out, keyed by Deshaun Lee’s pass breakup in the end zone against Noah Jennings on Minnesota’s first play from scrimmage. Iowa got out of that bind by allowing only a field goal, essentially a win for the defense despite the 3-0 deficit.

The Hawkeyes marched 65 yards on their ensuing drive, but linebacker Joey Gerlach delivered a clutch interception of Jeremy Hecklinski at the 2-yard line. Hecklinski’s run-pass option throw to Diaz was low — and plucked out of the air by Gerlach.

Once again, Iowa’s defense responded by forcing a quick three-and-out.

When the page turned to the second quarter, the defense stepped up again. A blitz from cash defender Jacob Wallace produced pressure, and Lindsey panicked and overthrew his target into the arms of Lee, who ran his third interception of the season deep into Minnesota territory. That set up Iowa's only points of the first half, a 32-yard Caden Buhr field goal.

Jaylen Watson’s unforced error costs Iowa seven points

There were a lot of miscues by Iowa on this day, but none was as consequential as Jaylen Watson lining up offsides on Minnesota’s fourth-and-goal attempt from the half-yard line midway through the third quarter.

Iowa had successfully stopped two quarterback sneaks to set up a fourth-down play. Safety Zach Lutmer read the play-action throw to the right, which fell incomplete and was seemingly a turnover on downs. But the replay showed that Watson was standing in the neutral zone at the time of the snap, and though he didn’t have anything to do with the play, it was an obvious and silly penalty.

On the next play, Darius Taylor scored on a direct-snap Wildcat run up the middle for a 10-3 Gophers lead with 8:08 left in the third quarter.

It would’ve been Iowa’s ball at its own 1 in a 3-3 game with 8:31 left in the third, if not for Watson’s gaffe.

Though this team is gaining experience, it's still a young team ... and that's the kind of mystifying mistake in a close game that can't happen.

The young-player mistakes continued into the fourth quarter, when on a third-and-18 screen pass, Braeden Jackson gained 12 yards but was popped at the end of the play and fumbled just before he went to the ground. The fumble gave Minnesota the ball at its own 43 with 11:22 to play. Without a fumble, Iowa could have tried to pin Minnesota back. Instead, the Gophers had good field position.