On our Hawk Central postgame podcast after Iowa football 's 26-21 loss at USC, we asked the question: Of the four ranked losses for the Hawkeyes this season, which game did they play their best football?

After rewatching this one, I’ll rank them this way, from worst to best: Iowa State, Indiana, Oregon and USC.

Yes, that’s the sequential order, too. The Hawkeyes (6-4) played a really good game against USC and, yes, there were regrets on second-half offense (we’ll get to that) and the officiating ( we hit that plenty in our postgame coverage ). And offensive-line injuries to Iowa must be factored into the evaluation, too (and will be, at the end of this column).

But bottom line: Tip your cap to the Trojans , who made some outstanding plays to overcome deficits of 14-0 and 21-7.

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