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This morning, on a week in which neither the Iowa Hawkeyes nor the Indianapolis Colts took the field was, I found the following score a little sobering.

Now, I watched some of this game. The hype surrounded Northwestern’s vaunted offense, and if they could win this home game, they would be tied — four ways — atop the Big Ten. In fact, the graphic across the screen listed the top six Big Ten teams, and at the bottom, was Iowa.

Needless to say, the suddenly-hot Wolverines pitched a shutout in the second half, and emerged with their second-straight victory.

Suffice it to say, for Hawkeye fans, this was more than a little depressing. Just a week prior, the Wolverines played a good second half, and eked past Iowa in OT. This was partly due to the inexplicable playing-it-safe of the Iowa offense on a could-have-been game-winning drive at Kinnick in the final two minutes.

Now, conventional wisdom says you “play for the tie at home.” Conventional wisdom sucks. Conventional wisdom is why coaches get fired, why underdogs freeze up, why mistakes occur on offense and defense. Conventional wisdom did not help the Hawkeyes earn two Big Ten titles in the last three years, it did not earn them two straight New Year’s Day bowl wins. It certainly has not been a hallmark of Kirk Ferentz’ teams – until now.

Some Hawk fans blame Ken O’Keefe, who has been a convenient scapegoat for any miscues during Ferentz’ tenure. But that can’t be. No head coach cedes all authority to an offensive coordinator– particularly in the last minute. If O’Keefe was playing for the tie, then Ferentz let that happen. If Ferentz wanted to go for a touchdown, he certainly would have. He’s the head coach. And the playing it safe, came back to bite him, his team, and all of us.

As Iowa fans, we’ll live and die with Kirk Ferentz. He’s a master recruiter, excellent motivator, and an innovative head coach. But this was an ominous sign — playing not to lose. Complacency does not breed success. Too often, head coaches are playing to reduce the margin of victory, to reduce their own culpability — but that does the players a disservice. It does the team a disservice, and ultimately, the head coach himself a disservice.

It happens — coaches feeling as though the outcome of a game rests under their controlling fingers. This isn’t true — game’s outcomes rest under the opportunities players have — to win or lose. Give them the chance.

The master, of course, of clock mismanagement, game-bungling, safety, bizarre losses — is San Diego head coach Marty Schottenheimer. Chiefs fans, even NFL fans, know well that no matter the talent level Schotty has — he routinely robs his players, by attempting to assert safe, complacent control over the end of games. And it never works.

Today, Joe Poz has a brilliant column in the Kansas City Star — perfectly descriptive of Marty, perfectly descriptive of the minor brain-cramp/disease that infected Coach Ferentz last Saturday. Poz throws out ridiculous statistics — but the sheer idiocy of the numbers shows how little control coaches actually have. The bottom line — your players need to have their chance to win. It’s not on the coach, unless you remove the opportunity from the players.

The last example of Marty’s failings occurred last season, when the Chargers faced the underdog Jets — a team with clock mismanagement problems of their own. However, the Jets are never down for long, if only because of their coach’s style.

Herm “You PLAY to WIN the GAME” Edwards is a master motivator, an effective in-game coach, and generally gives his players a long enough leash to hang themselves — which generally reflects well on him. He has slip-ups, too, like Ferentz’ last Saturday. Perhaps it’s best of us to say that this very “play not to lose” notion is the very evil that head coaches are paid to fight back. They’re paid, handsomely, of course, because, well, they’re PAID to WIN the GAME.