It’s time for the Iowa Hawkeyes to get back to work after a week off. The bye week came at a perfect time, but now there’s a lot to prove for these Hawkeyes.

We learned a lot about this team in four weeks, but there’s still a whole lot that we don’t know. What the first month taught us was that Hawkeyes won the games they were supposed to and lost the one they were supposed to lose. The three wins were splashed with some doubt, and the loss to Wisconsin told us that the Hawkeyes can beat anybody, if they just finish. They had that game won, and let it slip away late in the fourth quarter. Now it’s Wisconsin — and not Iowa —  that’s in the driver’s seat in the Big Ten West.

Now comes the week off and an interesting set of games through October and the first week of November. After spending all of September at home, the Hawks now have four road games in the next five weeks.

And, of course, we have no idea what kind of road team this might be. They were comfortable in the Kinnick confines, but now they have to travel to Minnesota, Iowa, Purdue and Penn State in the next five weeks, with only a home game with Maryland interspersed between all the travel.

What’s a good record with these four road games? Is 3-1 good? Are 2-2 or even 1-3 possibilities?

With this team, of course it is. So is 4-0, for that matter.

What we know so far is that Iowa’s defense is very good, but then that group didn’t hold up on Wisconsin’s final drive and an upset win slipped away. We know the offense is coming on after a few early rough spots, but we still don’t know how good they can be.

Best case? Worst case? Even venturing a guess right now is a total crap-shoot.

The path begins at Minnesota Saturday afternoon (2:30 p.m CT; TV: Big Ten Network). Iowa is a 6.5-point favorite, which is a nice number, but there’s another number that’s not so nice.

During Kirk Ferentz’s two decades at Iowa, the Hawkeyes are only 2-8 on the road after bye weeks. That’s awful. Last year’s 17-10 overtime loss at Northwestern is included in that total. Can it go to 2-9? Sure, but we’ll see.

Minnesota is a great unknown, too. The Gophers won their first three games, but they were against also-rans New Mexico State, Fresno State and Miami of Ohio. They got thrashed by Maryland 42-13 in their Big Ten opener, so we really don’t know what to expect on Saturday, other than the fact that the Floyd of Rosedale trophy awaits the winner.

We would like to think that Iowa is better than Minnesota or Indiana or Purdue. But do we really know that for sure?

We’re going to find out soon enough.