IOWA CITY — After another listless performance in the 32-20 loss to Michigan State, there's no hiding the obvious: the Iowa pass offense is not where it needs to be, and it starts with sixth-year quarterback and team captain Cade McNamara.
"Cade has to play better, certainly the first half in particular," said head coach Kirk Ferentz at his Tuesday press conference. "Really nothing on offense was good enough for us to be -- we dug a hole that was too deep, quite frankly, and everybody had a hand in it, but offense certainly has responsibility. Cade is going to have to throw the ball a little bit more accurately."
McNamara was 11-for-23 for 150 yards, with a touchdown and an interception in Saturday's loss. Among Big Ten quarterbacks, McNamara's 118.3 passer rating is better than only Michigan's and Northwestern's struggle buses, and those two programs have at least been more eager to try backup quarterbacks in search of an answer — albeit without much in the way of positive results.
Ferentz has long advocated for patience with his quarterback, who spent most of the last two seasons rehabbing from a series of leg injuries and surgeries. While McNamara asserts that his legs feel better than ever — "throughout my career, I haven't been able to break tackles or do things in the pocket that I've already done this season," he said Tuesday — the time away from the field appears to still be hindering Iowa's starting QB.
What's particularly concerning about McNamara's subpar performance Saturday is that Michigan State can only take so much credit for it. Of McNamara's 15 incomplete passes, only one was credited as a pass broken up by the Spartans. Most were simply inaccurate throws — and Ferentz acknowledged that on Tuesday.
"Whether it's third down or any down, when you miss some makeables, it's hard to weigh how much that impacts the flow of a team offensively," he said. "Cade is going to have to throw the ball a little bit more accurately. I mentioned about the makeables, whether it's him or anybody else, if he's got a chance to give us better production, that's what we need."
McNamara didn't shy away from taking responsibility for his misses either, including a disastrous miscommunication with tight end Luke Lachey that led to a Spartans interception in Iowa territory.
"I know exactly what the read was," said McNamara. "I saw something and thought something different, and Luke was actually right. It was my bad for not seeing it the way that he did."
The Spartans safeties showed nine in the box before retreating into deep coverage immediately prior to the snap on the play, and McNamara sailed the ball over Lachey's head, into the arms of safety Nikai Martinez who returned the ball to Iowa's 30-yard-line.
Iowa's defense held Michigan State to its only three-and-out on the ensuing possession, but the Spartans were still well within kicking range for Jonathan Kim, who made the last of his program-record six field goals to push the Hawkeyes' deficit to 25-14 with 7:34 left — effectively slamming the door shut on any comeback hopes.
Inevitably, the question then becomes what more backup quarterback Brendan Sullivan must do to earn snaps outside of goal-line situations, where he has led Iowa to six touchdowns and a field goal in seven opportunities. And with the Hawkeyes' highest season aspirations all but dashed at 4-3, the time may be drawing near to explore what Sullivan can offer the team in an expanded role — for now and the future.
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"It's easier to talk about putting somebody in a game than just doing it, especially at [quarterback]," said Ferentz. "We've seen enough good things out of Cade to feel like he gives us our best chance out there."
But while Ferentz has typically asked for fans' patience with McNamara's improvement, on Tuesday he sounded like someone whose own patience might be starting to wear thin.
"I think he's done enough good things where we have confidence that he'll play well Saturday, but we'll also keep an open mind," said Ferentz. "We have to do better than we did the first 30 minutes the other night. We can't wait until the second half. We'll keep an open mind, but I have confidence in both of them, quite frankly, and when Brendan gets an expanded role, or if he gets an expanded role, I think he'll do well."
When Chad Leistikow of the Des Moines Register, who has recently reported that Iowa came close to replacing McNamara during the Michigan State game, asked Ferentz Tuesday why Sullivan wasn't used on 3rd-and-short situations outside of goal line possessions against the Spartans, the normally steadfast Ferentz offered little in the way of disagreement with the premise.
"Yeah, you could make that argument, treat it like what we've done that with the red zone. You could make that argument. You could make it both ways. It's a little bit unsettling maybe, bringing a [backup] in [...] But yeah, that's something you could consider for sure. Maybe it is something we need to look at."
Of course, it's one thing to acknowledge the validity of Leistikow's premise, and quite another for Ferentz to actually pull the trigger on a QB change — especially after dismissing the idea after Saturday's loss.
The last time he did it midseason? In 2008, benching Jake Christensen for Ricky Stanzi after a 21-20 loss to Pitt. Stanzi and Christensen were already in a rotation of sorts at that point, though, and Sullivan's role hasn't expanded to that point (yet), so fans shouldn't be holding their breath for a new signal-caller.
If McNamara can't start making his makeables with the regularity Ferentz and fans both expect out of a Big Ten starting quarterback, though, Iowa's head man may not find himself with much of a choice if he wants to salvage what's left of the 2024 season.
