Iowa's most ambitious season goals took a major hit Saturday night, as host Michigan State controlled the tempo and physicality of the game and came away 32-20 victors, pushing Iowa to 4-3 (2-2) with five games left in the regular season.
Cade McNamara was hounded into an 11-for-23 passing performance for just 150 yards, while the Hawkeye defense couldn't force a single punt from the Spartans for the game.
FOUR DOWNS
1. One good quarter can't save McNamara's dreadful performance. Cade McNamara's day was not good by anyone's definition of quality quarterback play: 11-for-23, 150 yards, a touchdown and a pick. With Iowa outgained by nearly 200 yards in the loss, McNamara's habit of inaccurate throws reared its ugly head at the worst time.
And yet, even the numbers belie how bad McNamara looked Saturday. Aside from a 5-for-6 third quarter, when McNamara threw for 85 yards and his only score of the game, he went 5-for-17 for 65 yards and this backbreaking interception off an apparent miscommunication:
McNamara missed several open throws on the night, in every direction imaginable: overthrows, underthrows, behind and too far in front of his targets. While Iowa's still-young receivers haven't often had strong games holding up their own end of the bargain for most of the season, none of them were credited with a drop in the official scoring, and only a Jacob Gill penalty for illegal touching on Iowa's last play of the game — wiping out what would have been 1st-and-goal in the final minute, when the game was functionally over — qualifies as an error by Iowa's receivers.
If there's any consolation to be had, it's that McNamara's rapport with true freshman Reece Vander Zee seems to be improving; Vander Zee caught McNamara's only touchdown of the game with a sensational leaping catch — while drawing a pass interference flag, no less:
Still, McNamara's consistency is simply nowhere to be found, and any exhortations for patience with Iowa's 24-year-old signal-caller, with only five games left in the regular season, are likely to fall on deaf ears from the Kinnick faithful for the rest of the season.
2. Suddenly, the defense can't get off the field. Perhaps the most shocking stat of the game was Phil Parker's vaunted Hawkeye defense not forcing a single punt from the Spartans for the game, in 11 drives.
Seven of Michigan State's 11 drives ended in field goal attempts — six of which ended in points — while two more resulted in touchdowns, one ended in a Koen Entringer interception (which Iowa did not convert into points), and the last was, mercifully, a kneel-out to end the game.
All told, Michigan State gained 468 yards of offense on the Hawkeyes, which is about like a normal team allowing a cool thousand in regulation.
Worse, the Spartans had 27 first downs to Iowa's 12, and even with a pair of crucial missed holding calls on the Spartans' last drive helping to extend the drive that culminated in the clinching touchdown, there's no real argument that Iowa played well enough to deserve a win.
3. Boom-or-bust for Kaleb Johnson can't cut it. Kaleb Johnson provided one of Iowa's few highlights on offense with a 75-yard scamper in the 4th quarter to cut the lead back to 25-20:
Now, the bad news: Johnson still didn't crack 100 yards rushing for the day, finishing with 14 carries for 98 yards.
Though Johnson's big-play ability kept Iowa in the game late, his 13 rushes for 23 yards outside the late scamper resulted in only one first down: a six-yard rush on 2nd and 1 early in the third quarter.
Johnson was stuffed for a loss of 4 (on a play McNamara audibled into, no less) on the very next snap.
The highlight-reel, chunk-play touchdowns make Johnson an easy, obvious focal point of the offense. But the offense also needs to move the chains, and if Johnson can't do that, then it appears nobody on Iowa's offense can — certainly not on Saturday, at least, dooming the team to a well-earned loss.
4. Aidan Chiles is for real. Still, credit does belong to the Spartans for one of their best games of the season — and it starts with their quarterback, 19-year-old Aidan Chiles, who had quite plausibly his best game in the green and white.
Chiles threw for 256 yards and a score, while rushing for 63 more — a career high. Chiles had little difficulty picking apart Iowa's soft zone; a bevy of comebacks, slants and deep outs generated one-on-one matchups that Michigan State's receivers could win with regularity — especially with Iowa unable to depend on TJ Hall, John Nestor or Zach Lutmer to get stops at the second cornerback spot.
When he wasn't dancing circles around Hawkeye defenders in the backfield, Chiles routinely threw to the other side of the field from Iowa's CB1 Jermari Harris, and to great success. Wideouts Nick Marsh (a true freshman) and Montorie Foster Jr. both logged 100+ yards receiving on the day, and it's clear that the Hawkeyes didn't have an answer for everything the talented QB was trying to do.
Iowa came into the game ranking a pedestrian 9th in the Big Ten — still technically in the top half of the (frankly grotesque) 18-team league, but well off the standards set by Phil Parker and the program. Chiles' performance will push the Hawkeyes even further down the list, and until the secondary is shored up once again, mediocre performances like this will only become more commonplace.
