It’s never good when I start drinking during an Iowa football game. There’s pretty much no way for any of you to know this about me, but I’m not really a big drinker (regardless of the actual amount of alcohol within arm’s reach as I write this). I rarely drink when I golf (and I golf a lot), or fish (which I don’t do much of anymore), and I almost never drink while watching football. I’ll drink AFTER watching football, generally in a celebratory manner, but last night I popped open the bourbon in the 2nd quarter and didn’t put it away until the 2:00 mark of the 4th, so yeah, not a good night.

I know that I picked Iowa to lose this game back when I did the October preview, but that was before they thoroughly dismantled a Washington team that, by nearly every measure, is better than this Michigan State team. That was before Iowa finally put it together all 3 pahses and didn’t just win half of a game but dominated one and put a team away. So I let MSU’s first drive (8 plays, 54 yards, 3 points) go. Not a terrible start for a night game on the road, held them to a FG, just fine. I even let Iowa’s first drive three and out go, it’s just Lester getting adjusted right? Ok, another long drive (9 plays, 65 yards) but still just 3 points, Phil will get the secondary sorted, we’ll be fine. Hrmmm, another 3 and out, we’ve basically wasted an entire quarter here, but KJ will get loose soon enough, right?

Yeah, by the 12-minute mark of the 2nd quarter, I was already drinking, and it didn’t really get much better did it? The offense came out of halftime looking like it had found its footing, but those defensive adjustments just never really landed, and I swallowed what was left of my last drink right as Nate Carter punched it in from the 1-yard line to seal the win for Sparty. There would be no last second heroics this game, no quick score, quick stop and a field goal to win, hell, we couldn’t even force a MSU punt. So, while it is still the offense, it’s now also the defense, and that is a tough row to hoe my friends.

The QB Non-Controversy

We’re all well versed in Kirk Ferentz’s loyalty to his quarterback. Christensen, Rudock, Hill, and now McNamara have all been given enough rope to not only hang themselves but to drag the team down with them. Yes, I intentionally left Spencer Petras off that list because, well, we saw Padilla play and it really wasn’t any better. Stanzi was better, Beathard was better, as rough as Spencer could be, it was a tossup there and it might be a tossup here as well. Brendan Sullivan was unable to lock down the starting job at Northwestern, so maybe he isn’t better than Cade, but they obviously think he’s a better option in the red zone, so why exactly is the rest of the field seemingly off limits?

Here’s the reality of the situation, this season is over. There’s nothing left to play for that’s worth playing for other than pride and to get experience for next year. Cade is done, he’s out of eligibility, he’s out of confidence, and he’s fresh out of good knees, so this program gains absolutely nothing by continuing to run him out there to miss wide-open receivers and complete ~50% of the throws that every quarterback should make 100% of the time. He’s timid, he’s throwing off his back foot, and is obviously not on the same page as his receivers most of the time (no, I’m not going to include a clip of his INT here, but that was the worst pick I’ve seen a QB throw in quite some time).

If Sullivan is QB1 for 2025 then he should start every game from here on out, and if Cade was the kind of leader that everyone says he is, he’d advocate for that to happen. He has to know that he’s done, there’s not a team in the world that would pay him and his knees to play QB for them, especially after this season, he’s got two choices, put on the red hat and start thinking about coaching or let it go and get ready to go into whatever field of study he’s currently engaged in, because this is his last 2.5 months as a football player. More importantly, right now Sullivan (because of his mobility) gives Iowa a better chance to win football games.

I stated in the BHGP Discord last night that if McNamara started next week I would stop watching the rest of the season. That was a lie, I’m a junkie, but I will not be happy about it, especially if he leads this team to another subpar performance where he completes less than 50% of his passes and throws as many INTs as TDs.

Trouble in the Backfield

I don’t think we realized just how good our secondary has been the last few years, at least not until this season started and, for what seems like the first time in a decade, we’ve only got 1-2 NFL caliber players in the defensive backfield.

Jermari Harris is a dude and, without a doubt, the best player we have in the secondary. This is evidenced by the fact that teams don’t go anywhere near him. I think I counted 3 passes to his side of the field against MSU and they were all safety valves (1 completed I think for a 2-3 yard gain). There’s no doubt that he will be playing on Sundays.

Sebastian Castro is the second best guy in the backfield but I’m not sure he’s done much this season to improve his draft stock. He’s become a liability when it comes to tackling (soo many shoulder checks instead of just wrapping up), but there’s no arguing that the defense is better with him on the field, especially with his instincts when it comes to run support. Koen Entringer may be the next great Iowa Cash, but he’s not there yet and Zach Lutmer has plenty of work to do as well.

Xavier Nwankpa was supposed to have his breakthrough year this year, but what we’ve seen is inconsistency and, well, some really bad decisions in coverage. I hope he’ll get it together, but with Quinn Schulte not exactly being Mr. Reliable from his safety spot either our guaranteed backstop has turned into a big question mark week to week.

Left Corner has been a disaster all season, at least since week 2. The trio of Deshaun Lee, TJ Hall, and John Nestor have been, well, bad. Just bad. Lee escapes blame for what happened in East Lansing (not sure if he was an injury or just a DNP – Coach’s decision), but he hasn’t been great (PFF rating of 60.9 for his last 4 games) and his height (or lack thereof) has been an issue. Not that TJ Hall or John Nestor were much better Saturday night (32.3 and 46.9 PFF grades respectively). It’s been an issue all season and it’s not getting better, Phil needs to get this one figured out and quick.

Feast or Famine

The Defensive Line looked as good as it has all season against Washington with almost everyone getting involved. Graves had multiple sacks and 2 forced fumbles, Yahyah Black blocked a FG and was gobbling up double teams all night. Craig finally got to a QB (even if it didn’t count as a sack) and Hurkett was getting good pressure from the edge most of the night. Brian Allen recorded his 3rd sack and Max Llewellyn picked up a half sack to equal Hurkett. Once they got Will Rodgers out of his rhythm they couldn’t be stopped.

Whatever they found last week in Iowa City got left there when they travelled to East Lansing. Sparty managed to get them out of position all night and, when they weren’t running all over them to the tune of 212 rushing yards, Aidan Chiles had ALL night to throw all night. Yes, the officials were definitely letting holding calls go, but let’s be honest, the line wasn’t getting the kind of drive they need to get those calls. I’d wager that there is holding on 100% of the plays in your average college football game, but it only gets called when it’s obvious that the holding is giving one side an obvious advantage, like when a DE blows by a guard and it’s either grab him or give up a sack. Iowa’s DLine didn’t generate that kind of pressure Saturday, so they didn’t get the calls (even when MSU straight up tackled them).

This is not the first time this has happened either, in fact, in all 3 of Iowa’s losses they have accumulated a total of 3 sacks, 1 per game, with none of those sacks coming from a starting DLineman (Llewellyn snagged 1 against ISU, Nick Jackson has the other 2). Needless to say, the Dline needs to find some consistency (I’m sensing a theme).

Line Troubles

This offensive line came into the season with 130+ starts under it’s belt and yet it still can’t seem to pass protect. I’m not going to put all that much blame on them for a rushing attack that is stymied by 8 & 9 man boxes, but they have to answer for their role in a subpar passing game. I haven’t watched games with a stopwatch, but let’s be honest, Cade is nervous for a reason, and it’s fairly valid. Logan Jones is not only a liability on every snap (especially in the gun), but he’s just awful in protection. Unfortunately there’s no fixing that issue because the only real option that’s better (Tyler Elsbury) is now covering for Beau Stephens (and hopefully making the line calls from his RG spot).

Regardless of who is to blame (George Barnett) this line is just not up to snuff and it shows. Cade is hurried, harried and too often having to make throws he may not want to make just to get the ball out quickly. Iowa used to be the school for offensive lineman, at this point I’m not sure that we’ll be that, or TEU, for much longer and I think we need to start asking tough questions, like…

How good are we, really?

I’m going to wrap this up because, well, I’m rapidly approaching 2000 words and I can’t expect you good people to spend this much time with my column every week, so I’ll keep the answer short and simple.

This is an average Iowa team that could run the table and spend the Christmas holiday somewhere warm, but 6-6 is definitely on the table, and there’s nothing more average than .500.

This is the only highlight from Saturday night worth watching:

As always, GO HAWKS!!!