Iowa’s rushing attack fails to deliver in 17-10 loss at Michigan State
By Pat Harty
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Iowa running back Akrum Wadley was in no mood to talk after Saturday’s 17-10 loss to Michigan State, and really who could blame him?
It’s probably better to say nothing or very little when there isn’t much good to say, and that describes Iowa’s shabby performance on Saturday, which included just 19 rushing yards on 25 attempts, two lost fumbles and a 37.8 average on six punts.
“We’ve just got to execute better,” Wadley said while surrounded by reporters.
When asked if he meant himself, along with the offensive line, Wadley said:
“Everybody.”
That’s what has to be said after a loss like Saturday’s which lowered Iowa’s record to 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, because the last thing Iowa needs right now is for one of its star players to start pointing fingers or deflecting the blame.
Wadley has reason to be frustrated because the Iowa rushing attack has sputtered for much of the season.
Wadley entered Saturday’s game averaging 4.3 yards per carry, which is respectable, but not for somebody who averaged 6.6 yards per carry last season.
Wadley’s longest gain on Saturday was his 9-yard touchdown run that cut the deficit to 14-7 with 12 minutes, 15 seconds left in the second quarter. He actually had a large hole to run through on that play, but on most of his carries, it seemed as if Wadley was running in a phone booth.
Everywhere he turned there were three or four Spartan defenders ready to gang tackle him.
You kept waiting for the Iowa offensive line to assert itself, but it never happened.
Michigan State made things difficult for Iowa’s rushing attack by loading the box, but teams almost always load the box against Iowa.
“There have been times when teams have loaded the box against us and we’ve ran well,” said senior offensive lineman Sean Welsh. “It’s not an excuse. We can’t afford to have any excuses at this point.”
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz also dismissed loading the box as an excuse.
“That’s just part of the deal and we have to find balance,” Ferentz said. “The best way to get balance is we’ve got to do a little better job of coming up with some things that we can do, where we can create that.
“But we’ll work on that this week. Certainly, that will be at the top of the list, that and ball security. And we’ll see if we can’t come up with a better answer next Saturday.”
The players also dismissed the hangover theory in reference to last Saturday's 21-19 loss to Penn State in which the Nittany Lions scored the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
The players were right to do so because hangover theories are silly and nothing more than a convenient excuse for a bad performance.
Iowa blew a golden opportunity to be 5-1 heading into the Oct. 14th bye week, and no, I’m not forgetting about next Saturday’s game against lowly Illinois at Kinnick Stadium.
Should the Hawkeyes lose to Illinois, then we would have a crisis on our hands.
Right now, it’s just a problem that has to be corrected in a hurry.
Injuries on the offensive line have certainly been a factor with starting right tackle Ike Boettger out for the season with a torn Achilles that he suffered against Iowa State.
Center James Daniels also missed the season opener against Wyoming because of an injury, while senior guard Boone Myers has been hampered by an ankle injury.
But that still doesn’t explain or excuse the performance of the offensive line on Saturday.
Iowa returned four starters from an offensive line that won the Joe Moore Award last season as the nation’s top collegiate offensive line. That number has since been cut to three because of Boettger’s injury, but there still is a solid nucleus to build around.
What many assumed would be the strength of the Iowa offense is rapidly turning into a weakness under first-year offensive line coach Tim Polasek.
“Guys like James, Boone and I, we’re really going to have to step it up in terms of our leadership,” Welsh said.
Myers seemed befuddled by the performance of the offensive line. While many of his teammates blamed it mostly on poor execution, Myers said there is more to it than that, but without being specific.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Myers said. “We win and lose as a team. We’ve all got to get better, including myself.”
With exception to the opening drive when Michigan State marched 75 yards for a touchdown on seven plays, the Iowa defense performed well enough to win.
All-Big Ten senior linebacker Josey Jewell matched his career high with 16 tackles for the second consecutive game. He also had three tackles for loss and a forced a fumble.
Michigan State only rushed for 88 yards and finished with 300 total yards. Those kinds of statistics often lead to a loss, but not on Saturday because the Iowa offense failed to capitalize.
“I think it starts off with us in the first half,” Jewell said of the Iowa defense. “We didn’t play like we wanted to. We need to be more efficient.”
Iowa’s problems might have started on defense, but Jewell was being far too critical of his unit. He was being a good teammate because anybody who watched Saturday’s game knows what really happened.
The inability to mount a rushing attack, coupled with two lost fumbles doomed Iowa.
"The defense is always doing their job," Wadley said. "They keep us in it, they fight, and we've just got to execute better."
Sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley lost one of the fumbles after the ball slipped out of his hand while trying to throw a pass in the third quarter.
Freshman receiver Brandon Smith had the other fumble on a play in the third quarter in which he caught the ball near the line of scrimmage. The ball then was knocked loose as Smith tried to break a tackle.
“Trying to do a little bit too much, probably on that play instead of taking what was there,” Ferentz said of Smith. “He’s going to have to grow from that, and hopefully, be better the next time in.
“And Nate’s done a lot of good thing, but that looked like a freak play from where I was standing and watching the replay. Tough opportunity there, but you just have to play through those things.”
It would be easy to over-react after such a disappointing loss, but this is Iowa football under Kirk Ferentz where nothing hardly ever comes easy.
Social media was flooded with fans demanding a quarterback change and questioning the play-calling of first-year coordinator Brian Ferentz.
My response to that is settle down and let’s see if the offense can steer back in the right direction.
Brian Ferentz was considered the savior on offense after he was hired to replace the much-maligned Greg Davis, who retired shortly after last season.
And now just a month into the season, Brian Ferentz is being blamed for the offensive woes, even though Stanley entered Saturday’s game with 12 touchdown passes and just one interception.
I wasn’t expecting Stanley to be a star this season. I figured he would complement the rushing attack as a serviceable quarterback.
Stanley certainly has a lot of room for improvement, but so does the offensive line.
And that’s something I didn’t expect to write five games into the season.