By Pat Harty

EVANSTON, Ill. – Iowa running back Akrum Wadley used the word frustrating over and over to describe his team’s 17-10 loss at Michigan State three weeks ago.

The senior from New Jersey used that word again on Saturday to describe the 17-10 overtime loss at Northwestern, but added another word that shows his frustration is growing.

“It’s embarrassing,” Wadley said. “We shouldn’t be losing, especially to that team.”

But lose is what Iowa did for the third time in its last four games.

The same Iowa team that was 3-0 heading into conference play is now 4-3 overall, 1-3 in conference play and desperately searching for answers on offense.

Wadley rushed for 90 yards against Northwestern, which is respectable until you realize that it took him 26 carries to achieve that total. That averages out to 3.5 yards per carry for a running back who had a 6.2 career rushing average heading into this season.

Saturday's game was a dramatic change from two years ago when Wadley shredded Northwestern for 204 rushing yards during a 40-10 victory, and he did so despite running behind a depleted offensive line.

Wadley said it’s hard to pin point one thing when asked what is causing the running game to struggle.

Injuries are certainly a factor, considering Iowa was without two starters on the offensive line on Saturday.

Starting right tackle Ike Boettger is out for the rest of season after suffering an Achilles injury against Iowa State, while starting guard Boone Myers dressed for Saturday’s game but didn’t play because of an ankle injury that has hampered him since preseason camp.

But injuries also are an excuse because every college football team is battered and bruised at this stage of the season.

The Iowa running game has sputtered throughout the season for reasons that are hard to explain and hard for fans to accept.

“We’re a better football team when we can run the ball efficiently,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. “It’s always been that way. But that is our plan and will continue to be our plan.

“So we’re going to try and do a better job there. And then we’ve got to do a little bit better job of making plays that are makeable.”

Iowa doesn’t have enough talent on offense to compensate for a sputtering rushing attack. So when the running game breaks down, the play book gets trimmed down and the machine ultimately breaks down.

“I think it kind of closes the playbook a little bit,” Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley said of what happens to the offense when the running game is ineffective. “It just comes down to making some more plays than we did and us not executing the way we wanted to.”

Saturday’s loss wasted a gutsy performance by the Iowa defense, which was without All-Big Ten linebacker Josey Jewell and starting free safety Brandon Snyder because of injuries.

Northwestern only scored 17 points and had 339 yards in a game that went into overtime. The Wildcats also converted on just 4-of-16 third-down plays.

So without question, the Iowa defense performed well enough to win, but the offense, under the direction of first-year offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, failed to hold up its end of the deal.

Iowa’s record under Kirk Ferentz fell to 2-8 in road games coming off a bye week.

The chance to accomplish something special this season probably is out of reach, but there still are five games left to right the ship.

“Leadership at this point is everything,” said senior linebacker Ben Niemann, who finished with 11 tackles in Saturday’s game. “We’re not where we want to be, but we have control over where this is going to go and end up.

“So it’s up to us older guys to try to keep pushing and get this thing in the right direction.”

It’s hard to envision Iowa having much success down the stretch if the running game continues to struggle.

The Hawkeyes will face Minnesota and Ohio State in the next two games at Kinnick Stadium before traveling to Wisconsin on Nov. 11 for arguably the toughest road game on the schedule.

Iowa will play host to Purdue on Oct. 18 before closing the regular at Nebraska on Black Friday.

There isn’t an easy game left on the schedule, especially for a team that can’t do what it relies on the most, which is run the ball.

There are times when Iowa seems timid and confused on offense when it can’t sustain a rushing attack, as the loss at Michigan State on Sept. 30th so painfully demonstrated. Wadley and his cohorts were held to just 19 rushing yards on 25 attempts against the Spartans.

Since 2015, Iowa is 23-1 in games when it rushes for at least 100 yards and 0-10 when it doesn’t.

Iowa also struggled to run at times last season, but it was sort of glossed over after the Iowa offensive line won the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate offensive line. You now have to wonder if the 2016 Joe Moore Award was given to Iowa more as a lifetime achievement award for Kirk Ferentz.

The fact that Iowa has a new offensive line coach might be contributing to the misery up front, but you can’t blame everything on Tim Polasek. It wasn't his decision to keep running Wadley between the tackles where there was little to no space.

Wadley is a special talent, but he barely weighs 190 pounds and he needs room to operate.

You kept waiting for Brian Ferentz to make an adjustment with his play calling, but it never happened. He kept running Wadley between the tackles where Wadley's elusiveness is wasted.

But you also can’t blame the rushing attack for everything that went wrong on Saturday. Iowa also was hurt by several dropped passes, the most costly being Noah Fant’s drop on fourth down in overtime.

Wadley had no comment when asked if he’d like to have a bigger role in the passing attack. He only had three catches for five yards in Saturday’s game.

But by saying no comment, Wadley seems to have said a lot.