By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Imagine what Urban Meyer must be thinking right now.

Ohio State’s head coach probably is asking himself how in the hell did we lose by 31 points to the same Iowa team that has since scored just two touchdowns on offense in back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Purdue.

Iowa’s offensive ineptitude against Wisconsin was one thing. The undefeated Badgers make a lot of offenses look overmatched and outclassed, especially at home.

But to have the same thing happen against a 4-6 Purdue squad at Kinnick Stadium, and on Senior Day, is totally different.

It’s inexcusable and embarrassing, and points to serious flaws within the program.

To hear Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley say that Purdue played harder than Iowa is disturbing. But it’s also a convenient excuse that is used to mask other problems.

“They didn’t show us anything that we didn’t see or prepare for,” Stanley said of Purdue, which ended a four-game losing streak against Iowa. “It’s just tough to prepare for every single look that they have, especially when there are so many of them.

“But they played really well all day. They just played a lot harder than we did.”

It wasn’t that Purdue played harder than Iowa. It just played smarter and better under first-year coach Jeff Brohm.

Iowa made the kind of mistakes during Saturday’s 24-15 loss to the Boilermakers that you would maybe excuse in game one or game two, but certainly not in game 11.

The only thing worse than Iowa’s punting game right now is its punt return game, and that’s with senior Matt VandeBerg returning punts.

No disrespect to VandeBerg, but he looks lost as a punt returner. He often catches the ball when he shouldn’t and doesn’t catch it when he should.

The end result is terrible field position for an offense that struggles to run the ball with any consistency and that drops one pass another.

The same Iowa offense that hardly did anything wrong against the mighty Buckeyes has hardly done anything right in the last two games.

Stanley was asked to explain how that could happen after Saturday’s loss, but his answer was more of the same.

“They were just ready to play more than we were,” Stanley said. “And that’s really all it comes down to.”

The old they-played-harder-than-we-did excuse is often used in situations like this because effort is easier to correct than execution.

But to say that Purdue won because it played harder than Iowa is a slap in the face to the Iowa defense, particularly senior linebacker Josey Jewell, who busted his butt throughout Saturday’s game.

In fairness to Stanley, what is he supposed to say under the circumstances? He would never say that his team was out-coached or that Purdue is a better team.

But on this cold and windy Saturday in late November, Iowa was out-coached and Purdue was the better team.

“We weren't up for the challenge,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. “We weren't equal to it. And part of that was our execution, or lack thereof. And the things that we did or didn't do really seemed to kind of snowball or it was a domino effect if you will. Get a good play, get a penalty, what have you. Don't throw it well enough, don't protect well enough. When we do, we drop it, that type of thing.

“Not sure of the answers. We'll have to get ourselves back on our feet by Monday, though.”

Iowa will close the regular against Nebraska on Black Friday in Lincoln, Neb. Two weeks ago, the game looked to be very winnable, but that isn’t the case anymore.

Iowa would be at risk of losing to lowly Illinois with the way it has played on offense in the last two games.

Nebraska’s program is a mess right now and Mike Riley will almost certainly be fired as head coach shortly after next Friday’s game.

But the 4-7 Cornhuskers have to like their chances against Iowa right now because the Hawkeyes are also a mess on offense, and have been for most of the season under first-year offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

Besides all the dropped passes, Stanley was sacked six times and Iowa was held to just 82 rushing yards.

There are lots of reasons why the offense is sputtering, but it starts with the running game. Only twice this season has Iowa rushed for over 200 yards. The Hawkeyes rushed for 238 yards against North Texas and for 243 yards against Ohio State.

Fans not surprisingly are screaming for changes in the wake of Saturday’s loss, which lowered Iowa’s record to 6-5 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten.

The anti-Kirk Ferentz crowd is back out in full force. They sort of went into hiding after the Ohio State game, but have since resurfaced and are fed up with a program, and a system, that seems to be regressing in year 19 under Ferentz.

Part of their anger and frustration comes from being a prisoner of the moment, but also from having the same head coach for nearly two decades.

It’s silly to think that Kirk Ferentz should be fired, both from a financial standpoint and from a performance standpoint.

But something has to change in a hurry because a frustrated fan base eventually turns into an apathetic fan base. And then you have real problems.

Ferentz has made numerous coaching changes over the past few years, but many of the same problems still exist.

One change that might make sense would be to switch Reese Morgan back to the offensive line coach, a position he held from 2003 to 2011. Morgan has coached the defensive line since 2012 and it’s one of the best units on the team, as was the offensive line when coached that position.

But Morgan is also 67 years old, so you wonder how much longer he plans to coach.

Tim Polasek is in his first season as the offensive line coach and it’s been a struggle for the former North Dakota State offensive coordinator. Polasek had coached about every positon but the offensive line, so maybe he’s in over his head right now.

In defense of Polasek, he hasn't had the luxury of coaching an offensive line at full strength at all this season. Senior Boone Myers suffered a high ankle sprain in preseason practice and tried to gut it out for five games before shutting it down and having surgery, while fellow senior Ike Boettger only started the first two games at right tackle before suffering a season-ending Achilles injury againt Iowa State.

Between the two of them, Myers and Boettger have started 45 games.

Their losses can't be overstated, but you'd also like to think that the Iowa program could do a better job of absorbing these kinds of hits, especially this deep into Kirk Ferentz's reign, and at a position that is considered his area of expertise.

Some fans would like for Kirk Ferentz to change his offense, but that seems unlikely at this stage in his career. The 61-year old Ferentz has won a lot of games using a pro-style offense, but he’s also lost a lot of games, including at least five losses in seven of the last eight seasons.

You could argue that Iowa doesn’t recruit enough talented skill players to offset being predictable on offense.

But there is no arguing that Saturday’s loss to Purdue was unacceptable on many fronts.

Iowa had so much to play for on Saturday, including a Josey Jewell-led senior class that poured its heart and soul into the program, and yet, the offense still laid an egg.

The defense had its moments on Saturday, but why did it take defensive coordinator Phil Parker so long to switch star cornerback Josh Jackson on to Purdue receiver Anthony Mahoungou?  But by the time Parker finally made the switch late in the third quarter, it was too late. Mahoungou already had torched three Iowa cornerbacks for over 100 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

 

The Iowa program has been in this position before under Ferentz. But the longer a coach stays on the job, the more frustrating and maddening a loss like Saturday’s becomes.

And right now, the frustration level is climbing to an all-time high under Kirk Ferentz.