Nate Stanley, Iowa Hawkeyes stumble at Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — Nate Stanley had his worst performance as a Hawkeye, but he had a lot of help.

After a week were everyone Hawkeye walked three feet off the ground, Iowa's offense was held to a half empty can of chew. No. 8 Wisconsin held the Hawkeyes to 66 yards of total offense. We've been over that part.

Stanley's day included a fumble where the ball slipped out of his hands. He completed just 8 of 24 passes for 41 yards (he almost had that in the first quarter in last week's win over Ohio State). He had an early shotgun snap hit him in the hip. He was sacked four times. He threw a second half interception that he termed a 'bad ball.'

It was Stanley's worst outing. Let's soften this a bit, because the Menomonie, Wis., native didn't do this all by himself. Also, this is week 10 and Stanley is a true sophomore in his first year as starter. It was bad timing on the 'worst performance' thing, but Stanley hadn't had one of these until mid-November.

'They brought stuff that we thought they would, they just did a great job executing it,' Stanley said. 'They did better than we did.'

Bad day for Stanley, bad day for Iowa's offense. Historically bad.

Nate Stanley was 8 of 24 for 41 yards and an INT.November 11, 2017

Nate Stanley was 8 of 24 for 41 yards and an INT.pic.twitter.com/824H1n3Eot

— On Iowa (@GazetteOnIowa)

Iowa was out-gained 382-66.

— The Hawkeyes had at least four drops, maybe more. True freshman wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette dropped a ball on a third-and-2 early in the second quarter and the drops continued from there.

'It's kind of been us this season,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'We're not good enough offensively not to execute play late. Little missed throws, inches make a difference there and we've got to catch it.

— Wisconsin gets a ton of run for its 3-4 defense and how it creates pressure on the quarterback. Note here that everyone Iowa said they knew what the Badgers were going to do. Still, Wisconsin created free runners in the pass rush.

Too free, at times. UW linebacker Ryan Connelly had Stanley in his sights and tripped and fell. He joked about it after the game. The winner gets to screw up and joke about it in the postgame.

'I get too excited when I go through the gap unblocked,' Connelly said. 'I have to make sure that I bring the quarterback to the ground.'

— With the pass rush being what it was, Iowa's playcalling was stuck on the line of scrimmage. The Badgers' secondary was shut down. The Hawkeyes tried only three passes of more than 10 yards.

'I don't think we saw them do anything that we weren't prepared for, they just played really good football,' Ferentz said. 'We've got nine games of film on these guys. I don't think we saw anything new out there.'

That's kind of the anatomy of a historically bad offensive performance. Turnovers (three), sacks (four) and a 1.0 average yards per carry on 26 attempts.

So, what now? Stanley has been an adult about this all season. He won the job in August and handled that with aplomb. Stanley and the Hawkeyes were kings of the world last week. Stanley's demeanor didn't budge.

Expect an adult response.

'Nate is such an impressive guy,' Ferentz said. 'He had a tough night tonight. That's a rough deal, it's part of sports. If you're a quarterback, not that you want to get used to it, but it's going to happen to you. That's the way it goes sometimes. It was a tough night for him, nothing was really flowing at all. He probably didn't play his best game.

'I'll tell you, he's a quality guy. I'm so glad he's our quarterback. He'll learn from this, just like all of us will. He'll grow from it and we'll be better as a result of it.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com