Steppe’s Stats: Iowa’s pass protection shows significant improvement in Week 1

IOWA CITY — Cade McNamara knows as well as anyone how much a robust offensive line can do for a quarterback. After all, he worked behind a Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line in 2021 (and briefly in 2022).

“Any time a quarterback gets more time, they’re going to enjoy that,” McNamara said Tuesday.

Any time a quarterback who is recovering from a quad injury — like say, McNamara is this fall — gets more time to throw, they will especially enjoy that.

Fortunately for McNamara, Iowa’s offensive line had statistically one of its best days in pass protection in Saturday’s win over Utah State since offensive line coach George Barnett arrived at Iowa in 2021.

McNamara was “kept clean” on about 83.9 percent of dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus, and he averaged 2.79 seconds to throw.

“They gave me all kinds of time last game, and that was their first game, too,” McNamara said. “They’re going to continue to get better.”

If Iowa can continue keeping McNamara clean on 83.9 percent of dropbacks throughout the season, it would be virtually unprecedented, even at a school like Iowa that prides itself on offensive line production.

No Iowa quarterback with at least 40 dropbacks in a season has been kept clean more than 77 percent of the time, according to a Gazette analysis of PFF data that dates back to 2014.

The best was when Spencer Petras was kept clean 76.1 percent of the time in 2020. The next-best was when Iowa protected Nate Stanley 71.3 percent of the time in 2018 and 71.2 percent of the time in 2019.

The only game since 2021 in which Iowa better protected its quarterback, based on PFF’s tracking, was in Iowa’s win over Kent State two years ago. Petras was clean on 86.1 percent of dropbacks in the 30-7 win.

“We obviously saw some things that we can get better at, but I also think there were a lot of good that came out of that game and some things that we could really build on, and definitely the O-line’s pass-pro was one of those things,” McNamara said.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz cited having a “more mature group now” for the improved pass protection.

“We're a little bit more experienced and more capable,” Ferentz said. “It's pretty much the same guys, throwing Rusty Feth on top of it, but same guys that have been here.”

McNamara believes “a lot of it has to do with our defense.”

“We practice against just an unbelievable defense,” McNamara said. “We have all kinds of dudes on the defensive side of the ball. … The looks that we’ve been getting in practice totally helped us out and made the game easier for those guys, honestly.”

Run blocking still needs work

For as much as the pass protection improved, the run blocking was not picturesque Saturday. Iowa averaged 2.4 yards per carry against a middling Mountain West Conference team.

Yards per carry, of course, is not an entirely offensive line-driven statistic, as a ball carrier’s breakaway speed is among the other factors that can influence that number.

But non-sack yardage losses — an opposing team’s tackles for loss subtracted by sacks — demonstrate Iowa’s run-blocking shortcomings.

Iowa had eight non-sack yardage losses against Utah State — more than in any game of the 2022 season. In fact, it was more than in last year’s games against Kentucky, Nebraska and Minnesota combined.

Tight end Erick All said position coach Abdul Hodge has emphasized the importance of “having a great first step” as they look to improve in the run game.

"We’ve been struggling on just getting a great first step,” All said. “It's a world of difference from taking a bad first step and a great first step. ... You block with your feet and your footwork and the rest comes later, and we got to figure that out.”

Ferentz attributed the shortcomings in run blocking to Utah State being a “tough preparation” as a new defensive coordinator implemented his system.

“There's some things we might have done differently maybe in retrospect had we known what to expect a little bit more,” Ferentz said.

Establishing the run likely will not be any easier against Iowa State, which held Northern Iowa to 2.9 yards per carry last week.

“The last five years, they've really tackled well at all positions, and you can't say that about every football team,” Ferentz said. “In fact, there's some you can't say that about at all. They've done a great job of that. They're great at getting guys free to the ball, and then they don't miss tackles.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com