Iowa football ‘cannot beat Ohio State with below-average quarterback play,’ CBS analyst Gary Danielson says

IOWA CITY — Cade McNamara has done something no other current Iowa football player has done. He has defeated Ohio State.

It was 2021 — McNamara’s last full season as Michigan’s starting quarterback. The Wolverines ran the ball 41 times, avoided negative-yardage plays and snapped their eight-game losing streak against Ohio State with a 42-27 victory.

“It had been so long since we won (against Ohio State),” McNamara said this week while not getting too nostalgic. “That was an awesome game.”

Now in his second season as the starting quarterback at Iowa, McNamara will be looking to end another Big Ten team’s unsightly streak against Ohio State. The Hawkeyes have lost eight straight games at Ohio Stadium, with their last win happening in 1991.

As much as Iowa’s offense has thrived because of its rushing attack, what McNamara accomplishes in the air could be crucial for the Hawkeyes’ chances of pulling off the upset.

“They cannot beat Ohio State with below-average quarterback play,” CBS lead college football analyst Gary Danielson said Wednesday in a phone call with The Gazette. “You have to play quarterback at a high level if you think you’re going to knock off Ohio State.”

McNamara “doesn’t have to throw for 300” yards for Iowa to win, but he at least needs to have “something similar to how he played when he was with Michigan.”

“It doesn’t have to be C.J. Stroud-level,” said Danielson, who will be on the call for Saturday’s Iowa-Ohio State game alongside Brad Nessler on CBS.

When McNamara was with Michigan that day in 2021, he went 13-of-19 for 159 yards with one interception.

So far in 2024, McNamara has completed 62.7 percent of his passes while throwing three touchdowns and two interceptions. McNamara’s relatively efficient completion percentage comes with the caveat that his 9.19 yards per completion ranks 122nd out of 126 qualifying FBS quarterbacks this season.

Only 5.9 percent of McNamara’s throws so far this year have gone 20-plus yards, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s the lowest among Big Ten quarterbacks with at least 40 dropbacks.

“If a team doesn’t believe you’re going to throw the deep ball, it makes it harder to throw the short ball,” Danielson said while noting how experienced Ohio State’s secondary is. “If they sense that the game plan is ‘we want to avoid sacks and get rid of the ball quick,’ it makes every throw tougher and tougher for the quarterback to complete.”

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz believes the Hawkeyes are “making progress” in the passing game.

“I was not overly concerned about the statistics coming out of the last game,” Ferentz said, alluding to McNamara’s 11-of-19, 62-yard performance against Minnesota. “I was really pleased with the way we played and just the way we responded in that game.”

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Offensive coordinator Tim Lester went a step further in his praise of McNamara’s performance against Minnesota.

“This is going to go against the popular opinion, but I actually think last game was one of his best games,” Lester said during Iowa’s well-timed bye week. “Everything is about your feet and timing in the passing game. … I was very impressed with his feet.”

McNamara himself said last week’s bye was “huge” for the offense to “grow as a unit, whether that’s in the run game or passing game.”

“When you’re not really focusing on an opponent as much at the beginning of the week, you’re really able to take the time to correct what you’re doing on the field,” McNamara said. “I definitely do think we got better last week.”

If Saturday’s game backs up Iowa’s optimism about McNamara, the Hawkeyes’ odds of winning in Columbus for the first time in 33 years could rise. Otherwise, McNamara will have to settle for only breaking one losing streak against Ohio State in his career.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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