Familiar woes resurface for Cade McNamara in Iowa’s third loss of 2024

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Cade McNamara wasted little time in taking responsibility after Iowa football’s humbling 32-20 loss to Michigan State.

“At the end of the day as a quarterback, I have to play better in order for us to win,” McNamara said less than a minute into his postgame media availability. “And I didn’t do that tonight.”

This time, his comments were from the depths of Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium in a room near the visiting locker room. But Iowa’s starting quarterback has been in this situation before, whether it be in the depths of Kinnick Stadium in Week 2 or Ohio Stadium in Week 6.

In Iowa’s three losses, McNamara has completed only 52.8 percent of his passes while throwing one touchdown and four interceptions. (Add his two fumbles against Ohio State, and that’s six turnovers in Iowa’s three losses.)

He has averaged a meager 4.8 yards per passing attempt in those three games as well.

Most recently, McNamara was 11-of-23 for 150 yards with one touchdown and one interception in the loss to the Spartans. It was far from the only culprit, especially in a game where Iowa’s defense uncharacteristically allowed 468 total yards.

But the lack of passing threat was especially glaring in a game where Michigan State devoted so many resources to trying to stop Iowa’s potent rushing attack.

“They brought the safeties down,” running back Kaleb Johnson said. “They blitzed with the safeties. They blitzed the linebackers.”

Before Johnson’s 75-yard touchdown carry in the fourth quarter, Michigan State held him to 23 yards on 13 carries. It was just the second time that Johnson was held to fewer than 100 yards (and the other time was against then-No. 3 Ohio State).

McNamara’s one interception against Michigan State came as a critical time, as it turned out to be the Iowa offense’s last realistic shot at tying the game. He said it was a “miscommunication” with his intended receiver, tight end Luke Lachey.

“He did the right thing,” McNamara said. “That was 100 percent on me. We were both reading the Mike backer, and then from my perspective, I made the decision where to put the ball. He made the decision how to run the route, and he was right at the end of the day.”

Iowa has a capable No. 2 option with Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan, who has seen limited game action in his unique role as the Hawkeyes’ goal line quarterback.

Ferentz said, however, there was “no real discussion on making a switch” to Sullivan.

“Basically, we didn’t do anything well enough to win tonight, and that’d be included,” Ferentz said when asked by The Gazette about McNamara’s performance. “Cade missed some throws. So we’re going to have to do better in a lot of areas.”

There have been positives for McNamara this season as well. Even after the Michigan State game, he still has completed more than 60 percent of his passes — something Iowa has not done over the course of an entire season since 2015.

But Saturday’s showing was a setback for McNamara, not entirely unlike the setbacks he had before taking questions from reporters in Iowa’s Week 2 loss to Iowa State or Iowa’s Week 6 loss to Ohio State.

“Over the course of the last few weeks now, I’ve been playing really good football, and it just sucks that I wasn’t able to deliver for my team tonight,” McNamara said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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