Iowa football gets shut out against Penn State. What happened?

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Iowa was thoroughly and decisively crushed in every facet Saturday night in a loss so unredeemable that to give credence to conjecture and hypotheticals would be disrespectful to the sport of football.

The final score: Penn State 31, Iowa 0. It was Iowa’s first shutout loss since a 31-0 defeat to Illinois in 2000. That game was not televised. Unfortunately for Iowa, this one aired in prime time.

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Here are a few quick takeaways from this devastation before saving some level of analysis for a different rainy delay.

What the hell happened? Offense

There’s no other way to say it: The offense is a disaster. Whether it’s the coordination, the game planning, the execution or a rain-soaked happy face emoji at the end of the stat sheet, there was nothing of redeeming value on Saturday night. In the second and third quarters, Iowa held the ball for 13 plays and gained minus-12 yards.

Penn State has a great defense at all three levels. The Nittany Lions always are good, but with an elite secondary to go with a pass rush and talented linebacking corps (which did not have to flex on Saturday), the Hawkeyes were going to struggle to churn yards. But this was below any kind of standard.

So who is at fault? Let’s start with the offensive coordinator, Brian Ferentz. Was there a plan he could have devised that would have kept Iowa in the game? I don’t think so. But absolutely nothing worked, which goes back to the man calling plays. Yes, the Drive for 325 is in full gear this week.

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What about quarterback Cade McNamara? He deserves plenty of blame. He was 5 of 14 passing for 42 yards. There weren’t many receivers open and he didn’t hit them when they were. He was pulled early in the fourth quarter, probably more for mercy than anything.

Finally, the offensive line bears responsibility, too. They got thrashed by Penn State’s pass rush and didn’t open up any holes. This deserves another look.

What the hell happened? Defense

This was reminiscent of the 2016 annihilation here when Penn State put up 599 yards. The Hawkeyes couldn’t stop anyone that night, but the Nittany Lions had better personnel back then than now.

Iowa gave up more than 200 rushing yards Saturday, which goes against its program tenet of stopping the run first. The Hawkeyes allowed nine third-down conversions. Yes, the offense was abysmal, but the defense owns a major chunk of giving more than 45 minutes of possession time to Penn State. It’s a bad day for the defense, and it will survive. But this also leaves a mark.

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Where to go from here?

Although fans might want the Hawkeyes (3-1) to forfeit the season, they still have eight games remaining. Next week, Iowa plays at night against Michigan State. There are many anecdotes about Iowa rallying from a bad loss to put together a good win the next week. We’ll save those stories for another day. This stinker needs to linger a bit.

(Photo: Matthew O’Haren / USA Today)