Iowa Football: 3 takeaways from slim win against Purdue in Week 8

3. Nate Stanley continues to struggle for Iowa

Iowa opened the year 4-2 through the first half of the regular season. The successes and failures alike have largely been due to the fact that quarterback Nate Stanley has been a caretaker rather than a dynamic generator of offense. The Hawkeyes passer has yet to throw for more than 300 yards per game, averaging 252 yards and 1.5 touchdowns per game through his first six starts.

Against Purdue, Stanley showed promise once again only to also struggle when trying to do too much on the field. The quarterback racked up 260 yards through the air as he completed 23 of his 33 passes.

But he failed to get into the endzone, which has been an issue all season long for the Iowa passing game. Stanley also tossed a costly third-quarter interception that allowed the Boilermakers to stay in the game when it looked like the Hawkeyes were about to break the game wide open.

On a day when Iowa had issues running the football, they needed Nate Stanley to be a world-beater. Their quarterback showed glimpses of greatness, but he also proved incapable of giving the Hawkeyes complete separation on the scoreboard. Just when it looked like he was ready to break out, Stanley regressed right back to his mean.