The Hawkeyes are heading down an all-to-familiar road on offense.

By Blake Dowson | [email protected]

Watching Hawkeye quarterback C.J. Beathard show off his arm last season was refreshing.

Coming on the heels of the Jake Rudock-led dink and dunk offense of 2014, it was like watching the Hulk throw passes downfield.

In the Big Ten Championship game last December, Iowa took the lead early in the fourth quarter on an 85-yard touchdown pass from Beathard to Tevaun Smith.

Apparently Smith didn’t get enough credit for how important he was to the vertical passing attack, because it has become nonexistent once again in 2016.

The offense has grown eerily similar to what it looked like in 2014 — horizontal and not the least bit explosive.

All of that was put on display against Wisconsin, and it will surely appear again versus the likes of Penn State, Michigan, and Nebraska.

Here are some stats from Oct. 22 that help to explain the crisis Iowa is in.

Iowa wide receivers — 8 catches for 59 yards

Even when you combine all of the wide receiver’s catches (only Riley McCarron, Jay Scheel, and Jerminic Smith had receptions) the result is still completely horizontal.

Those 8 catches for 59 yards equate to a little more than 7 yards per catch.

If you take McCarron out of the equation — he had 6 of those catches for 47 yards — the receivers were nonexistent.

And McCarron, all 5-10 of him, does not scare a single Big Ten secondary with his deep-ball ability.

Losing Matt VandeBerg to injury hurt the passing game. But he wasn’t a deep threat, either.

This passing attack has serious problems, because throwing screen after screen to McCarron isn’t going to win football games.

Longest pass play — 21 yards

The receivers only accounted for 59 yards passing, but Beathard did throw for 153.

That’s because running back Akrum Wadley accounted for most of the yardage in the passing game, catching 7 passes for 72 yards.

The only problem though, is that Wadley is no deep threat, either.

He and Beathard hooked up on a 21-yard reception, the longest play of the day for the Hawkeyes.

There have been plenty of times when a running-back screen has turned into an explosive play for the Hawkeyes (there are flashbacks to Jordan Canzeri last year), but one 21-yard catch will not get the job done.

Wadley getting 7 touches through the passing game is a good thing. He has been the most electrifying player on offense all season. So why not send him streaking down field as he did on that touchdown reception against Iowa State?

Think vertical, not horizontal. Wadley is the type of athlete who can burn anybody downfield.

Wadley and LeShun Daniels — 20 carries for 82 yards

Chalk it up to a stout Wisconsin defense, chalk it up to the passing game not scaring the Badgers.

The point is, giving Wadley and Daniels 20 carries combined and getting 82 yards from it won’t win games.

The offensive line takes partial blame for it. After a big-time effort at Purdue in which the Hawkeyes rushed for 365 yards, the line regressed, and Iowa only gained a net of 83.

The passing game has to take part of the blame as well, however, because it’s causing the same problems it did in 2014.

Defenses are no longer scared to stack the box because the deep threat is no longer there.