The Iowa Hawkeyes had an incredibly strong performance against the Washington Huskies last week. When everything was final, they dominated Washington with a final score of 40-16.

After a tough loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes the week before, getting this win was huge. Kirk Ferentz and Co. are back in business and made an extremely good impression.

After this win, CBS Sports even listed Iowa as a top contender in the Big Ten. That alone shows how positively the media viewed the Hawkeyes’ performance against the Huskies.

Looking ahead to next weekend’s game, Iowa will face the Michigan State Spartans.

ESPN’s FPI has announced the projected winner of this week’s game. The Hawkeyes have a 71.2 percent chance of winning.

That shouldn’t be a surprise. On paper, Iowa should win this weekend’s game. They are the better team on both sides of the football.

However, there is one concern that continues to be an Achilles heel for the Hawkeyes. Cade McNamara couldn’t get going in the passing game. Iowa has relied almost entirely on star running back Kaleb Johnson to consistently drive the football.

Luckily, Johnson was able to handle most of that workload. However, he was suspended against Ohio State because the Buckeyes disrespected McNamara and the passing game.

This season, Johnson caught 118 carries for 937 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also caught 12 passes for 53 yards and a score.

If Iowa wants to keep winning, they need Johnson to maintain his production level, but they also need McNarama to improve. They need to get to a point where he can consistently generate around 200 yards of passing offense.

Hopefully the Hawkeyes will realize he is capable of doing that in the future. He has a great chance for a big performance against Michigan State, whose defense isn’t very good against either the run or the pass.

That being said, it will be interesting to see how Iowa looks against the Spartans this weekend.