I agree the pass protection wasn't great. But I think more times than not there was enough time to throw downfield. Especially if Fant or Hockenson is Stanley's first read. We just didn't even attempt it. Our first target to the TE's was 2/3rds of the way into the 3rd quarter. There are also other ways to buy a QB more time if necessary. Put an extra running back in to help pick up the blitz if we have to. The vertical passing game just wasn't an emphasis of the preparation for this game.
In my opinion in games like this, a 50/50 deep ball to our tall athletic TE's is >>>> than 3 and out and 30 yard punt.
I'm not sure how you know that Fant or Hockenson wasn't the first read on any number of plays. If you were at the game maybe you saw what I and others couldn't see on TV. There were some times when he had enough time in the pocket, but he definitely had a case of the yips most of the game, always afraid he was about to be sacked or hit. The pocket collapsed often enough for him to worry about it.
I remember on one play in particular he motioned for Butler to switch sides while he was in the shotgun even though a safety ran up to the line of scrimmage on the side of the ball where Butler had been. That guy blitzed and there was no one to pick him up. That's on Stanley. I think a number of plays were on Stanley. But he didn't have time very often and certainly not consistently. He had to be nearly perfect and a lot of his throws were off. Some of those balls we're calling drops would have been very tough catches for even really, really good WRs. But, yeah, it wasn't just the line. The line play was the worst problem, though.
But Stanley and the WRs crapped the bed, too. I don't know about the TEs other than it seemed that they were covered plenty. No one on offense ever got into a rhythm. UW deserves a lot of credit, most of it even, but gaining only 66 yards is on the players AND the coaches. I'm not sure who deserves more blame, though, to be honest because I couldn't tell what the hell the offense was trying to do most of the time other than not give up a safety, a sack, a TFL, or a turnover.
Wadley and Butler are probably the only players on the O who don't deserve much blame. They were pretty much invisible all game, though. And one area where I blame BF was that it wasn't until the 2nd half that he actually ran two running plays in a row. There were a few times when Iowa gained four yards on first down and then tried to pass. Maybe two runs in a row would have ultimately failed, but Iowa never really gave the running game a chance to get going and that would have helped with the passing game. It's obvious now that UW took a long look at the OSU tape and figured out how to take away Iowa's passing game. But BF didn't adjust until the game was out of reach and it seemed they were just running out the clock to get the game over. Every player and coach on offense deserves blame (except the RBs, really).