“It was definitely tough, this is not what I wanted to do coming home,” Lombardi said. “At the end of the day, we just have to learn from it. I try to stay as level-headed as I can and I think I got better throughout the game, but obviously the turnovers kill games.”

Lombardi’s first drive was indicative of what the day would be for the Spartans as the offensive line broke down and Lombardi rolled out of the pocket and forced a ball downfield for his first interception of the day.

Lombardi’s target Jalen Nailor appeared to come back on a route where he should have continued to go up-field. 

Lombardi’s second interception came after the pocket collapsed once again for Lombardi, the ball was thrown to tight end Trenton Gillison who was blanketed by linebacker Barrington Wade, who intercepted the ball and returned it to the Spartan 24 yard line.

Lombardi’s third interception essentially sealed the game for the Hawkeyes, as Riley Moss was able to intercept yet another forced ball due to the pocket collapsing in on Lombardi.

“I think I just tried to do a little bit too much,” Lombardi said. “I saw that we needed to make some plays and I probably overstepped my boundaries a little bit. It comes back to processing the play, playing each play as an individual game and that’s what we're going to do next week.”

Moss broke down what he saw in that play as he returned the interception for the touchdown.

“We were in cover two, one disappeared and two was vertical so I sank, and then the ball was a perfect throw to me,” Moss said. “I was talking to Joe Evans after and he said he gave up his body on the return. I couldn’t have returned it without Joe Evans or any of those defensive lineman.”

The pressure that collapsed the pocket many times for Lombardi is what disrupted the MSU offense. Iowa defensive lineman Chauncey Golston said that the game plan was to disrupt Lombardi’s rhythm by blitzing and creating pressure.

“We saw that against Michigan, they were beating them on deep balls and to be able to throw the deep ball you have to have a clean pocket or at least time to throw the ball,” Golston said. “We knew that if we got pressure and we stopped the run, that we could do what we enjoy doing, and that’s rushing the passer.”

Golston felt that Lombardi couldn’t handle the blitzes if they were able to get pressure throughout the game.

“When he sees pressure, he flinches,” Golston said. “We knew that if we got pressure early and consistent, he would get high passes. That happened a few times on key third downs when he threw the ball high because we got a bull rush and put the offensive lineman in his face.”

Michigan State Head Coach Mel Tucker despite the performance felt that his starting quarterback was able to remain strong throughout.

“He was consistent emotionally throughout the game,” Tucker said. “We talked during the game about continuing to play the next play. Move on. Execution. Continue to lead. Stay with your guys, and keep working.”

The one thing working again for Lombardi and the Michigan State offense was the deep ball. 

The junior quarterback was able to find Nailor for two passes for over 50 yards in the loss, including one that set up the only score for the Spartans on the day.

“That’s one of their (Iowa defense) strengths is taking away the big pass,” Lombardi said. They do a good job of that, it also wasn’t really our gameplan. We knew they were strong in that category, so we tried to attack them underneath and do what we could there. It’s just about taking what the defense gives you and against Iowa, they're not going to give many deep shots, so we took what we could and executed what we could.”

With the game Iowa's hands, Lombardi was subbed out for redshirt freshman Payton Thorne, who missed his only pass attempt of the day to open tight end Tyler Hunt on fourth and short.

Lombardi’s tasks do not get any easier next week against the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers, who will be looking to continue their strong play heading into East Lansing.

“We lost to Rutgers, which was a big loss, and the team didn’t pout about, we didn’t think we were going to go 0-8, we came together and we ended up beating Michigan,” Lombardi said. “It’s going to have to be the same thing this week. Go back, show up on Sunday, show up on Monday ready to work, have a good week of practice and then give Indiana our best.”