You assume Banker was dumbfounded, instead of [assuming] he was sending a message to his defense. The glass is never as half empty as you assume it is.
At OSU they got their doors blow off by a team with as much talent on their 3rd string as NU has in its starting 22. Maybe more. They had a puncher's chance with Tommy in. Once he got KO'd it was over. It could have been worse than it was, too, if JT were a more accurate deep ball thrower.
At Iowa they looked like a team that didn't expect to win. Like a bunch of guys who knew their top 2 QBs shouldn't be on the field and their 3rd had been playing WR all year. On top of that, I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't really been banging much 1s v 1s in practice due to the rash of OL injuries they were trying to get over.
The staff wasn't gonna pull redshirts for that game, they lined up one-legged Tommy back there with some nonsense taped to his leg, and everyone played accordingly. Once you saw that the OL couldn't open holes for Newby and TA couldn't run, you knew it was gonna be a long day.
Defense overpursued like they knew they had to put their Superman capes on if NU was going to win that game. Tried to do too much instead of doing their jobs. They let themselves get rattled like they used to.