Sure, Helu was probably more responsible for the loss than Lee was. Lee didn't play horribly, but he isn't a good quarterback. I don't know why people continue to try to convince themselves otherwise. Maybe because they have such hatred for the grass-is-greener mentality, that they err on the other side, sticking up for Lee despite him clearly not being a capable BCS conference QB.
Sure we moved the ball decently against Iowa State's mediocre defense. And sure, we would have won had we even held on to one of the five lost fumbles. But that doesn't somehow make Lee a good quarterback. Lee made 2-3 impressive plays the entire game. Other than that it was the Watson dink and dunk, throwing quick screens to the receivers or 10 yard hooks with no reads to the sidelines. So, out of Lee's 20 completions, probably 17 of them could have been made by just about any scholarship quarterback in the FBS.
Even with five lost fumbles, a confident playmaker at quarterback would have won us this game by two scores. Instead we get the super hesitant Lee, who makes you cringe with anxiety anytime he's forced to actually read a coverage and make a throw over the middle of the field. So he mostly sticks to quick, easy passes, although even those are often off-target to a certain degree.
I just think Bo needs to try something different. No one expects Green to be great, but if he can just be a more confident presence and play to the level of a decent FBS QB, this team can actually start winning games, even if it's ugly. If Bo doesn't owe it to the fans, he owes it to himself and mostly to his defense, who's playing their asses off and performing consistently like a top 15 defense, only to have their hearts ripped out because the offense is such a horrible mess.