Iowa’s defense got a little extra juice during football practices this week.
Unity has been the team’s strength through the first half of the season, but Hawkeye’s defenders struggled last Saturday in a 27-14 loss to No. 4-ranked Michigan.
“I think we’re all excited about the defense, especially after Saturday wasn’t our best performance,” defensive tackle Noah Shannon said. “I think we’re all ready, kind of fired up and ready to go, and I think you can see it on the practice field. Everybody’s flying, running to the ball and everything.”
The Wolverines entered last Saturday as the best offense in the nation, averaging 50 points per game. Iowa held them to their season low in points (27), total yards (327) and rushing yards (172). However, those marks were considerably higher than the Iowa defense’s season averages: 5.8 points per game, 236.2 total yards per game, and 73 rushing yards allowed per game.
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Michigan did its damage early, scoring on four of its first five possessions, and dictated the pace throughout, holding a time of possession of nearly 34 minutes.
“We knew they had a big-playing, explosive offense,” Shannon said. “But we definitely didn’t come prepared. We didn’t execute well enough at the end of the day. There’s still a lot we can improve on and that’s the fun thing about football, you’re never 100 percent perfect.”
Iowa plays Illinois on Saturday (6:30 pm on the Big Ten Network). The Illini aren’t as athletically talented as Michigan, but they possess similar threats that hurt Iowa last week. The catalyst for Michigan’s offense was running back Blake Corum, the fourth-ranked running back in the country. Illinois’ Chase Brown leads the nation in rushing yards (733). And unlike previous years, there is balance on offense with transferred quarterback Tommy DeVito leading the pack. He ranks second in the conference in touchdown passes (nine) and fourth in completion percentage (69.9%).
Saturday’s game marks a turning point in Iowa’s season. It is the final game before the bye week, dividing the season into two six-game stretches. This game is also between Michigan and Ohio State, Iowa’s opponent after the bye week. The Hawkeyes have a 1-1 conference record, so a loss on Saturday coupled with a trip to Columbus after the bye would seriously jeopardize their chances of contending for a Big Ten West title.
By all accounts, it’s a must-win game. There’s no question Iowa’s offense needs to move up significantly on Saturday, but the defense also needs to get back in shape for the team to pull off the upset in Champaign. Illinois is a 3 1/2-point favorite.
The silver lining Iowa defenders got going into this week is that the proper adjustments are not major or systematic, but rather a reinforcement of the fundamentals. Michigan’s offense controlled the pace by winning the battle at the line of scrimmage. Likewise, Illinois’ offensive line is outstanding. He has a significant size advantage (averaging 6-foot-5, 318 pounds) and will try to push back Hawkeye’s front seven.
“I don’t think it was too big of a deal other than skirting the fundamentals that we insist on every day,” Shannon said. “It starts with the level of the pad, the backswing and the spread. I think personally I wasn’t spreading enough and the spread leads to taking off blocks and making tackles. I feel like that’s something I’ve really focused on this week. It’s my separation and the ability to make tackles and make plays in the backfield.”
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Senior linebacker Jack Campbell noted that Illinois’ offensive line is particularly good at getting defensive linemen out of their allotted slots on running plays. When that happens, it puts linebackers in a tough position as they have to make quick decisions about what space to fill.
“Any time I see my defensive lineman coming up short, it’s my job to fix it,” Campbell said. “It’s the same for my safeties, if I’m overmatched, then the safeties have to fix it. It’s just little things that we’ve focused on. If someone gets overmatched, then I have to go fill in.” that quick hole and getting my defensive linemen’s double teams out and helping them out, it was more of those kinds of corrections. It is visual discipline and responsibility in the breach. The little things and it all comes down to communication and that’s up to me.”
Big plays weren’t a problem for Iowa last Saturday. The defense gave up just two 20-plus yard plays and one 25-plus yard play, but failed to put Michigan in long-range situations. Michigan’s success on early downs kept the Wolverines ahead of the networks all afternoon. They averaged 6.2 yards per play on first down and 4.6 yards per rush on first down. In all, they only had one negative first-down play and Iowa’s defense finished with just one sack and three tackles for loss.
Illinois ranks second in the Big Ten in time of possession (34:32); the offense has shown the ability to control the pace of the game when it’s on pace. The challenge for Iowa’s forward seven is to play harder up front and avoid so much early progress. Failing to do so would force defensive coordinator Phil Parker to play an additional safety in the box. That takes the Hawkeyes out of their normal look of two-high safety, which would make them more susceptible to big plays in the secondary.
“We were in the right place (against Michigan),” linebackers coach Seth Wallace said. “If you go back and see that we were in the right place, we were just losing some ground, which added to the gains of five, six, seven yards on the first down. You don’t want to be on second and second.” four and three, those are opportunistic attempts for an offense. One of the key points this week with linebackers is that we have to win the first down. We can’t allow an offense to be on time when it gets to the second down.”
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Wallace also noted that the defense’s challenge is compounded by the fact that the fights against Michigan are on video. In a “copycat” game, Wallace noted, opposing offenses will try to attack them the same way, further emphasizing why correcting those mistakes is important. If Hawkeye’s defense can do that (and potentially force turnovers), there’s a good chance Iowa will enter the bye week with a win and more optimism.
“We have to do a good job of making sure the numbers (in the box) are correct,” Wallace said. “We have to do a really good job of making sure we make the necessary adjustments based on what we haven’t seen (yet) and certainly cover up what we’ve seen in the past.”