Is our Pass Defense as Bad as it Looks?

Ripcord · Friday at 7:49 AM

I am referring entirely to the three Big10 games. the other three really do not count.

Against Michigan, we were overwhelmed by a QB who had only one good game (against us, of course) before eventually being benched later.

Ohio State, well, most teams gave up a LOT to them, and most teams will continue to give up a lot IF they find a good qb.

against Washington, we obviously camein with a plan to contain their supposed stud QB and basically ate him alive, until he was injured. then, when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.

Considering all of this, I am worried that other teams will see it and attack, attack, attack.
I don't thinkyou have to be a 5-star general to figure out where our weakness is. I certainly hope Parker & Company have an answer for the second half of the season, or else.

Kceasthawk@77 · Friday at 8:02 AM

Ripcord said:
I am referring entirely to the three Big10 games. the other three really do not count.

Against Michigan, we were overwhelmed by a QB who had only one good game (against us, of course) before eventually being benched later.

Ohio State, well, most teams gave up a LOT to them, and most teams will continue to give up a lot IF they find a good qb.

against Washington, we obviously camein with a plan to contain their supposed stud QB and basically ate him alive, until he was injured. then, when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.

Considering all of this, I am worried that other teams will see it and attack, attack, attack.
I don't thinkyou have to be a 5-star general to figure out where our weakness is. I certainly hope Parker & Company have an answer for the second half of the season, or else.

Hard to say. Its not like anyone but OSU has really hurt us with chunk plays. Washington had to drive the field each time and PP's plan is at some point we'll get a stop, a drop or a turn over. To the credit of their QB he didn't make the mistake or put the ball at risk. A couple of questionable PI calls helped them out as well.

Palmerhawk · Friday at 8:03 AM

Is phil sending lbers to create pressure,leaving the secondary naked?

Not creating pressure on qb is probably the source of our pass defense woes.

When demond williams got hurt, did we back off lber pressure on brown, allowing him to cook?

Is our secondary leaky?
Lutmer, Lee and who?

Drake Lindsey is a pocket QB with an all American beast center...we need to disrupt his rhythm by dirtying up that pocket.
They will try to airbomb hawks if he has time.
Similar to Jordan love vs bears. Bombs away.

AndreTheHawk · Friday at 8:21 AM

Palmerhawk said:
Is phil sending lbers to create pressure,leaving the secondary naked?

Not creating pressure on qb is probably the source of our pass defense woes.

When demond williams got hurt, did we back off lber pressure on brown, allowing him to cook?

Is our secondary leaky?
Lutmer, Lee and who?

Phil has not turned into Brian Flores.

No pressure is creating pressure on the secondary, no doubt in my mind, and that's always going to be true when that occurs.

I felt in the Washington game, the linebackers were mostly spies to contain Williams from running (primarily Buffington, but switched some I think). And when he held the ball too long the Linebackers went after him. Worked great. When Williams went out, that went away, and so did the pressure because Brown isn't Williams in the run department.

Phil is a bend but don't break guy. Does it extremely well. Brown played well, and several phantom PI calls ultimately helped Washington score some. Our secondary isn't great, but serviceable I think.

Phil Parker is the best NCAA Defensive Coordinator in America IMO. You give him the horses, he'll win The Derby.

the24fan · Friday at 8:26 AM

I honestly think it was just lack of seeing a good pass game till Michigan.
I think they are getting better and may be hitting their stride late in the year.
Repetition is key and they've been tested so I like the trajectory they are on IMO

hawkandroll · Friday at 8:29 AM

It's been awhile but I remember a "Raider" and "Nascar" package that they would show some stunt blitzes and send a few extras on obvious passing downs. Haven't noticed that as much in the last year or two but maybe I missed it. Seems like they could eek out an extra sack or 2 with those looks in the past. Maybe Van Kekerix is due for another Michigan type of performance.

BunchofAholes · Friday at 8:29 AM

68th in the country @ 208 yds/game.

HawkeyePride24 · Friday at 8:38 AM

Ripcord said:
I am referring entirely to the three Big10 games. the other three really do not count.

Against Michigan, we were overwhelmed by a QB who had only one good game (against us, of course) before eventually being benched later.

Ohio State, well, most teams gave up a LOT to them, and most teams will continue to give up a lot IF they find a good qb.

against Washington, we obviously camein with a plan to contain their supposed stud QB and basically ate him alive, until he was injured. then, when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.

Considering all of this, I am worried that other teams will see it and attack, attack, attack.
I don't thinkyou have to be a 5-star general to figure out where our weakness is. I certainly hope Parker & Company have an answer for the second half of the season, or else.

no

Kceasthawk@77 · Friday at 8:39 AM

BunchofAholes said:
68th in the country @ 208 yds/game.

Obviously playing OSU hurt those numbers. Add into that that overall we've been stout against the run, so teams have had to pass the ball. I think Phils okay with that as long as we don't give up chunk plays and are solid in the red zone where the field shrinks. Yes, will need to get some pressure on Lindsey.

BigOHawk1 · Friday at 8:48 AM

I'm excited to see Styles continue to climb at Safety, kid has talent and the measurements, will only get better in PP system. I'm sure we cooked up a few more wrinkles during bye week, that delayed LB cross blitz with Monty and Buff was lethal in Wash game. Trust the process.

BunchofAholes · Friday at 8:55 AM

Kceasthawk@77 said:
Obviously playing OSU hurt those numbers. Add into that that overall we've been stout against the run, so teams have had to pass the ball. I think Phils okay with that as long as we don't give up chunk plays and are solid in the red zone where the field shrinks. Yes, will need to get some pressure on Lindsey.

Keep the ball in front of you, right? I think playing tOSU paid dividends. That's the toughest challenge we'll see all year.

Kceasthawk@77 · Friday at 9:04 AM

BunchofAholes said:
Keep the ball in front of you, right? I think playing tOSU paid dividends. That's the toughest challenge we'll see all year.

Absolutely. Washington is a good example of what happens when a team can NOT run the ball on you. The 2nd half they threw the ball almost every play, so they got some yards. Plus when you get up by 4 scores they're going for it on 4th down half the time as well. Really kind of skews the numbers in a game that was never in doubt.

Oldman74 · Friday at 9:21 AM

Ripcord said:
I am referring entirely to the three Big10 games. the other three really do not count.

Against Michigan, we were overwhelmed by a QB who had only one good game (against us, of course) before eventually being benched later.

Ohio State, well, most teams gave up a LOT to them, and most teams will continue to give up a lot IF they find a good qb.

against Washington, we obviously camein with a plan to contain their supposed stud QB and basically ate him alive, until he was injured. then, when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.

Considering all of this, I am worried that other teams will see it and attack, attack, attack.
I don't thinkyou have to be a 5-star general to figure out where our weakness is. I certainly hope Parker & Company have an answer for the second half of the season, or else.

Michigan: Give up the underneath stuff and don't allow the big play. Trust that at some point the unproven QB ( he was really good that day) will make a mistake. D wasn't perfect, but it eventually paid off.
OSU: Their dudes are better than our dudes.
Washington: Disregard any second half statistics by Washington as the game was over, and we could dictate anything we wanted to do offensively.

DuddyB · Friday at 9:45 AM

I don’t think our secondary has been great but they’re still good overall. Not having a healthy Tyler Brown hasn’t helped. The biggest issue is our pass rush from the DE’s has been subpar. If there’s one position group that’s underperformed to my expectations coming into the season it’s been the DE’s. I thought we’d get a lot more from Epenesa and Merriweather.

Jonesy5960 · Friday at 10:21 AM

It's certainly not been great, but my preferred stat to assess any specific aspect of the team isn't yards per game but yards per play. The only 2 games where Iowa really struggled vs the pass from an efficiency perspective were vs Michigan and OSU where they allowed around 10 yards per play. OSU is number one in the country at 10.7 yards per attempt, so you kind of have to give them a pass there. Versus Michigan you could tell that the front 7 was focused on contain with the thought that Underwood was more likely to beat you with his feet than his arm. Pressure was pretty nonexistent. It was equally passive against Washington where again the focus was on limiting QB runs. Lindsay isn't a runner, so I'd expect a little more aggressive play calling from Phil this weekend.

There are also some personnel considerations as well. Up front the D tackles are excellent against the run, but don't collapse the pocket. We have a redshirt freshmen playing at one D end, and at Cash. Buffington is outstanding vs the run but has struggled against the pass. Our strong safeties are inexperienced as well. They are all still learning to an extent. I'd expect them to improve as the season goes on.

Also, as an aside, this is one of the best run defenses that Iowa has ever had. Sometimes you sacrifice a bit in one area to excel in another.

uihawk82 · Friday at 10:47 AM

Ripcord said:
I am referring entirely to the three Big10 games. the other three really do not count.

Against Michigan, we were overwhelmed by a QB who had only one good game (against us, of course) before eventually being benched later.

Ohio State, well, most teams gave up a LOT to them, and most teams will continue to give up a lot IF they find a good qb.

against Washington, we obviously camein with a plan to contain their supposed stud QB and basically ate him alive, until he was injured. then, when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.

Considering all of this, I am worried that other teams will see it and attack, attack, attack.
I don't thinkyou have to be a 5-star general to figure out where our weakness is. I certainly hope Parker & Company have an answer for the second half of the season, or else.

Against OSU the hawks did not do much if any man to man double teams on JSmith whereas Indiana doubled JSmith the whole game and he only had 4 catches.

But yeah, I would be concerned with upcoming opponents trying to pass a lot against us. PParker is pretty good at disguising zone vs man to man and which back 7 guy is taking which receiver sometimes.

But we are lacking Moss/DeJean/King type corners who can shut down outside receivers. Minny has a very experienced pretty good passer so you are right Minny is already throwing the ball on about 2/3s of their offensive snaps. So buckle up

I heard some pundits say Minny doesnt have strong TEnd receiver play so that can help us. But Minny will be in 4 wide receiver sets quite a bit and the hawks might have the CASH defender on the field a lot except for short yardage. Four man DLine, 2 Lbkrs and then 5 DBacks and even 6 Dbacks for speed and coverage on long passing downs.

uihawk82 · Friday at 10:51 AM

Palmerhawk said:
Is phil sending lbers to create pressure,leaving the secondary naked?

Not creating pressure on qb is probably the source of our pass defense woes.

When demond williams got hurt, did we back off lber pressure on brown, allowing him to cook?

Is our secondary leaky?
Lutmer, Lee and who?

Drake Lindsey is a pocket QB with an all American beast center...we need to disrupt his rhythm by dirtying up that pocket.
They will try to airbomb hawks if he has time.
Similar to Jordan love vs bears. Bombs away.

With the big leads against Washington I saw the hawks hardly blitz Brown. I think coming out in the 2nd half with a 27-3 lead and our offense humming the idea was to make Wash just 5-6 minutes a drive to score or make them punt. That last score by Wash was a nothing burger against our non-starters who put up a good fight. And the coaches were correct because the hawk offense answered Wash's first 2 2nd half TDs with TDs of their own.

WeBeHerkin · Friday at 10:55 AM

Kceasthawk@77 said:
Hard to say. It’s not like anyone but OSU has really hurt us with chunk plays. Washington had to drive the field each time and PP's plan is at some point we'll get a stop, a drop or a turn over. To the credit of their QB he didn't make the mistake or put the ball at risk. A couple of questionable PI calls helped them out as well.

JJ Buchanan had a pretty good day against us.

squeezebox_1 · Friday at 10:58 AM

Those numbers are skewed due to first the game opponents. I do think the secondary will improve as the season goes on, but when plays are extended by the qb, that's when it breaks down. Yielding 276 to Michigan, 324 to Ohio State, and 320 to Washington doesn't look great.

BigOHawk1 · Friday at 11:39 AM

DuddyB said:
I don’t think our secondary has been great but they’re still good overall. Not having a healthy Tyler Brown hasn’t helped. The biggest issue is our pass rush from the DE’s has been subpar. If there’s one position group that’s underperformed to my expectations coming into the season it’s been the DE’s. I thought we’d get a lot more from Epenesa and Merriweather.

Eppy is playing the run quite well, just not seeing the full pass rush dominance that his bro had, just not yet. He absolutely wrecked a few Wash running plays and while he didn't make tackle his technique and bull rush opened it up for his teammates. If a DE could flash the 2nd half of season it would do even more wonders.

Jonesy5960 · Friday at 12:09 PM

squeezebox_1 said:
Those numbers are skewed due to first the game opponents. I do think the secondary will improve as the season goes on, but when plays are extended by the qb, that's when it breaks down. Yielding 276 to Michigan, 324 to Ohio State, and 320 to Washington doesn't look great.

Just to be clear though, Washington only had 317 TOTAL yards and threw it 51 times. Iowa only allowed 6.3 yards per pass in that game which isn't bad and Washington is averaging 7.7 for the season.

squeezebox_1 · Friday at 12:59 PM

Jonesy5960 said:
Just to be clear though, Washington only had 317 TOTAL yards and threw it 51 times. Iowa only allowed 6.3 yards per pass in that game which isn't bad and Washington is averaging 7.7 for the season.

Fair, however, Underwood had a 9.85 ypa average. Sayin had a 12 ypa. I'd say that the Washington stat had more to do with their lack of ability to run the ball. I expect the same type of output this weekend, Minnesota posts the 104th ranked rushing offense. I'd say the next test will be against NW, where they have a solid QB and another great WR in Wilde.

Jonesy5960 · Friday at 1:19 PM

squeezebox_1 said:
Fair, however, Underwood had a 9.85 ypa average. Sayin had a 12 ypa. I'd say that the Washington stat had more to do with their lack of ability to run the ball. I expect the same type of output this weekend, Minnesota posts the 104th ranked rushing offense. I'd say the next test will be against NW, where they have a solid QB and another great WR in Wilde.

Like I said above, the Iowa front 7 was really focused on keeping Underwood from leaving the pocket or running the ball. They played super passive giving him a clean pocket with a lot of time to throw the ball, and Iowa's secondary simply isn't good enough to cover that.

OSU averaged 12 like you said, but they lead the country in yards per pass at 10.7 so it wasn't much higher than they've averaged all year. Iowa's secondary vs Jeremiah Smith is a huge mismatch, but then he's a huge mismatch against most teams.

LetsGoHawks83 · Friday at 1:54 PM

Excited to see how the defense comes out against MN. Entering the 2nd half of the season, so our guys have the experience now and the bye week to make any needed tweaks.

It's all coming together

eyesofhawk · Friday at 1:56 PM

Wobmam Rulez! · Friday at 2:40 PM

Kceasthawk@77 said:
Hard to say. Its not like anyone but OSU has really hurt us with chunk plays. Washington had to drive the field each time and PP's plan is at some point we'll get a stop, a drop or a turn over. To the credit of their QB he didn't make the mistake or put the ball at risk. A couple of questionable PI calls helped them out as well.

On one of their drives, 30 yards worth was penalties on the D. Otherwise, the D played just fine and that game was never "close".

UIAlumFireFighter · Friday at 2:57 PM

Our cornerbacks are average, at best, IMO.

And…Phil’s bend but don’t break strategy tends to be worrisome but in the end, they are typically kept out of the end zone.

Phil Parker is Iowa Football.

Hawksfor3 · Friday at 4:00 PM

LetsGoHawks83 said:
Excited to see how the defense comes out against MN. Entering the 2nd half of the season, so our guys have the experience now and the bye week to make any needed tweaks.

It's all coming together

(And cover the receivers).

Grayhair1981 · Friday at 4:10 PM

Secondary is better than D line. That is THE weak link on the team

nu2u · Friday at 4:19 PM

Ripcord said:
“against Washington …. when the backup came in, he basically ate our defense alive and was not stopped until they had gotten two long TD drives and an extra 2-point conversion to make it a game.”

In no way did the backup Washington QB “make it a game”. Washington never got closer than 16 points down with Elijah Brown as QB.

Wobmam Rulez! · Friday at 4:31 PM

Grayhair1981 said:
Secondary is better than D line. That is THE weak link on the team

Not sure if serious? They are ranked 7th against the run and 8th in sacks (from the article about Hawthorne).

im4hawks50595 · Friday at 4:52 PM

No matter the qb if you let them just stand back their survey the field they can make dbs look bad if dline is not getting presure or your not bringing blitzes, de seems underwhelming with pressures, that being said its not like the d has been horrible just not as good as we have had in the past

Grayhair1981 · Friday at 5:22 PM

Wobmam Rulez! said:
Not sure if serious? They are ranked 7th against the run and 8th in sacks (from the article about Hawthorne).

Deadly serious

oldxbbc · Friday at 6:12 PM

DuddyB said:
I don’t think our secondary has been great but they’re still good overall. Not having a healthy Tyler Brown hasn’t helped. The biggest issue is our pass rush from the DE’s has been subpar. If there’s one position group that’s underperformed to my expectations coming into the season it’s been the DE’s. I thought we’d get a lot more from Epenesa and Merriweather.

Maybe due to the “name” but was ready for more out of Espy. Brown’s injury has been a bummer.

HawkeyeVodka · Friday at 8:54 PM

Grayhair1981 said:
Deadly serious

They’ve actually been pretty damn good since the 2nd half of the Michigan game. They’re improving on a nice trajectory and I’m confident they’ll be really good by the end of the season.

Madman_1 · Friday at 9:15 PM

oldxbbc said:
Maybe due to the “name” but was ready for more out of Espy. Brown’s injury has been a bummer.

I'd wait a bit on that. Eppy is a first-year starter, and has been very good in run D and qb containment. He has gotten pressure on the qb, and nearly had several sacks.

There is a reason he is the starter.

Palmerhawk · Friday at 9:38 PM

Just saw that gophers best run stuffing dtackle,riley sunrum, is out for tomorrow's game.
Run the ball ,hawks!

Kceasthawk@77 · Friday at 10:35 PM

squeezebox_1 said:
Fair, however, Underwood had a 9.85 ypa average. Sayin had a 12 ypa. I'd say that the Washington stat had more to do with their lack of ability to run the ball. I expect the same type of output this weekend, Minnesota posts the 104th ranked rushing offense. I'd say the next test will be against NW, where they have a solid QB and another great WR in Wilde.

NW offense is mostly based on the run though, correct? So it will be strength vs strength.....

Hawkfan_08* · Friday at 10:40 PM

Madman_1 said:
I'd wait a bit on that. Eppy is a first-year starter, and has been very good in run D and qb containment. He has gotten pressure on the qb, and nearly had several sacks.

There is a reason he is the starter.

I got to disagree on that. He's been run by plenty and struggled to keep contain.

r_desihawk · Saturday at 12:26 AM

Kceasthawk@77 said:
NW offense is mostly based on the run though, correct? So it will be strength vs strength.....

nw has 3 rvz type receivers and make no mistake that chiles while mobile also throws very well. but let’s get through the more immediate problems before confronting that nightmare

Is our Pass Defense as Bad as it Looks?

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