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Defense got gashed

The issue was mainly on 3rd downs. The D had trouble getting off the field on 3rd downs.

Minnesota has been playing better on O as of late. They seriously gashed Michigan too. Improved play by Leidner has been a contributor there. Furthermore, the young RBs are pretty talented.

Lastly, they gashed us on some tough plays to cover. Cole Fisher got burned on plenty of occasions tonight ... but the first big one that went for a TD was awfully tough to pick up. That TE slipped out brilliantly ... the play developed to perfection.

Also, the pass-play by the RB on the toss-sweep was a tough one to defend too. The DBs cheated up to help against the run ... and then got burned. Also, a good call by Minnesota.

It's hard to win by trick plays alone ... but they helped keep Minnesota in the game.[/QUOTE

Mabin isn't supposed to cheat up. That's his problem, he takes chances and makes bad decisions, and they usually cost the team big plays. As far as Fisher, I agree that was a tough play to defend, but there were many others that he was lost on. He's too slow to cover receivers. He for sure shouldn't be in the game in passing situations.
 
Jewell played well. Fisher was poor and Mabin had some bad moments.

Minnesota did a really good job of keeping Iowa off-balance. Iowa's DL was so intent on maintaining gaps that they couldn't create any pressure on play action. In hindsight, it would have been better to man up and blitz.

Iowa was playing their base 4-3 personnel on Minnesota entire last drive. That's on the staff.

But almost every 10-0 team has a game or two like this. Survive it, correct mistakes, and play on.

Iowa rarely get's any pressure. Watching qb's pick apart the secondary while having all kinds of time sitting in the pocket is frustrating to watch. What's more frustrating is seeing our D-Cord not do a damn thing about it.
 
We have no pressure produced by the d line. Our d ends are not capable of playing a full game against big tackles.
Our success this year on defense begins and ends with the DEs.
 
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Enjoy the win for about 24 hours, then start dissecting all the numerous mistakes on D. I'm actually thinking this is an appropriate time for one of Kirk's patented coach speak phrases that have been so maddening in the past, "Need to get a few things cleaned up."

Certainly...
 
Was at the game the D couldn't figure things out the entire game. They were pointing at each other and talking all game long. Couldn't figure out who should be where.
 
Minnesota was very creative with misdirection and bunch sets. Combine a decent running attack with loads of time in the pocket and its no wonder they moved the ball on us. Teams are going to be looking to sling it early and often on us. I thought their QB played an excellent game, and honestly, while it was possibly our worst defensive effort of the year, Minny looked a heck of a lot better than 4-6.

We normally do not give up this many big plays, especially passing. I have to think we can tighten things up a bit. Even though he got flagged, I loved the sneaky blitz by Jewell. We need some of those just to get some licks on the QB and keep them somewhat honest.

Nebraska scares me as they run a more chaotic offense with a mobile quarterback and some decent receivers. But lets squash Purdue first.
 
Minnesota is coached well and have better players than our next 2 opponents.

Phil will make some changes and the defense will get back on trac

QB16 looked good tonight and the line held up
Not sure if the deep ball has been completed maybe 5-10% this year seems overthrown every time
Special teams had a good night
 
I believe the D wasn't focused tonight. It seemed like they were playing the atmosphere and not their opponent. They will get that focus back win and we are in Indy.
 
This type of O has been a pain for Iowas D for years. Mobile QB, quick RB, and a short passing game that they run with few huddles. Usually leads to too many 3rd down pick ups and continued drives. NW, Indiana, Minnesota have similar tendency's and it works. Got the W but the D needs to tighten it up, and soon.
 
This type of O has been a pain for Iowas D for years. Mobile QB, quick RB, and a short passing game that they run with few huddles. Usually leads to too many 3rd down pick ups and continued drives. NW, Indiana, Minnesota have similar tendency's and it works. Got the W but the D needs to tighten it up, and soon.

See what you mean but I feel it is an offense issue. Play good offense and Iowa beats all of those teams historically. As much as we want to deny it, a "big twelve" type offense will make our D look a bit lost at times. If you have to play one ( and let's be honest Minnesota IS NOT one) you need to out score them. That's particularly why this week was frustrating to watch imo
 
It seems that we get up by a couple scores in the second half and the cushion becomes Antwan Allenesk. On defense the bend is more significant and our opponent knows this. When the bend results in an outcome that is the same as a break why bend? We get conservative on offense as well, running on first and second down and within two yards of the line to gain we run again, otherwise it's a pass on third down. We need to do something to become less predictable in these situations. At some point allowing your opponent to get within one score and having to defend an onside kick is going to backfire on us. I'm no expert, and you can't argue with the record, but I fear that after Purdue this strategy risk v. reward dictates we try a different approach.
 
The issue was mainly on 3rd downs. The D had trouble getting off the field on 3rd downs.

Minnesota has been playing better on O as of late. They seriously gashed Michigan too. Improved play by Leidner has been a contributor there. Furthermore, the young RBs are pretty talented.

Lastly, they gashed us on some tough plays to cover. Cole Fisher got burned on plenty of occasions tonight ... but the first big one that went for a TD was awfully tough to pick up. That TE slipped out brilliantly ... the play developed to perfection.

Also, the pass-play by the RB on the toss-sweep was a tough one to defend too. The DBs cheated up to help against the run ... and then got burned. Also, a good call by Minnesota.

It's hard to win by trick plays alone ... but they helped keep Minnesota in the game.


You can't let anything behind you at that point in the game. I knew it was a pass the instant he lateraled it to the back, who is not an edge runner. That said, I love teaching moments in victories. And the pass rush? Sometimes one line dominates a game, and tonight was one of those. But in reality, two totally blown covers made the D look worse than it was.
 
I don't mind bend don't break, but an occasional blitz may be needed to free up our DL a little bit

The coaching staff HAS TO mix things up more. We are back to running the same D that had opponents in the past saying that they always knew exactly what to expect. A QB like Leidner has to be made to have some doubts and some concern that he's going to get blitzed, etc. Our D last night was a speed bump at best.
 
Minnie QB is pretty good...and looks healthy.

Iowa tends to play "contain" on the QB...don't blitz much, play for a pick...QB was poised and accurate.

Thought Iowa might try the defense where everyone on the line is standing...

D wasn't great but Iowa still won...sign of a very good team...things don't always work out...other teams have good plans and execution too...

Ott is missed...big time...
 
Perfect storm, we are not great against the run (at least tonight), and we provide virtually no pass rush. Meier was only speed rusher it appeared we had after Hesse got hurt (he may have come back in, not sure). We are going to have to execute some timely blitzes against good teams.

The Minny QB cut us apart like a surgeon. Nebby and the other Big Ten coaches will be using the tape of the 4th quarter as their road map for beating us in the future.
 
The coaching staff HAS TO mix things up more. We are back to running the same D that had opponents in the past saying that they always knew exactly what to expect. A QB like Leidner has to be made to have some doubts and some concern that he's going to get blitzed, etc. Our D last night was a speed bump at best.

Maybe we should have blitzed more, but that is playing with fire. Leidner is fast enough to get loose or buy time to find wide open uncovered receiver. The problem was our run defense could not stop the option run between the Miinny RB and Leidner. If we had made Minny 1 dimensional to rely just on Leidner's arm, we would have stopped them even with our poor pash rush. The pass rush has been bad all season.

This probably is a game where we miss Ott.

I thought Minny had a good defense? They can't be happy with the way they were gnashed.
 
I feel better about our team's effort than Oklahoma State's effort against ISU. Certainly happier in our effort than Stanford's fans must be feeling. Baylor too.

It's that time of year when the Hawks have a big "undefeated" target on their backs and wil get everyone's best shot. They move on to our biggest rival next week. Bring it Purdue!
 
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Blown assignments and zero pressure on the QB were the main issues, also some poor tackling at time. Fisher blew coverage all damn night and Mabin and the safeties did a couple times too. No way you can give teams that much time to throw. No excuse for blown assignments at this point in the year.
 
I think it's mostly on the RLB getting sucked in, and where the throws went. No time for corner, and in any event, I believe it's the safety's responsibility at that point based on what I saw last night.

I really need to see it again. At first blush in the stadium I would have said Mabin, but I think the majority of bad play was on RLB.
 
The Minny QB cut us apart like a surgeon. Nebby and the other Big Ten coaches will be using the tape of the 4th quarter as their road map for beating us in the future.

That's been said for 17 years...
 
This was sort of bizarre, frankly. Iowa getting wrecked by TEs? What? Today was just bass ackwards.

Yep they used a lot of mis-direction and sadly our LB and DB fell for it instead of reading their keys.

The one long pass play that fisher got burnt on, they pulled both guards to his side and he still went with the toss fake across the field? I mean the guards and TE are coming toward your side, you stay home. you don't go with the RB. Why would they bring two OL & TE towards you to run the other way?

Also our DB's did not have a great game, but our DL got no pressure. Minny Oline was pretty solid, I have to give it to them. They played hard and got after it. Rivalry games are tough and Minny played very hard last night.
 
I think it's mostly on the RLB getting sucked in, and where the throws went. No time for corner, and in any event, I believe it's the safety's responsibility at that point based on what I saw last night.

I really need to see it again. At first blush in the stadium I would have said Mabin, but I think the majority of bad play was on RLB.
The last one was on Taylor. He had come up and made plays on the run before and got a little greedy, watching the ball and not the "lead blocker/TE" who would slip behind both Mabin and Taylor for the score.

And the prevent zone D with a two score lead hasn't worked for 3 games now this season (Pittsburgh, Indiana and now Minnesota).

Time to use some man-to-man or try harder to get pressure on the QB late. They should be feeling the heat of the defense pinning their ears back. Not Iowa sitting on their heels waiting for the opposing offense to run to a spot and catch the ball before we make a tackle.

Try harder. Thank you.
 
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The issue was mainly on 3rd downs. The D had trouble getting off the field on 3rd downs. (Gophers were only 5-10 on 3rd down. 50% isn't good, but usually 5 third down conversions isn't a lot as teams would normally be faced with several more. Iowa's issue was not forcing enough 3rd downs and then not putting Minnesota in 3rd and longs.

Minnesota has been playing better on O as of late. They seriously gashed Michigan too. Improved play by Leidner has been a contributor there. Furthermore, the young RBs are pretty talented. (I don't like it.)

(But at least we won!....:D)


Lastly, they gashed us on some tough plays to cover. Cole Fisher got burned on plenty of occasions tonight ... but the first big one that went for a TD was awfully tough to pick up. That TE slipped out brilliantly ... the play developed to perfection.

Also, the pass-play by the RB on the toss-sweep was a tough one to defend too. The DBs cheated up to help against the run ... and then got burned. Also, a good call by Minnesota. (As I mentioned, I think that's on Taylor to see that and not make such a quick decision to play the run. Mabin had the edge, but if it's on him and Taylor is allowed to come up like he did, who has that right/middle side of the field?)

It's hard to win by trick plays alone ... but they helped keep Minnesota in the game.
 
I am just worried about the game after that one.
Nebby has some good WR's, but Armstrong Jr. is an interception machine. Constantly throws off his back foot. Poor mechanics. Greedy for the big play. Very high risk versus reward. Mr. King will be licking his chops.

I have confidence Phil P. will get the boys playing better against the pass the last 2 regular season games.
 
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Nebby has some good WR's, but Armstrong Jr. is an interception machine. Constantly throws off his back foot. Poor mechanics. Greedy for the big play. Very high risk versus reward. Mr. King will be licking his chops.

I have confidence Phil P. will get the boys playing better against the pass the last 2 regular season games.
I do believe Nebraska will end up similar to the Minnesota game, unless our defense can improve. We may get some turnovers in that one, unlike against the Gophers, but the lucky bums seem to hit the deep ball about as well as any team in the conference right now, so what is 4 picks if you can score 4 TDs as well while sticking with the opposition?

Nebraska has basically resigned itself to trying to win shootouts and playing Big 12 football. If Iowa regains their defensive form and doesn't allow Nebraska to have a Born Again moment on defense, then they should be in good shape. If we keep hitting and missing on offense while giving up big plays, then break out the guns cuz we got a shootout....
 
You could tell Minnesota threw everything at Iowa and that they really wanted that game. But even then Iowa had some bad breakdowns on defense and the front 4 had no pass rush. It would be nice to have Ott.
 
The Minny QB cut us apart like a surgeon. Nebby and the other Big Ten coaches will be using the tape of the 4th quarter as their road map for beating us in the future.

I thought I read here that the 2nd half of the Maryland game provided the blueprint for beating Iowa.
 
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Has Leidner become that good or did our defense just implode. Need a better performance to win out. We could ready use a speed pass rusher at DE Hesse spot. Hesse hurt?
I realize this is a Hawkeye board, but I'll reply anyway. Leider has been playing much better from the Nebraska game on. IIRC he is the number two ranked QB in BigTen only games. Sixth if you include all games.
 
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What...we blitzed 2 times the whole game? The D was the worse I've seen it this year. Guys running rampid out there....wide freaking open!!
Glad to get the win but this Minny team couldn't have been the best offense we have went against this year...
If you mean best Offense as in the worst in the Big Ten coming into the game, then you're correct. We made them look like the Patriots. At Home no less. It was as ugly as you'll ever see, even if you live as long as Sid Hartman has..................
 
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