Iowa Defensive backfield...

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

I know Iowa won, and I know it's picking nits............ but there were more mental and physical mistakes than almost any game in recent memory. From missed/poor coverage to penalties to dropped interceptions to knowing game situations.

Did you sleep through the 2018 season?

Don't watch the Purdue and Minnesota games from last year...........

 

[mthawkeyes]

Outside of Koerner getting beat deep twice, I thought the DBs were pretty solid. Minnesota has good WRs, and their QB delivered balls into windows on time. Hankins and Moss were both in good position all night.

 

[owenhawk]

Iowa's pass defense has been the bend don't break for 40 years. It usually doesn't break. A lot of QBs through years have walked away from 300 yard losing efforts against this philosophy.

Why do our fans not understand this? It’s been that way over 2 Parkers (Norm and Phil). The idea is give up yards and either hold to FG’s and/or cause TO/wait for offense to make mistake. They don’t care about giving up yards.

 

[owenhawk]

They played a really good receiver corps and a scheme that makes it tough to rush the passer and tough to stay disciplined because you have to respect the RPO.

We held them to the fewest points they've scored since Ohio St. last year. It was a good performance, overall.

Correct. And Koerner has had a good year - dropping an easy INT doesn’t change that. This is the best receiving corp in the Big Ten.

 

[TRHawkeye145]

People complaining about Iowa's defense just don't know football. I don't know what else to say. Minnesota's offense has been ripping everyone, including Penn State, which has been quite a bit better on defense than Iowa this year.

Iowa's pass defense under Parker has been top 20 in pass efficiency defense each of the last several years. Coming into today, Iowa was right there at 16 in the country in pass efficiency defense. Probably dropped a few places today.

As others have said, Minnesota is really difficult to defend. No one else has held them to 19. They have 2 great receivers and an accurate QB. The d-line and Welch rose to the occasion for Iowa.

This - Only giving up 19 to this Minny team is pretty damn good. They have been rolling past everyone (regardless of schedule). Its impressive.

Just good to see Iowa open it up a little bit early to put pressure on Minny. That helped a ton

 

[owenhawk]

He took Merriweather's spot. I would like to see Merriweather back. Either way, Hawks win!

Was OJ hurt?

Why? Koerner has looked better than Merriweather did when he played.

 

[owenhawk]

Well, whatever he is he's NOT good...

Come on man that’s ust not true.

 

[HawkTex]

I know Iowa won, and I know it's picking nits............ but there were more mental and physical mistakes than almost any game in recent memory. From missed/poor coverage to penalties to dropped interceptions to knowing game situations.

One Safety had a night to forget. Also, did not play well last week against Wisconsin. At times the secondary appeared to be very confused as to where they had or did not have help.

 

[HawkTex]

Correct. And Koerner has had a good year - dropping an easy INT doesn’t change that. This is the best receiving corp in the Big Ten.

He did not have a good game today nor against Wisconsin. Has regressed the last two weeks. Needs to button things up for the last two games.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

We gave up 19 to a team averaging 35 without the benefit of a turnover. ( except the last play when a knocked down ball would be just as good )...

 

[MitchLL]

It's a known fact that any secondary is better when the pass rush is good.

What should bother fans is the number of occasions when the defender has no idea where the ball is. It happened a lot against the Goofs. Using the "we're young" excuse this late in the season doesn't cut it.

Fortunately, they got the W.

 

[Hawk fan in MN]

DBs got their ass kicked.

Why was our best dback out today. I missed it

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Outside of Koerner getting beat deep twice, I thought the DBs were pretty solid. Minnesota has good WRs, and their QB delivered balls into windows on time. Hankins and Moss were both in good position all night.

They were good enough to not allow any really big plays/yards after catch. They were almost always there to make the tackle after the catch.

It would just be nice if they could get to those balls before the receiver catches it and brings it into his body, a little bit more than they did today.........

That's the next step in progress for this secondary.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

Why? Koerner has looked better than Merriweather did when he played.

I don't think its fair to judge Merriweather in so few games nor do I think Merriweather played poorly. Did he even make it to Iowa St.? I don't remember. You could say the same about Koerner but I thought his athleticism was exposed a bit today. Just my 2 cents. Happy Iowa won either way.

 

[Eternal Return]

Read enough to agree Koerner is not good enough to be the answer at safety. The guy is a walk-on and doesn't have the speed to play the deep end against teams with NFL-caliber QB and WRs.

But that's the thing: I knew this would be Iowa's toughest test defensively because Minny's WRs are legit NFL caliber. And Morgan is the 2nd best QB in the B10 behind Fields. Given that Koerner is a walk-on I thought that the DBs played as well as they probably could. Minnesota is a legit top #15 team and their passing game is the strength of that team. Iowa will have an offseason to find a better starting safety next year. Too many injuries and Koerner played well enough against teams with inferior-to-average passing games. He's not good enough against NFL-grade QB/WR combos.

 

[WestIAHawk]

Okay....

My opinion is my opinion....

You disagree that's cool...

I dont know what he did yesterday that was good..

 

[DodgerHawki]

Read enough to agree Koerner is not good enough to be the answer at safety. The guy is a walk-on and doesn't have the speed to play the deep end against teams with NFL-caliber QB and WRs.

But that's the thing: I knew this would be Iowa's toughest test defensively because Minny's WRs are legit NFL caliber. And Morgan is the 2nd best QB in the B10 behind Fields. Given that Koerner is a walk-on I thought that the DBs played as well as they probably could. Minnesota is a legit top #15 team and their passing game is the strength of that team. Iowa will have an offseason to find a better starting safety next year. Too many injuries and Koerner played well enough against teams with inferior-to-average passing games. He's not good enough against NFL-grade QB/WR combos.

my guess is Merriweather will redshirt now that we're this far into the season. Speed isn't really the issue for Koerner. If he just catches the easy INT on the first play of the second half game is probably different. Minnesota is really, really difficult to play against, they put your safeties in very hard situations with the RPO. Koerner got caught flat-footed on the TD pass over top of him, that's not a speed/athleticism thing that's just getting caught moving forward during the zone-read mesh, which is exactly what the offense is trying to do. Penn State's 4 and 5-star safeties did exactly the same thing last week.

If I were to guess, Koerner will start 2 more years at safety. That will send fans into a rage, but he's got enough speed and athleticism to be good. The year of experience he is getting will make him better next year.

 

[24hansi]

Well, whatever he is he's NOT good...

Dude is not good at all.

 

[owenhawk]

I don't think its fair to judge Merriweather in so few games nor do I think Merriweather played poorly. Did he even make it to Iowa St.? I don't remember. You could say the same about Koerner but I thought his athleticism was exposed a bit today. Just my 2 cents. Happy Iowa won either way.

That’s fair but but it’s also not fair for people saying Koerner is bad because he didn’t have a great game today. Her has had a solid season. The Defense has been pretty good all year - even today they mad Minnesota one dimensional and held them to 19 points.

 

[SpartyHawk1]

Julius Brents also out all year. Redshirting him, too?

 

[Hawk_4shur]

Watched a lot of the Minny PSU game last week, and of course, yesterday's game. Morgan is an outstanding QB and his receivers are big time. Minny has the best O the Hawks have faced this year, and it's not really close.

Giving up 19 points (only 6 in the first half) and allowing only 2 TD's is remarkable! That tells me that the secondary played very, very well. Of course, there are individual plays that didn't look good, but the body of work this week was excellent.

 

[83Hawk]

Minnesota likes to throw deep. They had a few against Penn State. I was disappointed the Hawks allowed so many of them to be completed. Starting with their possession on the 7 yard line, it seemed like they threw deep on first down to start every drive after that. I know that isn’t the case, but they did throw more deep balls than you usually see in a game. And why not? For the majority of time it worked for them.

In fact, one of the possible scenarios I laid out before the game was Iowa being in the lead, but getting beat by a long bomb at the end.

 

[And1Hawk]

I’m not rejoicing over Minny carving us up at times with the pass and long pass completions BUT I was really impressed with their receivers and Morgan. He was really accurate and willing to throw the 50-50 balls knowing his receivers would try to make the play (and they did often). Their receivers we big and athletic too.

I think I counted 4-5 consecutive possessions they threw the bomb on the first play of their drive completing it 2-3 times. That’s attacking and it does put a lot of stress on our safeties / coverage.

I’m not bagging at all today on our secondary. That was one tough matchup and I tip my cap to Minny.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

The Gophers have one of the best WR groups in the conference ... and a QB who is precise enough to get them the ball where they need it. That makes it tough on a D.

Just as fans are obviously unhappy with the DB play yesterday ... you can be sure that Phil will be giving those guys a collective "talking to." On many plays ... the coverage was there ... it's just that the throw and catch was better. However, on several others ... the Hawks bit on play-fakes (or pumps) ... and then got beat as a result. Phil absolutely hates it when the O gets behind our D.

For a little perspective though ... we had Belton and Moss playing the majority of snaps against the Gophs ... those are some young DBs ... and they were playing against a really good group of WRs. They will take that experience and improve from it.

 

[TonyTheTiger.1865]

Not their best game for sure but the defense as a whole took away what Minnesota liked to do...run the ball. They made them throw and got 6 sacks.

 

[SLarew]

? He is a walk on and starting in place of Merriweather.

merriweather is healthy and redshirting. I ll take Phil Parker’s judgement over any one else’s.

 

[pocha444444]

2

#28 has a name Koerner and you’re not correct that he is a “backup”.

Well he should be. Merriweather was ahead of him to start the year, and lost his job due to injury.

 

[hawkeyeinmo]

Well he should be. Merriweather was ahead of him to start the year, and lost his job due to injury.

so

 

[pocha444444]

so

Great response...

 

[HawkLogic]

giving up 30-40 yard passes isn't bending imo

we also need to capitalize on INTs when they are absolute gimmes.

Moss is a guy that catches INTs.. Koerner hasn't had much chance to show his INT ability, but he definitely blew a gift vs Minny.

I haven't watched Minny much---is the QB a running threat? Iowa DL looked like it was dropping 1 guy to spy QB a lot, which gave Minny QB a lot of time.

 

[BirdistheWord]

You have to give Minny credit for putting pressure on Iowa’s D by throwing deep a lot today.

and while we did get a lot of sacks (they threw a $hit ton of passes), their O line did a good job of giving the QB time to throw a lot of medium level passes

 

[grayhair81]

Julius Brents also out all year. Redshirting him, too?

This is the mystery no one is talking about. Ferentz said per an article in the Gazette on Oct 1st that Brents would be back that weekend. He is still MIA. There is no way that Johnson, Roberts, Belton, and I would argue, Moss, are better than him if healthy. Yet I have not seen a single news story or question about his status. Something is up.

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

merriweather is healthy and redshirting. I ll take Phil Parker’s judgement over any one else’s.

I guarantee Phil Parker is well aware that #28 really shouldn't be on the field. He obviously can't say that to the public. The question is why don't we have a better option.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

My opinion is my opinion....

You disagree that's cool...

I dont know what he did yesterday that was good..

I disagree with wrong opinions. (You're aware that is a thing, right?)

He didn't have a good game yesterday, but he's been a bright spot in our secondary this season.

I mean....pretty much everyone has been aware of this.

 

[FreddyUI]

A win is a win!
And of course it is a lot more when they win!

We do need to clean this up or Lovie and Frost will exploit the long ball like Purdue has done in the past.

We do not want Frost going bowling at Iowa's expense.

 

[HawkTex]

I guarantee Phil Parker is well aware that #28 really shouldn't be on the field. He obviously can't say that to the public. The question is why don't we have a better option.

He has had a tough couple games. I would not throw the towel in on the kid just yet. Illinois wants to run. Passing not their strong suit. JK’s tackling has been suspect lately so he will need to pick it up the last two games. Nebraska will probably target him in their passing game would be my guess.

 

[WestIAHawk]

I disagree with wrong opinions. (You're aware that is a thing, right?)

He didn't have a good game yesterday, but he's been a bright spot in our secondary this season.

I mean....pretty much everyone has been aware of this.

Yep.

Needs to get better or the starter needs to heal faster..

 

[Eternal Return]

my guess is Merriweather will redshirt now that we're this far into the season. Speed isn't really the issue for Koerner. If he just catches the easy INT on the first play of the second half game is probably different. Minnesota is really, really difficult to play against, they put your safeties in very hard situations with the RPO. Koerner got caught flat-footed on the TD pass over top of him, that's not a speed/athleticism thing that's just getting caught moving forward during the zone-read mesh, which is exactly what the offense is trying to do. Penn State's 4 and 5-star safeties did exactly the same thing last week.

If I were to guess, Koerner will start 2 more years at safety. That will send fans into a rage, but he's got enough speed and athleticism to be good. The year of experience he is getting will make him better next year.

He got beat on quite a few of the long passes where he was the safety help. He seemed late getting to the WR to help the corner. I assumed speed, but maybe he's poor at reading the offense. That's not good either if that's the case, although that's something that can be corrected with more experience and better preparation in the offseason. Hope you're right about that versus speed. My other worry was that he seems a bit small and seemed to have trouble making clean tackles against WRs and RBs. Not particularly big or strong. He had a bad game, that's for sure.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

Why do our fans not understand this? It’s been that way over 2 Parkers (Norm and Phil). The idea is give up yards and either hold to FG’s and/or cause TO/wait for offense to make mistake. They don’t care about giving up yards.

Longer than the Parkers, same defensive philosophy Hayden & Billy Brashier employed for the 20 years before Kirk and the Parkers took over Iowa's D.

We've won a lot of games we weren't supposed to win with this philosophy.

 

[HawkInArk]

I’m not rejoicing over Minny carving us up at times with the pass and long pass completions BUT I was really impressed with their receivers and Morgan. He was really accurate and willing to throw the 50-50 balls knowing his receivers would try to make the play (and they did often). Their receivers we big and athletic too.

I think I counted 4-5 consecutive possessions they threw the bomb on the first play of their drive completing it 2-3 times. That’s attacking and it does put a lot of stress on our safeties / coverage.

I’m not bagging at all today on our secondary. That was one tough matchup and I tip my cap to Minny.

The thing that matters most is that Iowa ends up with more points than the other team, which we did yesterday. And we held Minnesota to 19, which appears good.

BUT, the only team on Minnesota's schedule to give up more passing yards [than Iowa just did] to Tanner Morgan and his big receivers was Purdue - and we all know Purdue is terrible on defense.

Phil Parker has a lot of work to do with his DBs.