Running Defense needs a change... Safety? or LB?
- Thread starter mbhoops
- Start date
I'd love to see Mends get a chance. He may blow some assignments, but that guy really gets after it. Our defense is atrocious right now; I'd rather see guys getting torched due to aggressive mistakes than just being unable to execute. As for safety, I just don't think we have the horses. Probably the case at LB, too. Sad.
It's the D-line not getting any push up front. The Iowa defensive scheme relies on the front 4 freeing things up for the linebackers to make tackles. They aren't doing that, thus the linebackers aren't free to make tackles. Also, our safeties need to tackle much better. Snyder things he is some Bob Sanders wanna-be trying to throw his shoulder into people and he is undersized. If people would just wrap up and tackle, we would be a lot better off.
Really? Looks much smaller. Regardless, he isn't powerful enough to not wrap up. He tried to throw his shoulder into that tight-end on the TD pass and bounced off him like a rag doll.
Yeah, and that has happened in every game this year. yet he continues to be out there. If I was the coach I would bench him until he stops doing that.
Bower has been really bad at points this year. There was a NW run in the 4th quarter where he ran into the back of our DE and the NW RB ran it outside for about 15 more. Taylor doesn't wrap up either, it's not just Snyder.
KC, you do realize that Snyder caused the fumble against Rutgers and recovered it. That fumble led to our winning TD.
Again this week he caused the only NW fumble with a crushing hit on Jackson. That once again led to our lead at the half. The kid is a red shirt sophomore, he will only get better. Yes he missed a couple tackles but overall our safeties aren't the problem. We are not getting much pressure off the edge. Can't let a QB sit in the pocket all day. Once again, where's the blitz, come on Parker bring the house once and awhile.
Yes the safeties are a problem and Snyder has been bad. One forced fumble doesn't make up for numerous mistakes.
Also Northwestern got two TDs on blitzes
If that was the case then how do you explain Jewell making 16 tackles in this last game?
Need a huge upgrade in speed; replace Bower with Mends or Jones. Put Hooker at one of the safety spots. Can Gair ever get a look? Matt Nelson is big but slow - zero pass rush or penetration. Bazata is tough kid but undersized - no penetration. Play Lattimore some.
Bazata was the highest grades dlineman for Iowa last year.hasnt been great this year but Lattimore would get destroyed out there.
You don't fix run defense with adjustments at safety...if your safety is making a lot of tackles in the run game, the problem is in front of him.
DT's no push...Bowers and Niemann weak, safeties bad angles and tackling (watch Jackson 58 yd TD)
Jewell miss a couple tackles too but on one play he ran by a LB then by a safety and made a tackle on sidelines I couldn't believe it. Jewell has miss one whole game and leads the team in tackles by 12 only 5 games into season
I'd explain by saying we're on the Field a hell of a lot, and THEY run a lot of plays, so somebody has to make a tackle (16 in this case). Now if those 16 tackles were for loss or little or no gain, that's an entirely different story. And perhaps we'd be getting off the Field if those were 3rd down tackles prior to gaining a 1st down (not pointing a finger at Jewell, he's a pretty good player I think). Regardless, you should have more tackles when they run far more plays than you do on Offense (assume that's the case in the latest Home loss, I don't know).
We're around 90th in rushing Defense AND rushing Offense. That is pathetic on both accounts with the schedule we've had thus far. Horrible. No matter how much your head is in the sand (Kirk Apologists - this means you), you can't explain this away as some sort of "we'll get them next week", "we can fix this", "it's Football",etc.
It's putrid, plain and simple, and the competition is ratcheting up exponentially real soon. If you can't Run, or defend the Run in the Big Ten, you'll wake up with plenty of L's on your record.
It's the dline. I was so pumped when JJ and Faith got recruited and those guys have both been major dissapointments. I know JJ plays hard and try to bring it each week but the eyes don't lie and he gets run over/around more than he does anything positive. If we replaced our DT with a red cone, that when the other team touched it they were down, the cone would have more tackles than our dt's.
Snyder fails to "wrap" and just flat bounces off some guys, is out of position a lot and gets "jocked" a lot. Bower in my opinion is slow, takes bad angles and can't get off blocks. Bazata seems to be playing with a bad ankle. JJ is getting doubled most of the time because we don't blitz. Matt Nelson is way too slow footed. Never seen a Hawk D under both Parker's get man handled consistently.
As questionable and troubling as some of the things on D have been...such as the scheme of staying base 90% of the time, LBs who are already athletically challenged being asked to cover WRs, the footspeed of several of our back 7, egregiously bad pursuit angles (another byproduct of less-than-optimal footspeed), poor form tackling/arm wrapping, mediocre cover skills (#14 excepted) and so on; the main thing that is absolutely hamstringing this defense is the DL's utter inability to do the following in this order:
1) Control their assigned gaps
2) Shed blockers
3) NOT automatically take the path of least resistance (which is precisely what the OL wants them to do)
4) Apply any really consistent pressure on the QB once they finally do penetrate the backfield
5) Execute outside contain
We rarely have elite athletes littered throughout our back 7. Yes we've had our share of elite individuals, but rarely do we have a whole group of elite LBs/DBs on the field at one time. But their usually good collective effectiveness has frequently been elevated to very good/great when we have a dominant DL.
Unfortunately, our current DL edition is much closer to dormant than dominant.
1) Control their assigned gaps
2) Shed blockers
3) NOT automatically take the path of least resistance (which is precisely what the OL wants them to do)
4) Apply any really consistent pressure on the QB once they finally do penetrate the backfield
5) Execute outside contain
We rarely have elite athletes littered throughout our back 7. Yes we've had our share of elite individuals, but rarely do we have a whole group of elite LBs/DBs on the field at one time. But their usually good collective effectiveness has frequently been elevated to very good/great when we have a dominant DL.
Unfortunately, our current DL edition is much closer to dormant than dominant.
I assume you would agree then that the easiest part of a safety's job would be defending the run.
On that long TD run Snyder didn't have a clue. It may as well been me out there.
He's not good. Pretty decent hitter, but so what. He's actually the opposite of what they've had in a long line of underrated safeties.
I can count on one hand the number of times Sash and especially Greenwood were out of position in 4 years...if Greenwood had a little more speed he would have been all American....I thought Lomax was questionable at times last year and now I really miss him... 
Totally agreed, I saw at least two attempted spear tackles that completely failed. WRAP THEM UP!!
The inability to shed blocks is the one I've noticed most this year. I see too many of the defenders getting pushed back and not getting loose until whomever has the ball is past them.
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Yeah...I agree, but because he shouldn't have to make a lot of plays in the run game. I was early to criticize Snyder's tackling technique...early to criticize his shortcomings as a liability in coverage, and deservedly so to an extent. But my point is, if he is relied upon to be heavily responsible for stopping opposition run games...the problem is in the front seven. He shouldn't be as vulnerable to exposure as he has been in the run game...the front seven is making him look worse than he is. He is capable (with flashes of things to come) , but we're not having this discussion as fervently, if the front seven is getting it done...they're not, so this is where we are. Critiquing a young safety's run stopping abilities...
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I think you should give Jewell a little more credit than that. He does have a lot of strops for little or no gain. Jewell has been having to not only fight through blocks, but he also has to fight through his Dline getting pushed back into him.
He and King are the only ones playing their hearts out. It's gotta be frustrating for them. We can't expect them to do everything. They need some players to step up and help.
Even though we don't do it much, our blitzing has been awful for years. When we do blitz it's largely ineffective, sanz the occasional time Jewell has been able to run free at the QB. That says more about the Oline we are playing that it does about our blitzing.
As another poster mentioned, Mends needs a shot. The guy is a flat out violent player and would cause problems for an opposing offense. I still don't understand what happened, what the coaches see and how Bower passed him up.
I will take a guy who makes a few mistakes but makes plays over what we are seeing now. Brandon Snyder makes mistakes all game and he isn't coming out. For every good play Snyder makes, there is about 10 plays where he's slow in run support or out of position. Not trying to pick on the kid, but damn wake up.
You're right about the front seven.
I still don't think he belongs on the field at this point in his career. He would be an awesome special teams player.
I am in agreement with you that I cannot understand how we cannot play Mends at least part of the time in Bowers spot. He's a much better hitter and athlete. Reminds me of Anthony Hitchens. I have a feeling if Mends got a chance it would not be too long before he'd stop coming off the field.
Speaking of Hitchens, I want to remind everyone that this coaching staff benched him on several occasions. Morris got all the love and KF waxed poetically about what a great pro he would be. Hitchens was a complete beast and force for us but got little mention from the staff. Same with Kirksey. Well Kirksey & Hitchens are now starters in the NFL while Morris has never even sniffed that. Morris played well his senior year credit to him but he made a ton of mistakes in prior years and was never benched. The point is I really question our player evaluations and when I see Mends on the bench with lousy teams going for 200 yards on the ground every week I cannot help but wonder.
Reminded me of Lowdermilk in the bowl game against Tennessee. Terrible technique or just too lazy?
I agree. I was always disappointed with Morris. After his sophomore year I thought the kid would develop into an all-american. He showed a lot of promise after his sophomore year and just never developed into one of the great ones for Iowa.
Maybe the coaches got the most they could out of Morris. Who knows?
I've wondered for a number of years now that maybe players are being over coached. They are being coached to a point that maybe they are ignoring the instinct they had that garnered their scholarship and other scholarship offers to begin with. They are scared to make a mistake. I think we are really missing Jim Reid now. He had our LB position moving in the right direction. From what I've heard about him is that he was big on instinct.
Thing never go exactly as planned from play to play in football. When you coach a player so much that they believe they need to be here or they need to be there and they are just trying to get there, it becomes a problem. Because when things don't go the way they are supposed to, things break down and you get teams gashing your defense. At the point things aren't going the way they are supposed to on any given play, instinct needs to take over at some point so that you can still make a play.
Just my opinion and I don't get paid to coach football.
The art of tackling is a lost one....especially on THIS edition of Iowa Football. Last night Ol' Doodle went to the Vikings/Giants game. There was one play, Doodle can't remember who it was, but it was one of the Vikings DBs...he went in for a tackle...head across the bow, as soon as his shoulder pad made contact with his opponent it acted as a trip-hammer for his arms to immediately wrap like a ****ing venus flytrap, he drove through his man WITHOUT immediately giving up his feet, lifted him and planted him in the turf. It was an absolutely textbook form tackle.
That clip needs to be turned into an animated GIF and played endlessly in the Iowa Football complex from now until the end of the season. It should literally be on in the background during every defensive position meeting (esp. the DBs). It should be the background of every defensive player's cell phone and put into their e-mail signatures. It needs to be implanted into their brains by osmosis so that it hopefully artificially produces muscle memory.
It is astonishing that a program that prides itself on how it accentuates the fundamentals, is so egregiously lacking in something as fundamental as form tackling.
But..but...wait.....c'mon grandpa, it's so much COOLER to try to make the highlight reel hit rather than bring the ball carrier to the ground in the most expedient and secure fashion possible!
To be fair, Desmond King is an outstanding tackler. Very sure-handed, usually in good position, and makes excellent "form tackles" when positioning allows.The art of tackling is a lost one....especially on THIS edition of Iowa Football. Last night Ol' Doodle went to the Vikings/Giants game. There was one play, Doodle can't remember who it was, but it was one of the Vikings DBs...he went in for a tackle...head across the bow, as soon as his shoulder pad made contact with his opponent it acted as a trip-hammer for his arms to immediately wrap like a ****ing venus flytrap, he drove through his man WITHOUT immediately giving up his feet, lifted him and planted him in the turf. It was an absolutely textbook form tackle.
That clip needs to be turned into an animated GIF and played endlessly in the Iowa Football complex from now until the end of the season. It should literally be on in the background during every defensive position meeting (esp. the DBs). It should be the background of every defensive player's cell phone and put into their e-mail signatures. It needs to be implanted into their brains by osmosis so that it hopefully artificially produces muscle memory.
It is astonishing that a program that prides itself on how it accentuates the fundamentals, is so egregiously lacking in something as fundamental as form tackling.
But..but...wait.....c'mon grandpa, it's so much COOLER to try to make the highlight reel hit rather than bring the ball carrier to the ground in the most expedient and secure fashion possible!
Granted, he's succumbed to the temptation of swatting at the ball on occasion when he should have just made the darn tackle, but hey -- he's trying to make plays, so I'll cut him some slack there.
Overall, King is an excellent tackler, as is Jewell (obviously), for that matter. Outside of those two, however, our back 7 is pretty lacking where tackling is concerned.
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