The Reality of Iowa Defense

[swihawk]

Our defense was elite last year when we went 10-2 with the worst offense in football.

Vs mizzou, our offense napped in the second half.

 

[WhiteDog125]

Our defense was elite last year when we went 10-2 with the worst offense in football.

Vs mizzou, our offense napped in the second half.

Not elite but very good.

 

[93hawkeye]

I think eyeballs and scoreboard tell the truth about Iowa's D over the years. Stats are not as good at describing "what" as they are "why" and "how". You are what the scoreboard says. But as Iowa fans, we like defensive stats because low points-per-game allowed and (sometimes) low rush YPG allowed or low pass YPG allowed is an identity and about as sexy as it gets under KF

 

[swihawk]

Not elite but very good.

Only an elite defense could carry an offense like that to 10-2. Historical fact at this point.

 

[WhiteDog125]

Only an elite defense could carry an offense like that to 10-2. Historical fact at this point.

lol I want to agree with you fully I really do but the teams they played says otherwise. The only top 20-25 offense they played was Tennessee and they had the back up in.. we know how that went. Now I’m second guessing that are you are right because man that D hill led offense was something wasn’t it.

 

[ShonnDeereGreene]

Metrics aside for a second and just use the eye test. Iowas defense is almost always physical, disciplined, and gasp…athletic! That translates into seeing a very very good product on the field.

Contrast that with the offense. Clearly stats show recent years we’ve been horrible, but the eye test was even more brutal. Zero threat! This year actually showed that the offense could be a threat - albeit inconsistently and often on the back of KJ. But clearly it was a threat far more than prior years.

Recency bias is a real thing - and using the Iowa defensive performance this year to diminish the performance of prior years should not be done.

 

[hawkod]

The Iowa defense was not elite this year, that’s for sure, because the secondary was awful. The problem is you can’t just plug in anyone off the roster and expect them to perform like their predecessors regardless of how good of a coach you think Phil Parker is. He’s not a magician.

Outside of Jamari Harris, no one in Iowa’s secondary was worth a shit. Compound that by the fact X is a bust and Quinn Schulte has never had any business starting at safety (for some reason Kirk feels he needs to reserve at least one safety position for a local white boy), you have a recipe for a train wreck against any team competent in the passing game. And that’s exactly what happened this season.

In terms of prior years, when you look at how incompetent the Iowa offense was and how much the defense was on the field, I would say the defense played at a pretty elite level.

Hate to say it as an SEP fan, but yeah, Nwankpa has never performed above 2 star level.