3 Big Plays On D

[sirfarmsalot]

Made the difference between 5-7 and 8-4. 1) late fumble by NW following penalty after the Wildcats had driven deep into Iowa territory 2) Gardner fumble late against Michigan 3) Abdullah fumble in fourth quarter vs. Nebraska (this one may be a bit of a stretch as it came on Neb 40 with Iowa still leading, however with a score on that possession Debbie would have had all the momentum

The point is Iowa won all three of these games, where in recent years the Hawks have really struggled to close games out. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

 

[ICHawk24]

Its a huge stretch to assume we'd lose all three of those games. But those were big plays.

 

[NCHawker]

Every defensive play against minnesota seems the same. We flattened their OLine and the RB ran into a wall. That's 1.

Kirksey's fumble return against NIU when we needed a spark. While it wasn't a win, it was the years' first spark.

I'll let somoene else add more. - olddude what you got?

 

[ICHawk24]

Lowery one handed INT at ISU.

 

[uihawk82]

Lowery one handed INT at ISU.

That actually was big because it was during the ISU comeback and the hawks were able to run 2 minutes or maybe more off the clock (as they went super conservative).

 

[Golfer]

The defense was really exciting to watch improve during the year. Interesting to watch more blitzes. Even stunts popping up in strange places during the game. The public comments coming out of IC are about recruiting more blitz type players. Year to year it's such a crap shoot how teams come together given the turnover of players, and recently for us coaches. I'm pretty excited about Iowa football going forward. 2011 was probably the low point for me. Last year I resigned myself to a three year acclimatization period due to staff changes, and understood when we had o linemen go down it was going to be rough.

This year's defensive players deserve a lot of credit as the offense developed more slowly. Some weeks not at all.

 

[Wassabbe]

Lowery one handed INT at ISU.

I had forgot about that play! What a catch! At the time it didn't seem like a big deal as ISU couldn't really score but that play ended up potentially saving the game for us.

 

[Wassabbe]

That Northwestern fumble was a gift from the football gods. He handed us the ball and I am convinced we would have lost in regulation had he not fumbled.