They scored two TDs against blitzes. The 10 yard run on the left side, and the WR screen on the left side near the goal line. In both cases, they had greater numbers at the point of attack and there wasn't anything the Hawks could do.
That's because the two plays invented to stop the blitz were the draw and the screen pass. They allow the defense to overrun the play whilst creating a mismatch in the number of blockers to defenders. Mizzou either recognized that the blitz was coming and checked down to those plays, or noticed a tendency for us to send an extra guy inside the red zone in tight game situations and made the right call.
As for those who say that the defense only kept it from getting out of hand, the Hawks held the lead through three quarters. I'd say that is doing your job.
As for AC being "owned" by his man, if you re-watch the game, you'll notice that both he and Ballard were running a contain defense to prevent Gabbert from getting the running yards he was picking up late in the B12 season. Our defense knew he(Gabbert) had a quick release and that Mizzou rarely throws deep. No reason to run themselves out of every play only for Gabbert to have thrown the ball two seconds before he got there.
On plays where the ends stunted in, the LB's were playing in the shallow flat to prevent sweeps and short outs. However, Mizzou's possession wideouts ran excellent slant routes and their timing was perfect. It was obvious that the game plan was to pick on the young Iowa Linebacking corps with quick slants inside and outside from the slot.
Iowa recognized this at half and baited Gabbert into making the bad throw that Hyde intercepted by disguising their coverage as man, rotating the LB covering the flat into a hook zone over the middle, and pushing Hyde into the flat where he hadn't been all night long. Gabbert made a pre-snap read that the Hawks were in Man-Cover 2. He was right about the Cover-2, as the safety rotated over the top of Hyde to guard against the deep ball, but was wrong about the Man underneath. Hyde and Iowa knew where the ball was going before the snap and Hyde jumped the route. The rest is history.
The idea behind the spread is to a). spread out the defense so defenders have to make isolation plays in space, b). create mismatches between athletic tight-ends and slot receivers on linebackers, and c). make the reads and throws easier for the quarterback. Iowa's D is built to stop deep threats and force a team to execute perfectly time and time again to march down the field. The only way to successfully attack it is to be excellent at the point of attack on runs, or throw dink and dunk passes near the sidelines. Once you get into the red-zone, Iowa can start bringing its safeties closer to the line of scrimmage because the vertical space to defend is only 20 yards long. This makes the gaps in the zone coverage very small and often forces teams to try to throw deep fades into double coverage, make risky throws towards the sidelines where corners can jump routes and break up passes, or pound the ball inside to gain ground. It reduces the amount of "space" and allows the defense to function more as a team tackling unit, nullifying the concept behind the spread. Consequently, teams often end up kicking field goals rather than scoring TDs. If a team executes perfectly they will gain many yards between the twenties, only to get frustrated inside the red zone.
Norm's D may be vanilla to some eyes, but in reality it is a carefully thought out strategy that forces opponents to be very patient moving the ball, and limits risk. It also can cause opponents to lull themselves into a false sense of security, where they make prejudiced judgements about the defensive formation instead of looking closer to pick up subtle clues that the defensive alignment has changed–often leading to turnovers like the one by Hyde last night.
In short, rack up all the yards you want, but you will make a mistake and Iowa will probably capitalize on that mistake.
The only thing about this philosophy that is a problem is that it forces the defense to be on the field for long stretches of time against well-tuned offenses. Consequently the defense gets tired. There are two ways of combatting this: 1). The offense executes well and keeps the defense off of the field long enough to catch their breath and maintain their stamina throughout the game, or 2). Have great depth on defense. Iowa's injuries through the Big Ten season prevented #2, and in the games they lost Iowa usually lost the TOP battle as well.
Last night the run game was working so the defense had just enough left in the tank to execute well, and they won.
