How good is this Hawkeye Defense?

With a healthy 7 or 8 Dbacks we can play nickle and dime packages for long yardage and still send one on the blitz. I hate giving QBs 5-6 seconds to throw on long yardage situations. Get some pressure quick as these are not all NFL QBs we are playing. Phil Parker knows how to get a stunt blitz up the middle and off the corner and make a QB flinch.

Reiff is a starter and it will be good to get him back. Rotate the front 4 and dont let them get tired. Amani Jones needs to cause havoc and be used on long yardage situations and spell Gholston and even AJE once in awhile.

We do not need linebackers guarding wideouts like the Purdue speedster anymore in passing situations.

Maybe less cushion coverage can help the front 4 or 5 get some more pressures and sacks instead of giving QBs easy targets after only 2 seconds.
 
Phil is a good coach, but the 4-2-5 is hardly new / exotic. Switching to that was no more "genius" than deciding to blitz more in the 2nd half against ISU.

Those moves are called "being the DC".

And, Huck, Chad is hardly unbiased. You might say he's a homer.

Of course he is biased. That does not mean he can’t do a lot of well documented analysis.
 
Keep in mind the field at ISU was wet. It was tough for our edge rushers to get any traction. The clowns had the same problem. I’m confident we will be ok in better conditions. It will be nice to start getting some of our starters back over the next two weeks in time for the Michigan game. The silver lining is that a lot of our second and third teamers got some gametime experience which will benefit us in the long term.
 
We suck.
I was just reading on a Nebraska board that they have the best dl in the b10.
We are slow and not getting sacks and turnovers.
We're screwed.
After the talk about not extending the ISU game, there was discussion behind closed doors to just cancel the season.
You can`t blame Nebby fans for being giddy. Big W`s over powerhouses S Alabama, N Illinois, & Illinois. And GameDay! And that D did have 11 tfl's against Clemson I mean Illannoy (Hawks have 7 for the year).
 
Besides AJE & maybe Gohlston - any NFL players? So not the most 'talented'.

What this defense does well is keep opponents out of the end zone.
Look at the points all these Big 10 teams score against each other and then what they scored v. Iowa.
A true 'Bend but don't break' group
 
Phil Parker is a good coach. He gets this team to perform well enough to win no matter who's playing or the opponent.
 
Besides AJE & maybe Gohlston - any NFL players? So not the most 'talented'.

What this defense does well is keep opponents out of the end zone.
Look at the points all these Big 10 teams score against each other and then what they scored v. Iowa.
A true 'Bend but don't break' group
AJE, Golston, Stone (yes he will play in the NFL despite physical limitations), Nixon, potentially Colbert and OJ.
 
This is the ultimate bend don't break defense. Can be maddening to watch, but when the game is over and you look at the stats... wow. They are good.

Their run D hasn't performed as well this year. Very inconsistent. Great one week, borderline helpless the next. PSU, WIS, & ILL all ran on them but they kept other good teams like ISU, Michigan, & Minnesota in check.

As you said, maddening to watch but when the game is over the opponents don't have a lot of points.
 

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