Incredible Stat Regarding Iowa's Red Zone Defense

S

Section136

Well-Known Member
This is from the B1G ESPN Blog:


  • We knew the Hawkeyes' defense was good -- they're No. 9 nationally in total defense -- but their red-zone defense has been just ridiculous. Opponents are scoring touchdowns on just 11.1 percent of their red zone trips, the best margin in the nation. By far. Oregon is second at 33.3 percent. Iowa's percentage is the best for an FBS team through six games in ... let's see here ... the last 10 years.
 








Stats can be deceiving. While Iowa may be good at stopping opponents in the endzone, the trips to red zone allowed can be a bit deceiving.

Length of TD's scored by opponents
NIU 40, 21, 30 All outside the red zone
MoSt 27
ISU 67, 26, 17 1 inside red zone
WMU No TD's
Minn 23
MSU 46, 37

So yeah, Iowa has only given up 1 TD inside the red zone, which is great. On the other hand they have given up 5 TD's of over 30 yards, and 3 of those are from 40 or more.

Oh yeah, those are ALL passing TD's. The defense has yet to surrender a rushing TD.

Iowa is the ONLY team to not give up a rushing TD this year.
 
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That is a nice little stat on paper. Fact is this we will see just how good that vaunted defense is over the next 6 weeks, my guess is that powder puff schedule to start the year had a lot to do with it.
 




HawkPrdatr40 said:
That is a nice little stat on paper. Fact is this we will see just how good that vaunted defense is over the next 6 weeks, my guess is that powder puff schedule to start the year had a lot to do with it.
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A large majority of teams have puffers for the OOC and can pad their stats too. Granted the 2nd half of the season will be a tougher test for the defense; but to suggest these stats are simply a result of the schedule isn't completely true.
 


atxhawk said:
Stats can be deceiving. While Iowa may be good at stopping opponents in the endzone, the trips to red zone allowed can be a bit deceiving.

Length of TD's scored by opponents
NIU 40, 21, 30 All outside the red zone
MoSt 27
ISU 67, 26, 17 1 inside red zone
WMU No TD's
Minn 23
MSU 46, 37

So yeah, Iowa has only given up 1 TD inside the red zone, which is great. On the other hand they have given up 5 TD's of over 30 yards, and 3 of those are from 40 or more.

Oh yeah, those are ALL passing TD's. The defense has yet to surrender a rushing TD.

Iowa is the ONLY team to not give up a rushing TD this year.
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The encouraging thing I find in these numbers is if the defense can get better at limiting the big plays, they will be very tough. But, in the meantime I'll be happy with a "bend but don't break" result.

Furthermore, IIRC, Iowa was very solid in the redzone d efficiency last year too.
 


That's nice but ISU had a streak before TTU of not letting opponents score more than 42. Now that is an impressive stat :rolleyes:
 




Section136 said:
This is from the B1G ESPN Blog:


  • We knew the Hawkeyes' defense was good -- they're No. 9 nationally in total defense -- but their red-zone defense has been just ridiculous. Opponents are scoring touchdowns on just 11.1 percent of their red zone trips, the best margin in the nation. By far. Oregon is second at 33.3 percent. Iowa's percentage is the best for an FBS team through six games in ... let's see here ... the last 10 years.
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The problem, with just about anybody else, that stat line equates to "6-0". For us, it's "4-2". And as others have posted, the longer TDs--all via passing, of course--that we have given up certainly are their own cause for concern.
 


Eda said:
A large majority of teams have puffers for the OOC and can pad their stats too. Granted the 2nd half of the season will be a tougher test for the defense; but to suggest these stats are simply a result of the schedule isn't completely true.
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Will see how this looks at the end of the year and I will disagree with your comments.
 


12th in the nation in scoring defense.....so far. not too shabby.

Everyone plays cupcakes..so better to be ranked high than not to be ranked high.
 


Our defense is decent, but we've still played mediocre offenses at best. Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, and Northwestern all have better offenses than anyone we've played. We've played no one outside of Michigan State.
 


Well, I guess that's something to hang your hat on. The Hawkeye defense in the red zone looks impressive, though, because teams usually score on Iowa from outside the redzone with long pass plays that exploit our porous secondary.

I'd like to see how many red zone attempts teams have had vs Iowa as compared to other teams. But I don't feel like searching for it, so............meh.
 


JCinthePowerI said:
Our defense is decent, but we've still played mediocre offenses at best. Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, and Northwestern all have better offenses than anyone we've played. We've played no one outside of Michigan State.
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I feel really sad for Northern Illinois. They go to a BCS bowl, then the next year they put some Big Ten teams on their schedule, they win all the games, they get into the top 20 in the polls...and still they're called "no one."

Anyway, about your point. I don't remember where the stat was posted, but I believe our non con strength of schedule ranking was one of the highest in the Big Ten. But even if we do play "no one," you can still acknowledge that the 11% stat is ******* incredible.
 


As good as the red zone defense is it really doesn't matter since teams hit big plays. And those were bad to average offenses. And doesn't help that Iowa's offense is equally bad as the defense is good in the red zone. They score 68% of the time with TD's less than 50% of that. Good for 114th. Stellar.
 


volhawk50 said:
I feel really sad for Northern Illinois. They go to a BCS bowl, then the next year they put some Big Ten teams on their schedule, they win all the games, they get into the top 20 in the polls...and still they're called "no one."
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Most fans don't know what they're talking about.
 


ICHawk24 said:
Most fans don't know what they're talking about.
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Northern Illinois went out and beat a mediocre Iowa team the first game of the season. Iowa should have won that game, and Iowa would beat NIU 4 out of 5 if they played right now. Northern Illinois went out and beat a terrible Purdue team. Those are the Big Ten teams they went out and beat.

Outside of the two Big Ten teams you've mentioned, they beat Eastern Illinois by 4 points, 43-39. And they've beaten their other three opponents (Idaho, Kent State, and Akron) by an average margin of victory of 7.66 points per game.

You don't know what you're talking about. Iowa has played NO ONE outside of Michigan State. NO ONE.
 


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