Iowa Linebackers - Thoughts??

PlanoHawk

PlanoHawk

Well-Known Member
Good win for the Hawks, just curious to get the opinions of the masses. I don't feel like we had great linebacker play today- maybe others feel differently. Maybe it was them "doing their jobs" or maybe it was EIU spreading things out... but especially at MLB we have lots of opportunity to improve.

Thoughts?? GO!
 
Well keep in mind Tarp didn't play. It's been well known that Bruce Davis is strong against the run but not great against the pass. I wasn't impressed by any means but overall the defense played very well considering who was out of this game.
 
agree. I think after watching #57 play last year that he was a little small/short for the position. i thought he kinda got swallowed up at times last year. not sure about this year. just remember, 2 of the 3 are 1st time starters with one guy out with a hand. i think they'll come around. also notable that Morris played at LB during the game. perhaps telling....??
 
I thought they were fine (solid & did their jobs). Nielsen & Hunter were around the ball a lot. I think the knock on bruce davis is his pass coverage and that showed a few times... A healthy Tarp will be an upgrade at MLB. I'm not worried about the LBs.
 
I thought Nielsen played extremely well, not sure what others watched today. Saw him run a couple tackles down covering alot of field. EIU did nothing up the middle for the LB's to make a play on and most passes were to the outside as well. I would not be worried at this point!
 
The play in general by the entire team in the second half reminded me of what I picked up from my dogs rectum this afternoon. Luckily, KF made no secret in the postgame about his displeasure as well and I expect us to be much sharper next week.
 
I should go back to that... I don't think it's quite WORRYSOME YET, but it was noticeable how infrequent the LB's were credited today.
 
I'm not worried about the LB's. EIU ran a lot of screens to the backs, plays that D-Lineman and corners were all over (Ballard had a couple stops on those).

The corners didn't really give up a lot. They had the big play down the sideline, but other than that I thought they were generally solid. Not great, but solid.

On another note, I was VERY impressed with Paki. The blocked punt was terrific, but I was particularly pleased with how he ran the ball. He kept a firm grip on it, and he was running HARD.
 
imported_ankle23 said:
agree. I think after watching #57 play last year that he was a little small/short for the position. i thought he kinda got swallowed up at times last year. not sure about this year. just remember, 2 of the 3 are 1st time starters with one guy out with a hand. i think they'll come around. also notable that Morris played at LB during the game. perhaps telling....??
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Saying he's small/short is just not true at all! He has fine size. 1 He is good against the run and not good against the pass. 2 He is great at blitzing but, we don't blitz much. 3 He got banged up during the game. Johnson came in for him quite a bit later in the game. Johnson is primarily an OLB and Morris is just a true freshman. You can expect them to look like superstars in the middle right now.
 
Yep, all those sustained drives, third down conversions, time of possession, and scoring opportunities. If Iowa doesn't fix those problems on D it is going to be a long season.
 
HawkeyeNTexas said:
I'm not concerned one bit. Coverage on the EI TD drive was suspect for 2 plays, but that's it.
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I agree. They played their areas well, they contained well, and they created a lot of opportunities for the corners and safeties to come up to finish tackles.

Nielsen is just fine, will do a capable job in replacing Edds at OLB.
 
I don't know what people are expecting. The defense gave up 120 yards on 43 snaps. That is less than 3 yards per play. if you take out the one pass play immediately after the fake punt when the defense probably wasn't focused after having to come back on the field then they gave up 83 yards on 42 snaps (2 yards per play).


I took out the 36 yards on the fake punt as the defense was not on the field for that snap.
 
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