It's time we called a spade a spade

R

Rawkhawk73

Banned
Let's be honest here......special teams didn't lose this game, calling the time out didn't lose us this game, Stanzi's ill-advised pass to Robinson didn't lose this game......our defense lost us this game, period, end of story.

This defense is not a top 10 defense. Our front four gets no pressure on the quarterback, our linebackers constantly get blocked out of the play, our corners give up big plays and our safeties are not tackling well. I can say with 100% certainty that not only is this defensive line not the best in the country, it's not even close to the best in the Ferentz era. I don't know if they read their press clippings too much or what, but a unit that returned all 4 starters from a dominant defensive line a year ago should not be playing this poorly.

I know that Jon considers this blasphemy, but I've been saying it all year. I pointed out issues from the Arizona game in particular and many people, Jon in particular, wanted to sweep it under the rug.

Well, here we are, and Hyde is still cheating up and getting burned by not playing assignment football, the defensive line is still not getting penetration and not "eating up" blockers which means the linebackers are still getting blocked out of the play.

The offense, particularly the offensive line, has made MARKED improvement from game 1 to game 6 and are more than holding up their end of the bargain. The defense is not, hence, we are 5-2 and looking at most likely an 8-4 season, unfortunately. It's unfortunate in my opinion because for the first time in 8 years, we finally have an offense capable of moving the ball with regularity and putting points up and now can't count on the defense to do their part.
 
Couldn't agree with you more. For Iowa football this season, the "D" has stood for Disappointing...Disasterous...(feel free to fill in other words if needed!).
 
regardless of what you think of the D (and it has been worse than last year's version), 4 more points would've come in handy at the end of the game
 
mrolympia said:
regardless of what you think of the D (and it has been worse than last year's version), 4 more points would've come in handy at the end of the game
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No one is disputing that (at least I'm not). But why should it take 34 points, at home, to beat this team? 30 should have been more than enough if our D was as good as it thinks it is. Especially when you consider that their best running back and best tight end were out of the game.
 
eh, i think our dline played pretty good. The linebackers were atrocious. Then again, the staff chose not to play Morris after his spectacular game vs. PSU.
 
The defensive line and safeties are equal to most any Iowa defense in recent history. But, we are thin at linebacker and cornerback positions compared to some other years.
 
I agree, if you want to talk about points left out on the field, you really have to look at the special team, but this is a team sport and it is a team loss. We did not lose because of one area or aspect of the team.
 
hawktalk said:
The defensive line and safeties are equal to most any Iowa defense in recent history. But, we are thin at linebacker and cornerback positions compared to some other years.
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The defensive line and safety TALENT is equal to the best we have had. But there is a large gap between the talent and the execution this year. I can name 5 defensive lines off the top of my head in the Ferentz era that were better on the field than this one and I can probably name that many from the safeties standpoint.

Let's face it, we're just not near as good as we thought we'd be there. Whether it's because of Norm's situation, reading too many headlines, etc, the play just isn't there.

And to those talking about the linebackers.....our scheme is set up to have the line eat up blockers which allows our linebackers to fill gaps and make plays. Pretty hard to make plays when your defensive line is allowing guards and centers to reach the backers.
 
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Someone will come up with a logical reason as to why we lost.. It'll make us all feel better.

I can't wait for this.
 
Rawkhawk73 said:
The defensive line and safety TALENT is equal to the best we have had. But there is a large gap between the talent and the execution this year. I can name 5 defensive lines off the top of my head in the Ferentz era that were better on the field than this one and I can probably name that many from the safeties standpoint.

Let's face it, we're just not near as good as we thought we'd be there. Whether it's because of Norm's situation, reading too many headlines, etc, the play just isn't there.

And to those talking about the linebackers.....our scheme is set up to have the line eat up blockers which allows our linebackers to fill gaps and make plays. Pretty hard to make plays when your defensive line is allowing guards and centers to reach the backers.
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The D-line is hardly great....they get very little pressure on QB's and don't do a great job of stopping the run.
 
imported_roetbomb said:
Someone will come up with a logical reason as to why we lost.. It'll make us all feel better.

I can't wait for this.
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We lost because they scored my points than us today. They made plays and not mistakes. When they got into the red zone after 2 4th down conversions they knew they were gonna score; they didn't think they were gonna score. It reminded me of when AZ marched down after the pick six. Yes this game was heart breaking, but at least many of the mistakes we made were correctable and we did not get completely dominated all game like we have when our program was much worse. Big 10 Title looks like a long shot, but I'm still hopeful. Go Hawks!
 
TChawk said:
The D-line is hardly great....they get very little pressure on QB's and don't do a great job of stopping the run.
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Hard to get too much pressure when you're being double and triple teamed at times. It's not like Wisconsin had a bunch of nobodies on the Oline. They're one of the best.
 
cibula11 said:
Hard to get too much pressure when you're being double and triple teamed at times. It's not like Wisconsin had a bunch of nobodies on the Oline. They're one of the best.
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You can't double/triple team everyone.....they don't have enough players for that. Where's Binns been all year? He should be having a record setting year if Clayborn was getting as much attention as people claim.

Let's face it, this defense just isn't as good as advertised. Special defenses of the past held teams to field goals or got turnovers when we needed them most. This defense does not. It continues to give up touchdowns at the most inopportune times.
 
H8IAST8 said:
It wasnt the dline it was the linebackers.
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Like I said earlier, I think it's a mistake to single out the linebackers. Our scheme requires the dline to eat up blockers to allow the backers to make plays. Our backers are constantly having to take on guards and centers and they're going to lose that matchup more often than not.

This year's results are on the dline, plain and simple.
 
By the way, do you want to know the difference between a good D and an average D?

A good D holds an opponent to a field goal to keep the difference at one score when the opposition is on your side of the field (like Wisky's did after the interception). An average one allows a team to march down the field for a touchdown in 15 plays covering almost 8 minutes at the end of the game when protecting a 6 point lead.
 
Wisconsin was the better team today and may prove to be the best in the conference before its over. Our backs are closer to the wall now but we can still make a run for the conference title and the Rose Bowl. I don't see the winner of this conference going undefeated. We have to take care of our business and hope WI muffs one along the way.

We won't accomplish our part of the deal, however, by giving up points like we have the last two games.
 
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