Making plays versus making tackles.

[Hawkeye52803]

Our linebacker play today was the biggest problem with our defense. Obviously losing The Outlaw early really hurt us, but what I saw out of Bower and Hockaday really concerned me. Both made tackles, but neither regularly made plays. I will give you an example that played out right in front of my seats in the SE corner of the stadium. Miami has the ball first and ten at about the our 30 going into the South end zone. They run left to the short side of the field just off tackle. Bower fills from the inside and Hockaday has outside contain. Both linebackers are well positioned to stop the play for no gain or a short gain. Both linebackers stop moving their feet. Instead of running thru the ball carrier they basically let him gain five yards while they play it safe scoring the tackle. Miami scored on that drive. Making tackles is not making plays.

Another thing I noticed was Bower getting engulfed by blockers at the second level. Bower really struggled shedding the Miami blockers. Iowa State will see this on film as will the whole Big Ten. A linebacker must be able to stay clean, if Bower cannot, Mends must play. I'd rather see us play fast and make some mistakes than play safe and make no plays.

Finally, I noticed bad body language out of our defense as Maimi was driving for its third score. That really surprised me. I predict that Iowa State takes the ball to open the game as Jewell will be out for four minutes. Hopefully our linebackers learn from this experience.

 

[IAHAWK1982]

Jewell will not have to sit out any minutes vs. Iowa State. They don't count actual minutes when it happened. Jewell back in the line up will improve the defense greatly. Also, Iowa has always struggled defending the run vs. spread offenses. Mainly because their linebackers get too spread out and lose their gap control.

 

[PCHawk]

Our ability to stop the run was hopefully 90% on Jewell being out. Stopping the pass is another thing. It's possible the true freshman will improve quickly and overtake Mabin if things don't get better.

 

[Hawk1960]

Something tells me Jewell will have at least 12 tackles against the clowns. He will be more than ready to go after sitting this one out.

 

[PCHawk]

I agree with the op that making a tackle for no gain is way better than making the tackle 5 yards down field. That is the difference Jewell should make.

 

[SCHawkeye2]

I agree with some of the other other posts on the forum - our linebacker play was not inspiring. Unfortunately, that was also our defensive weak spot last year. Sorry to see it has not improved or upgraded.
Our defense overall seemed very soft - weak pass rush, soft coverage, 424 total yds allowed, etc.
Hope they were just holding back rather than the alternative.

 

[koralakers]

WELL SPOKEN by OP. Classic 'playing it safe' to make sure to get the tackle, instead of 'making a play'. Totally reminds me up Humpal and Klinkenborg. They would end games with 20 tackles, and we would lose. Very un-athletic, and would always make sure to 'make the tackle', but always 7-yds down the field. Would rather them try to blow the play up for a loss, when possible. There was a reason the teams they played on lost a lot.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Our ability to stop the run was hopefully 90% on Jewell being out. Stopping the pass is another thing. It's possible the true freshman will improve quickly and overtake Mabin if things don't get better.

It wasn't necessarily Mabin. Over-the top help was (seemingly) lacking. Communication between that side (mainly Mabin and Snyder) was the culprit. They should be able to figure that out soon enough.

 

[PCHawk]

It wasn't necessarily Mabin. Over-the top help was (seemingly) lacking. Communication between that side (mainly Mabin and Snyder) was the culprit. They should be able to figure that out soon enough.

I know some of it wasn't. But the freshman played quite a bit and has been getting talked up like crazy. If he overtakes Mabin we will be better because of it. That's stating the obvious tho. Of course the team gets better when a backup gets better than the starter.