Iowa’s Defense Could Lead To Big Things

Pat Angerer and company could be on their way to a special season

Given their history against the Penn State Nittany Lions it’s pretty hard to label the Iowa Hawkeyes victory on Saturday night as a surprise.  Instead it’s just another reminder about how Kirk Ferentz and his team are just in the Nittany Lions heads, and will likely continue to be in the coming years.

It also lets us know that the near debacle against Northern Iowa aside, this Hawkeyes team is for real.

When the Hawkeyes schedule for 2009 came out it looked as though the odds were stacked against them to win the conference.  Three tough road trips to Happy Valley, Madison and Columbus stood in their way, but now they’ve gotten past one of their biggest obstacles and thanks to a very stout defense, there’s reason to believe they can do it two more times.

Penn State may have come out of the gates firing and looking for revenge when Darryl Clark found Chaz Powell for for a 79-yard touchdown on the very first play from scrimmage, but from that point on the Iowa defense didn’t let the Nittany Lions do anything.  Sure, there was the ensuing Penn State drive that took over ten minutes off of the game clock and resulted in a field goal, but in hindsight that drive served as an omen for the battle Penn State’s offense would face the rest of the night.

The drive may have lasted ten minutes, but it only covered 68 yards and the Nittany Lions needed 19 plays just to get that far.  If you take away Penn State’s first play the Hawkeyes defense only allowed 3 points and 228 yards in 58 minutes and 15 seconds of action.

While odds are that the weather conditions played a role in the sloppy offensive efforts from both teams, it had a lot more to do with the Iowa defensive line imposing their will on a Penn State offensive line that looks like it could be the downfall of this Nittany Lions team.  The Hawkeye defense forced four turnovers from Darryl Clark, held the Nittany Lion rushing attack to 3.3 yards per carry, and managed to quiet the crowd at Beaver Stadium.

It was an effort that made it hard to pick out a single star from the Hawkeyes defense, as the whole unit performed exceptionally well.  Still, I have to give credit to the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Week Pat Angerer who had 14 tackles to lead the Hawkeyes to go along with an interception that set up the Hawkeyes to take an 18-10 lead.  Shortly after that he ended another Penn State drive by forcing a fumble.

There was also defensive end Broderick Binns.  Binns was the one who sacked Darryl Clark in the end zone and forced a fumble that was recovered by Penn State for a safety, and got the Hawkeyes first points.  He finished the night with 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss and 8 tackles over all.

Adrian Clayborn turned the entire game around

We can’t forget about the Big Ten’s Special Teams Player of the Week either.  After all, the play that turned the entire game around was Adrian Clayborn’s blocked punt which he subsequently picked up and took 53 yards to the house to give the Hawkeyes an 11-10 lead.

Now none of this is to say that this Iowa team is perfect.  Not by any means.  The fact of the matter is that they’re still shaky on offense behind Ricky Stanzi who has that knack for making horribly stupid throws time after time.  It’s just that Iowa is blessed to have such a strong defense that can withstand the bad decisions their offense sometimes make.

Will the Hawkeyes win the Big Ten this year and end up in the Rose Bowl?  It’s still way too early to tell, but it’s definitely a possibility.  I still think they’re going to trip up somewhere as that’s just the way life is inside the Big Ten but thanks to their defense and a head coach who just continues to prove that he’s the best big-game coach in the conference, Kirk Ferentz, they also could end up going undefeated and playing for a national title.

Something I don’t think anyone but the most ardent Hawkeye homer thought was possible on Friday.