Hawkeyes' defense stands tall in dominant win

By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald

IOWA CITY ––––– They may have dropped a few spots from their No. 1 ranking in total defense last week, but the Iowa Hawkeyes defense showed something Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium.

They showed that the numbers, which some thought were a bit lofty based on level of competition, weren’t that far off.

They showed that, even though they personally knew they had things to improve upon, this really is one of college football’s elite defenses.

And they showed it by playing physical, aggressive, mean defense in keeping the Penn State Nittany Lions out of the end zone for the entire 60 minutes.

“That’s how Coach K (defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski) told us to be – just play pissed off,” defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. “Just play pissed off all the time. Just get after it. You can’t be a nice guy on the field. I think that’s how we played tonight on the defensive line.”

Clayborn’s dominance hadn’t been visible on the stat sheets until Saturday, when he racked up 10 tackles, three tackles for a loss, and his first sack of the year.

The dominance of the line as a whole has been obvious all season, but never as much as during the first quarter against Penn State. The Nittany Lions gained all of 36 inches – yes, you read that right – on three drives in the opening quarter. 

Six of Penn State’s (3-2, 0-1 Big Ten) first eight plays went either backwards or nowhere. Iowa (4-1, 1-0) jumped out to a 10-0 lead while their defense continually gave them field position, and the Hawkeyes never looked back.

“Big Ten play comes along, we need to step our game up,” defensive lineman Christian Ballard said. “I think the past four games we were just kind of out there. We were playing OK, but weren’t playing great. This was a good step up, good start to the Big Ten opener.”

Penn State did enough throughout the final three quarters to knock Iowa’s overall defensive ranking to fourth in the nation. The Hawkeyes’ defense served notice to the rest of the conference though by stifling Evan Royster and constantly living in the Nittany Lions’ backfield, piling up six tackles for a loss.

“They’re a good, solid football team,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “They hustle. They’re well coached. You have to beat them; they don’t beat themselves. The Arizona game was a fluke for them.”

With the way they’ve played in all four games aside from Arizona, that failed comeback in the desert certainly looks more like an aberration than par for the course. The Hawkeyes don’t like to look behind them, though. 

They learn from their mistakes and move on, focusing squarely on what’s right in front of them.

“Once we start thinking we’ve arrived anywhere, we’ll go right downhill fast, especially in this conference,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’d better be thinking about moving forward.”

What’s in front now is a much needed bye week. Adam Robinson said he could use the rest after the 28-carry beating he took from a physical Penn State defense. 

Iowa was down to a true freshman middle linebacker in James Morris after Jeff Tarpinian missed Saturday’s game and Troy Johnson got knocked out of it early, so the time off will help restore depth at that vital position.

And the Hawkeyes have been in full-on football mode for eight weeks now. With eight weeks left in the regular season, the timing is just right.

“Personally right now I’m thrilled that we have a bye week,” Ferentz said. “Normally I’m not a big fan of them, but we need a little time to regroup here and get some of our guys that are nicked up back.”

It doesn’t hurt that the extra time comes right before Iowa plays one of the nation’s most dynamic players in Michigan’s Denard Robinson. While they haven’t officially gotten down to film study and looking that far ahead yet, it’s no secret that anybody could use extra time to prepare for him.

That will be a bit of a challenge, since Ferentz admitted that Iowa simply “doesn’t have anybody like him” to help emulate him in practice. But with the way the defense is playing, and with the likely return of Norm Parker to the team for the game, it’s a safe bet that Iowa will be well prepared for the Wolverines and their standout quarterback.

Having a better idea of who they are as a team now will help with the mental part of preparing for Michigan. Before the season, many pointed at the Arizona game as a measuring stick for where the Hawkeyes were.

With how that game played out, the focus instead shifted to this game, the Big Ten opener, to get a better feel for who Iowa is.

“We were kind of at a crossroad; we didn’t know where our team was,” Clayborn said. “We beat three teams we should of beat and we lost to Arizona. We figured this was the game to see where we were at.”

Now they know. Tied at the top of the Big Ten, with the best record possible after one conference game. Top 15 in the nation in the rankings.

And a defense ranked in the top five nationally, with, for the first time in years, an offense that can almost keep pace.