Hawkeyes fall short as defense falters

By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald

IOWA CITY ––––– When push came to shove, the Wisconsin Badgers simply lined up and jammed the ball right down the collective throats of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Four plays in a row in the waning minutes. Four straight runs, totaling 19 yards. Just like that, Wisconsin capped a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ate up the majority of the last nine minutes, burying the Hawkeyes in the process.

“We knew that coming in Iowa’s defense was rock solid, and they have been for the last few years,” Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien said. “We put it on our offensive line, and it started with them. They played their tails off.”

Iowa’s defense was supposed to be one of the best in the nation. Last week, they gave up 522 yards to an explosive Michigan offense, while Wisconsin imposed it’s will on then-No. 1 Ohio State.

Still, expectations nationally were that Iowa (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten) would be able to withstand Wisconsin (7-1, 3-1). And with 8:35 left, a six point lead, and the Badgers backed up on their own 20, the defense had their chance to snuff out Wisconsin and keep the road to the Big Ten title going through Iowa City.

They didn’t, and the Hawkeyes fell 31-30 in a heartbreaker at Kinnick Stadium.

It’s a loss that’s going to sting for a while.

“The defense didn’t step up, and that’s why we lost the game,” Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn, voice quaking and eventually brought to tears, said. “We’ve got to stop them in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t.

“Whatever we’ve done in practice, on the player side, it’s not working,” he added. “We need to change things around. The coaches are giving us the opportunities to make plays, and we just aren’t.”

It’s easy to point the finger at the defense, but for some it will be easier to point it at the offense, which had a minute to drive into field goal range and all three timeouts at their disposal. After a fourth-down quarterback sneak with 14 seconds left, Iowa made the questionable decision to use their last timeout instead of having Ricky Stanzi spike the ball.

That decision left Iowa with 12 seconds, no timeouts, and too far to go for freshman kicker Michael Meyer to take a shot. Stanzi’s last gasp, a short shovel pass to Adam Robinson, ended with Robinson being taken down inbounds and the final few seconds agonizingly ticking off the clock.

“We wanted to burn the timeout and just go from there,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “I guess we could have gone the other way. Might have saved us two seconds, something like that. I don’t think that was exactly the turning point in the game.”

The players backed the decision. Robinson said that with the confusion among the team as the referees were resetting the ball, Iowa likely would have incurred a penalty had Stanzi tried to snap the ball to clock it.

“There’s different ways a two-minute drive can go,” Stanzi said. “You just kind of have to live with whatever decision you make.”

Even with a spike, another play, and a timeout, there’s no guarantee. Iowa has to live with their decision anyway and try to regroup and figure out where to go from here.

With an undefeated Michigan State coming to Kinnick this weekend, there isn’t much time to do so. Special teams are still an issue – a penalty led to a do-over and a big return, a blocked extra point ended up being the final margin of defeat, and a botched snap cost Iowa a field goal try.

But there’s more going wrong than just special teams.

“We can still win the Big Ten; we can still go somewhere nice for a bowl game,” offensive guard Julian Vandervelde said. “The important thing right now is that we’re able to learn from this. We’re going to be hurting on this one for a while, but at the same time it makes you kind of itchy to get back out there on the field. We’ll be hungry and we’ll be ready to go next week.”

That old axiom that Iowa always preaches – look back just long enough to learn from what you did, and then keep focusing ahead – has never been more critical this season than it is now. After losing to Arizona, Iowa knew they had an entire game to bounce back.

Not this time.

“Looking back, that’s all nice and everything, but we’re going to keep looking forward,” Stanzi said. “In the Big Ten, playing football, if you’re going to look back, you might as well stay there.”

Losing to Wisconsin doesn’t put Iowa in the back of the Big Ten by any stretch of the imagination, but this could be a turning point to the season for a simple reason. With their backs to the wall, the Iowa defense did something unusual.

They didn’t just bend. They buckled. 

They broke.

For the second week in a row, Iowa’s defense was a letdown. That defense, a once proud unit, suffered a major blow to their pride, leaving their leader in tears. Whether that serves as major motivation or a major deflator remains to be seen.

Maybe the Hawkeyes will turn it around with the looming return of defensive coordinator Norm Parker. Maybe the Hawkeyes figure things out, and go back to the dominance they are accustomed to.

But maybe, just maybe, this Hawkeyes defense just isn’t as good as advertised. One thing is clear, though, no matter what the truth is.

This one hurts.