22 Jan 11 Iowa Football: Don't Blame The Defense For Loss To Arizona

Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesI am not the kind of person that is always looking for the silver lining in the gray cloud. I'm not a pessimist, but I'm also not somebody that desperately needs to grab onto some random bit of sunshine in order to make myself feel better.With that said, in Saturday's 34-27 loss to the Arizona Wildcats, Iowa did a lot of things wrong in all phases of the game.The receivers dropped a lot of balls. One of those drops led directly to a pick-six. Also, on at least one occasion, a receiver didn't run through his route. The end result of Denver Broncos jersey
that was he missed what would have been a sure touchdown.The Hawkeyes took 60 yards in very sloppy penalties, particularly false start and personal foul penalties. If you think Kirk Ferentz will not remind his players about that over and over this week, then you have not paid attention to Kirk Ferentz over the past 11 years.Ricky Stanzi showed a number of signs that he still has not exorcised his "Mr. Hyde" demons. As I said, the pick-six was not on him. On the other hand, he did force a number of throws for which he was lucky not to get burned.Even more importantly, he still stubbornly refused to give up on plays. This resulted in him taking sacks that he didn't have to take, and that hurt the team terribly.Speaking of sacks, Iowa gave up a whopping six on the night. They gave up three in a row on the last drive. All three of those sacks came on the exact same nickel blitz, which Iowa, for some reason, seemed entirely unable to counter. Some of that was on Stanzi and some of that was on the offensive line.Oh, and the special teams were atrocious.Nevertheless, I have seen a number of message boards that are quick to blame this on the defense, and I think that is a bit absurd.I'm not saying the defense was perfect. They took a number of the aforementioned penalties, there were linebackers out of position on a number of plays, and the cornerbacks got caught looking into the backfield on at least two occasions.Both of those mistakes by the corners turned into plays of over 30 yards, the last one of which all but put the proverbial fork in the Hawks.However, I Detroit Lions
think one has to put the defense's performance into perspective.First of all, Iowa gave up 34 points. Fourteen of those points were entirely on the special teams, and a pick-six given up by the offense. Another seven of those points came on an extremely short field, given up after a blocked punt.That leaves exactly 13 points that were fully on the defense.It is true that all 13 of those points came on series in which the offense drove down the field.Nonetheless, as has been well-documented, Iowa plays a defense that allows its opponents to take underneath stuff all game. Any patient and accurate quarterback can have success against the Hawks.The good news is that there are very few patient and accurate quarterbacks in college football. The bad news is that Arizona quarterback Nick Foles is just such a quarterback.The fact is, Foles is probably the best quarterback Iowa will see all year. Certainly, Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor and Michigan's Denard Robinson are loaded with talent and ability, but neither of them can pass like Foles.In short, Arizona was going to get its yards and pick up points against this defense. The key was that the defense limited those points to field goals, which they did, and limit the number of time the Cats were able to drive the ball, which they did.In 12 drives, the Wildcats scored two touchdowns, two field goals, and turned the ball over twice. Also, one of those touchdowns was after the blocked punt. In effect, the "drive" started at Iowa's eight-yard-line.Finally, Arizona had been averaging over 500 yards total offense per game, previous to the Iowa game.The Hawks held them to 366 total yards.The bottom line is this game was not Iowa's finest moment. This is not a game that anybody will point to, and say that the Hawkeyes were at their absolute best.Iowa will go into this week with a lot ofGreen Bay Packers jersey
work to do. That includes the offense, the special teams, and the defense.Nonetheless, fans pointing to the Iowa D as "beyond overrated," or putting this loss squarely on the defense's shoulders is a bit far-fetched.There is still a lot of football left, and it is a testament to the talent and heart on this team and this defense that they made it a game, despite how sloppily they played.