Hawkeyes Gamefilm: Defensive Line vs Purdue
When watching this game it was impossible to not notice the poor tackling from Iowa’s defense. It wasn’t just the defensive linemen, but they missed their fair share of tackles in this game and a lot of those came on the edges. Purdue’s backs were quick, shifty and blew threw arm tackles all game long. Purdue had success with the zone read game and had some gimmick plays that involved their versatile backup QB Rob Henry. Iowa just didn’t show good fundamentals when trying to make tackles. They stopped their feet and dove, they didn’t solidly wrap their arms and they didn’t square up their hits on ball carriers. Really an ugly game for the Iowa defense.
Iowa’s lack of a pass rush has been a problem all year and reached a new low this week when they were unable to contain or pressure Robert Marve who is missing the ACL in his left leg. Marve had an awful lot of time and was easily able to avoid the Iowa rushes all game long. Iowa ran a lot of line stunts this game and Purdue was clearly ready for it. When Iowa went man coverage in this game Marve would just stand in the pocket, waiting for something to come open, and if it didn’t he would just drift to one side or the other and keep his eyes down-field. Marve routinely had time to go through all his progressions and was able to pick Iowa apart. Marve completed 75% of his passes on the day for just over eight YPA. Iowa ranks 111th nationally and dead last in the B1G in sacks, averaging just 1.11 per game. Iowa’s lone sack in this game was a product of Alvis finally chasing Marve out of bounds for a 3 yard loss after having 5-6 seconds to survey the field.
DEFENSIVE END
Joe Gaglione was under the weather and left this game due to illness in the 1st half. That provided the opportunity for Drew Ott to get more playing time and he saw a large number of snaps in this game. Ott is still undersized and pretty raw, but showed some good instincts at times in this game. He had a nice pass deflection on a roll-out play and lined himself up in the passing lane and got his hands up to bat the ball down. As you might expect he did struggle shedding blocks and got lost in the wash at times. He is getting valuable experience at this point and looks to have the raw materials to develop into a solid player for the long time.
Defensive End Ladder:
1) Dom Alvis(4TOT 1Sack 1TFL 1 Pass deflection)
2) Drew Ott(1TOT 1 Pass deflection)
3) Joe Gaglione(2TOT)
4) Melvin Spears(N/A)
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
Darian Cooper has started to emerge a little bit and play up to the lofty expectations that came with his recruiting hype. He’s been quietly playing solidly the first half of this season but lacked the big plays and disruption you want from a DT. He’s turned it up in the last three games with 2TFL and a pass breakup. Cooper is still pretty green and is only a first year player. He seems to be getting his bearings and is doing a better job with the little things as time goes on. He hasn’t flashed the violent hands of a Mike Daniels or the very quick penetrating first step of a Karl Klug but he has a lot of time to develop over the next three years. Bright future ahead for Darian Cooper.
DT Ladder:
1) Darian Cooper(3TOT 1TFL 1Pass deflection)
2) Steve Bigach(7TOT 1FF)
3) Louis Trinca-Pasat(1TOT)
4) Carl Davis(2TOT .5TFL)
5) Mike Hardy(2TOT)
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