That was a heartbreaking game for Hawkeye fans, and even harder to go back and chart. I came away very impressed with several Buckeyes, but even more impressed with heart and tenacity of the Iowa players. They could have easily quit at several points in the game and they fought back again and again. Coach Ferentz word for this squad has been resilient but I don't think it does this team justice. These guys are fighters and they fight together as a team as well as any Iowa unit I can remember. I am only 32 and have really paid extreme (in my OCD kind of way) attention since 2000. This is my favorite Hawkeye team ever so far and it is hard to pick out individuals because it takes everyone of them to make this thing work. Today's post is going to concentrate on the defensive side of the ball.
This is going to be a long post so I am going to just address the offense and the coaching decisions in one paragragh. I am very pleased with the play of JVB but I am not suprised. I don't think that any player should lose their job due to an injury and that means in my mind, Stanzi should be the clear cut starter as soon as he is healthy enough to play and into next season. I think he is a pro prospect and would make a great developmental QB for some NFL team's roster after next season if he continues to improve his play and he avoids a catostrophic injury. The best thing that could have happened to him is the emergence of Vandenberg. I am disappointed with the decision to sit on the ball at the end of the 4th quarter. I have read and listened to all of the arguments. I understand where KF and Co. were coming from by sitting on it. I still think it was an opportunity wasted. OSU was on their heels and JVB had repeatedly attacked their best corner. He was finding single coverage and even if they rushed 3 and dropped 8 at that time I feel he would have been able to check down to Robinson for serviceable gains. Hindsight is 20/20 and I still think that Ferentz is a great coach. This will continue to be a very special season, and it is Ferentz and his staff that have gotten Iowa to this point.
Jon's article about the youth and number of skill position players left was excellent, but Iowa is potentially stronger on the other side of the ball. Even if Spievey and Clayborn leave (and I think they will) Iowa will return 7 starters next season to that side of the ball: DTs- Ballard and Klug, DE- Binns, WLB- Hunter, CB- Prater, and both Safeties- Sash and Greenwood. Iowa has depth at the corner position with the return of Bernstine from a medical red shirt, and Lowe and Hyde have impressed me in limited playing time. Tyler Nielson will have huge shoes to fill taking over for the vastly underrated A.J. Edds but I believe he has the athleticism to take his spot. It will be interesting to see if Tarpinian moves to MLB, or if Troy Johnson and Bruce Davis fight it out for that spot. Angerer will be missed for more than his play on the field, he is a great leader and a comedian off the field. Lebron Daniel and Cody Hundertmark have looked pretty decent at Defensive End in limited reps this season but they will need to make a huge leap if Clayborn does indeed leave. Daniel almost looks like Clayborn's clone physically but I don't know if he quite has his athleticism yet. At D-tackle Mike Daniels has also played well in limited appearances this season and his future looks bright. A place on the field should be found for David Cato. He is a playmaker when he is on the field and maybe he could grow into the Leo role and Iowa could slide Nielson to MLB. Iowa also has had two very strong recruiting classes focusing on that side of the ball and another one coming in stacked with linebackers. It will be interesting to see who is relatively unknown at this point, pushing for playing time after the bowl practices and spring drills.
Now to the game. Ohio State had a very effective gameplan limiting the exposure of talented, but error prone, Terrelle Pryor. They put the game into the hands of their O-line and a True Freshman Fullback and they delivered. Iowa kept OSU off schedule( meaning forcing 3rd and long) for the first two drives and did an excellent job of containing him for most of the game. Pryor's longest pass completion was for 14 yards, and that was about the longest pass attempt. That was unfortunate for Iowa. His accuracy on his first couple of downfield throws were pretty shaky. Iowa thrives on forcing teams into third and long. They are looking to force mistakes or underneath throws where they can chase and tackle receivers for less than the yardage needed to convert. Iowa's overall #s weren't that bad but they were slightly misleading. OSU converted 8 of 17 third downs. However 3 of those were basically conceding the ball- one at the end of each half, and the overtime. Pryor did enough on third down to help the Buckeyes win the game.
When Iowa forced a third and long scenario they were generally successful. The exceptions were a 7 yard scramble by Pryor on the first third down of the 2nd Drive(bad spot also). He took advantage of a large gap left when Klug and Ballard were running a twist and scampered for just enough.
He threw a great pass to a well covered (Angerer) Sazenbacher over the middle, to get 6 yards when he needed 5 on the first 3rd down of the 3rd Drive. On the second 3rd down (3+8) of the same drive he found Posey for a 14 yard gain throwing the ball on time and to a wide open receiver. On the third 3rd down of that drive Pryor found the TB Saine on a nice little flare route in front of Spievey for 7 yards when they needed 3. On the fourth 3rd down of that drive Norm brought pressure and forced an incompletion. That lead to OSU's first field goal.
Pryor was pretty much held in check until the Third Drive of the Second Half. He converted back to back third downs. One was a scramble away from Clayborn that led to a completion to Freshman Duran Carter (who actually caught it) and the second was on a 3rd and 10. Iowa ran a twist again with the DTs and at first I thought it was a called QB draw. However Ballard the TE is running a route and doesn't block anyone until Pryor is on his back so I think credit should just be given to TP for seeing some space and making a play. He also made a nice move on Angerer on his way to 19 yards. The next play was Dan Herron's Wildcat TD. I felt like Iowa lined up wrong on this formation. Either they saw something I didn't or were expecting something tricky. OSU ran basically an off tackle run every time they lined up in this formation and Iowa didn't line up a linebacker over the TEs on this formation and had Edds to the wide side of the field and away from the action. Tarpinian may have taken a bad angle, but a healthy Greenwood and Sash probably stop this for a loss anyway.
Tarpinian has also taken some heat for the next TD, a lead play where Brandon Saine went for 50 yards. He didn't take a very good angle, but I actually think that Amari Spievey should have forced the run back to the inside and is just as guilty of taking a bad angle as Tarp on that play. Edds and Clayborn were also blocked very well by OSU on that play. I actually thought Tarpinian played pretty well. He took on the fullback as well as any of the Iowa linebackers and that includes Hunter. He diagnosed plays well, he just didn't always take the best route to the ballcarrier. The longer he was in the game the better he played. I think he will have a very strong senior year.
OSU deserves much of the credit for Iowa's defense not playing up to the level Iowa fans' are accustomed to. Iowa couldn't stop them from running from Power based formations and consequently took the ball out of Pryor's hands. The Boren brothers, #65 Justin and #44 Zach, consistently took Pat Angerer out of plays or made him make tackles 5-8 yards beyond the LOS. OSU's entire Oline played much better than I expected and the only Iowa D-lineman to consistently win his matchup was Clayborn. Klug played well in flashes, but both he and Ballard were handled for much of the game. Binns also flashed at times but he was driven off the LOS more times than not. One of two things could happen to help these guys. More players could be rotated in to help keep them fresh, or they must get physically stronger and trade some explosiveness for the ability to anchor against the run. I would prefer more bodies.
Dan Herron and Brandon Saine also deserve a lot of credit for setting up cut back lanes and for excellent vision. They consistently pressed a hole over one guard and skipped to the opposite guard, allowing the Iowa linebackers to overpursue and get caught out of position. They both displayed excellent vision and did this time after time. They almost ran the Wisconsin Counter play with out pulling guards. Herron especially deserves credit for running physically and carrying the pile. I would be curious to see how many yards after contact he accumulated.
Iowa's coaching staff stuck to their guns. They kept the safety out of the box and most of the time still had Edds over the slot when OSU came out with twin receivers running Power formations. I am not sure if Iowa running 8 in the box would have made much of a difference in this game. One, it isn't what the Hawks do and might create more confusion than benefit and two, they still had to defeat the guys who were blocking them and for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarter that didn't happen. Norm calls more defenses than people realize but OSU never really gave them a chance in this game because they consistently were in 3rd and short or didn't have 3rd downs at all. I am not sure schematically there was much the coaches could do in this game. I would have liked to see them try something but ultimately the defense kept Iowa in the game. Iowa had a chance to win and didn't. They have nothing to be ashamed of. But I think it will be a long time before I see the Hawks get physically beaten at the line of scrimmage again.
Iowa has had a lot to overcome this season. I am not sure that having Stanzi in this game would have helped Iowa that much. Iowa shot them selves in the foot several times offensively with drops and penalties. They didn't force a TO and committed 3. They had only one healthy running back. And OSU still needed OT to put the Hawkeyes down. There is so much to be proud of if you are a Hawkeye fan. Wherever this team goes bowling I would hate to be the team that faces them. If this team gets relatively healthy this bowl game most likely will be a repeat of the last one. First things first, Iowa must protect the pig. I will tell you about Minny on Thursday. Thanks for reading these so far.
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