Defensive Line Notes: ISU

Very rough day for the defensive line as a unit. Pretty average against the run and very poor job rushing the passer.  Double digit plays where Jantz had all day to throw. Multiple times he had 6+ seconds without leaving the pocket and Jantz repeatedly easily dodged Iowa's tired and lethargic defenders.

Iowa needs to find some solutions up front to create more pressure. With out the threat of pressure it makes it tough to effectively contain mobile QB's and get 3 and outs. All these long drives they're giving up just knock the wind out of their DL. They need to figure out some ways to shorten drives and a lot of the issues they have go away. On any given play 1 or 2 guys generating a push isnt' going to get it done. They need all four guys threatening the pocket and forcing the QB to move his feet.

Of the unit I thought Daniels, Binns, and Nardo had better days than the rest. Each of these guys made mistakes but played reasonably well. Iowa really needs Daniels to start finishing some more plays. He consistently gets great penetration but through two games has left some sacks and TFL on the field. Needs to turn this around before it becomes a trend. Binn's is playing solid responsibility football out there most of the time but isn't a guy thats going to take over games. He missed some opportunities for sacks in this one as well and he really needs to step up and finish plays when he gets his chances in the backfield.

Nardo outplayed Alvis out there in my eyes and looks like he's a smart player with enough athletic ability to be a productive. Alvis looked like his size really hurt him against ISU's bigger guys up front. He struggled to get anything done out there in this one. Got a very limited look at Carl Davis out there as well. Very few snaps but he appeared to be fairly quick for his size. Have to see more of him to know if he'll be an impact guy.

I'm not sure what was going on with Lebron Daniel out there. He was completely and utterly inactive at times and did little to help his team out there. Behind him is Bigach who looks decent one play and then makes a big mistake on the next. Not a guy that can play a lot of solid downs for this unit and may be limited to spot duty. Iowa has some searching for options to do here.

One suggestion that I've got(which Iowa will never do) is in obvious passing situations take guy from the front four out and replace him with a DB(Bernstine, Miller). Go with a 3 man front and use 1 or more LBers as stand up pass rushers. Not only does that give you better match ups in coverage but it makes it difficult for the QB to know where the rush will come from. Another option I like is to put Nielsen up on the LOS as a DE. Nielsen has decent size with long arms  and he could probably drop down to play some effective snaps at DE in passing situations as well.

Binns  
+1 Great job picking up the loose ball in the back-field S1
+1 Great bull rush to get into backfield and then gets his hands up to bat down the ball S3
-1 Misses the sack on Jantz here and this was just sloppy play. Had him dead to rights but stopped his feet and didn't finish the sack. S6
+1 Binns Great job bull rushing his guy and disrupting Jantz and ends up making the tackle downfield on the scramble as well. If anyone else had made a play this would have stopped the drive. S10


Overall: +2

Daniels  
+1 Great job getting penetration on 3rd and short and he makes the stop to force a punt. S2
-1 Gets flagged for an illegal hands to the face. Pretty obvious call here. S4
+1 Nice work here closing down the QB draw S6
+1 Great pursuit down the line and whacks the ball carrier for a short loss. Great play. S9
+1 Great arm-over here as he comes free and forces a very quick throw. Nice technique here. S10
-1 Blows through the line on this play and should have dropped Jantz for a sack but inexplicably just stops and doesn’t finish him and Jantz wheels away and goes and completes this for a TD. Looks like he thought Jantz had already thrown the ball but you gotta be sure in a game like this. S11

Overall: +2

Alvis  
-1 Very poor job here against the double team in his pass rush as he just ping pongs from one to the other and ends up a few yards down field. Very poor effort here.Needs to pick a move and go with it. S1
-1 Absolutely man handled 1 on 1 inside here and gets turned and pancaked by his guy. S1
+1 Nice job playing on the other side of the line here and forces the back insdie very quickly. S10
-1 Very slow to find the ball here and lets the back run right by him in his gap. S12

Overall: -2

Daniel  
-1 Totally glued to the OT for a full 6 seconds. Unacceptable to be stuck to your guy this long while the QB is still in the pocket. S6
-1 Looks like he’s super glued to Osemele again here on the outside. As Binns and Daniels break down the pocket he’s still completely unable to disengage and help make a play. Just unacceptable to be this inactive out there. S10
-1 Extremely poor technqiue on the outside here as he has all kinds of space to work in or out but ends up just hugging his guy again as he plays too high and doesn't use hands to disengage. S11
-1 Flat out unable to make a play as Jantz scrambles. Had the angle but totally unable to use it. Iowa is in man coverage downfield and no one is going to be able to fill. Needs to suck it up and make a play here. S12
-1 Got absolutely destroyed by his guy on this run play. Knocked back 5 yards and gets pushed into his own guys. Unacceptable. S13

Overall: -5

Nardo

+1 Nardo Great job tackling the ball as he forces a big fumble in the red zone. S4 

-1 Lost control of his gap in the running lane here. Ends up going for an easy first down S10

+1 Nardo Got his hands up in passing lane and deflects a would be TD pass. S11

Overall:  +1

Forgy

+1 Great job getting into the back field and disrupting the shuffle pass. S11

-1 Very poor angle chasing the QB here as he had'm on the run and he should have gotten a sack here.

-1 Got down way too far inside on this play and isn't doing his job. Needs to stay in his area and control his gap/responsibility. Jantz ends up scrambling all the way back around and throwing another TD. S11

Overall: -1 

Bigach

+1 Bigach Nice job drawing the hold here as he started to slip away from his man and nearly made the play but drew the holding flag. S6

-1 Bigach No idea what he’s doing here. He crashed inside and never even looked at the mesh point on the zone read. He didn’t even go to the QB here, just ran inside where no one was. Ends up a gain of 9. S10

Overall: Push

Davis

Overall: Push