Iowa's defense faces Andrew Luck every week

Firejerrykill.com has been on my bookmarks list all week. It is, as its name would indicate, not thrilled with the state of Minnesota Gophers football.

But to use the site's own words, it sees Saturday's game against Iowa as possibly a game "where the offense can exhibit significant growth and production."

The reason is Iowa's defense, as is illustrated in the site's Thursday post entitled "The Iowa Effect."

FireJerry gives a slew of statistics all too familiar in one form or another to Iowa's coaches and fans. For instance, last season's Hawkeyes allowed 12 touchdown passes and intercepted 19 passes in 13 games. The 2011 Hawkeyes have yielded 12 TD tosses and have just six INTs through seven games.

And that's before Iowa has played the meat of its schedule, the November stretch of Michigan, Michigan State, at Purdue and at Nebraska. Indiana's Tre Roberson, a first-year freshman, looked like the Hoosiers' answer at QB by the way he played against the Hawkeyes, who are 11th in the Big Ten in pass defense and ninth in total defense in Big Ten games.

FireJerry created this photo (I hope the site doesn't mind me using it) to illustrate how Iowa State quarterback Steele Jantz played against Iowa and how he played in his other games this season.:

Hey, it's true. Jantz is now out of a starting job at ISU. He did nothing in any other game to resemble his 25-of-37 passing, four-touchdown, no-interception performance in the Cyclones' 44-41 triple-overtime win over Iowa.

The third quarterback in the photo is Vanderbilt's Larry Smith, who has three TD passes and five interceptions this season, 14 and 18 in his career.

FireJerry, who put some work into the post, computed that Iowa's opposing FBS quarterbacks have pass-efficiency ratings that are 27 points higher against the Hawkeyes than against the rest of their competition.

But the site draws the same conclusion you (at least you should) and I do about the Gophers' chances of springing an upset at TCF Bank Stadium Saturday:

If only Iowa's offense was as bad as their defense then we might be on to something.

It's still the Minnesota defense that allows 308.7 rushing yards per game in Big Ten play.

So, this post isn't all negative toward Iowa, folks. And because you'd rather go positive (right?), show off your prognosticating skills and predict how many rushing yards Iowa's Marcus Coker will amass at Minnesota. The most any Big Ten back has put up against the Gophers is Rex Burkhead of Nebraska's 117.