Hlas column: Iowa faced with fairly ferocious bowl foe in Tigers

IOWA CITY - It's kind of weird, but Iowa got its best bowl opponent in several years by falling down the pecking order.

We'll see what we see at the Dec. 28 Insight Bowl, of course, but right now I'll take Missouri 2010 over Georgia Tech 2009 or South Carolina 2008 or Texas 2006 or Florida 2005.

Georgia Tech was last year's ACC champion and a fine team with 11 wins. But we were tipped off that Tech was fallible when it lost to an ordinary Georgia team in its regular-season finale. That South Carolina team came to the Outback Bowl fresh off thumpings of 56-6 from Florida and 31-14 from Clemson.

Strangely, by going 7-5 instead of 8-4 the Hawkeyes got a matchup with 10-2 Mizzou in Tempe instead of 7-5 Florida or 8-4 Mississippi State in Tampa or Jacksonville.

What this means is Iowa must raise its game considerably from the way it dragged itself through its 27-24 loss at Minnesota to close its regular-season.

“If we don't play better,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Friday, “we'll lose by 40 in this one. It won't be pretty.”

The Missouri program of Gary Pinkel that didn't want to face the Hawkeyes several years ago is no more. This is a team with 40 wins over its last four seasons. This year, the 10-2 Tigers defeated eventual Big 12-champion Oklahoma 36-27, and won at Cotton Bowl-bound Texas A&M, 30-9. They played eight bowl teams, and beat six.

Mizzou has averaged 30 points to its foes' 15. Whether the Tigers' have a better defense or offense depends on which Iowa coordinator you're listening to at the moment. Friday, Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker and offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe also met the press. They've got challenges awaiting in Sun Devil Stadium.

“They're probably like Northwestern at its most extreme bizarre things,” Parker said, talking about clustering four receivers in one area and leaving another area empty, lining up backs and tight ends in places you don't often see them stationed.

“It's stuff you draw up in the sand at the beach. But they know what they're doing with it. There's a method to their madness.”

Defensively, Mizzou has a wide array of looks, too. Its 38 quarterback sacks tell you the Tigers' may not have been said to own the best defensive line in the nation entering this year, but it has played like one at times.

“They're built on speed defensively,” O'Keefe said. “I would describe them as a very athletic team, especially their front seven. All their linebackers can really run. Their D-ends are really talented.

“I think right now, if you look at them from a statistical standpoint, the things that you notice about them most are they're giving up a little more than two touchdowns a game, but they are really stingy in the red zone. Not only in allowing people to score, but letting people score touchdowns. It's probably the lowest that I can remember ever seeing since we played anybody here at Iowa.”

It is quite a stat. Missouri's foes have gotten inside the Tigers' 20-yard line 31 times, and scored just 17 times for 54.8 percent, the nation's best. Oklahoma, by contrast, surrendered 29 scores in the 32 times its opponents were in the red zone. Iowa is tied for 24th in the nation in red zone defense, but allowed scores in 29 of its foes' 38 times in that territory for 76.3 percent.

“This group almost looks like an NFL group, especially up front,” Ferentz said. “Their guys are really prolific pass-rushers. ... On third-down they'll play their outside guys on the inside, bring in their other outside guys. You have four guys that can really track it down at one time in certain situations.”

OK, these guys aren't the Patriots or Steelers. Missouri did allow 31 points and 454 yards in a loss at Nebraska, and couldn't keep its defense off the field (101 plays) in a 24-17 loss at Texas Tech.

But 10 wins, a terrific quarterback (Blaine Gabbert), a slick receiving corps including a tight end (Michael Egnew) with 83 catches, 10 different players who have intercepted passes, good placekicking and excellent punting - this is a Missouri team that probably deserved a bigger stage than the Insight Bowl.

It's up to Iowa to show it belongs on the same stage as the Tigers.