Hawkeyes' rush defense is trending up

IOWA CITY — If you wanted to graph the improvement of Iowa's run defense from week 1 to week 10, put one hand below your knees. That's week 1, when a moribund Miami (Ohio) did nice running things against the Hawkeyes.

Now, stretch your other arm over your head. Stretch, stretch, stretch. There you go. That's where the Hawkeyes are now and it's probably a really good thing that Iowa (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) has found some energy in its run defense.

November begins with a road trip to Penn State (6-2, 4-1) and running back Saquon Barkley, Michigan and the No. 3 rush offense in the Big Ten, Illinois and, well, there's probably something there and then Nebraska, which averages 204.0 rushing yards a game for No. 5 in the league.

If the Hawkeyes sustain the improvement they've made in the last three games, they have a chance to matter in November.

After allowing 198 rushing yards in a 38-31 loss to Northwestern, the Hawkeyes have yielded 102, 42 and 167, a number that inflated in the final throes of their loss against Wisconsin when running back Corey Clement popped a 34-yard run.

The Hawkeyes came out of Northwestern allowing 4.2 yards a carry and 182.8 yards per game. Now, those numbers have dropped to 3.87 per carry and 153.75 per game.

'Our record wasn't perfect over the last three weeks, but we certainly saw improvement in our football team in some areas,' Ferentz said. 'That probably would be No. 1 on the list. It's so important. We don't have it figured out or ironed out by any stretch. We're running a really good test this week and beyond, but it's really hard to win in any conference, especially this conference, if you can't play the run.'

The Hawkeyes feel as if they have turned the corner. Of course, you heard Ferentz. No one is proclaiming problem solved and, yes, they know there's work ahead, but they feel better now than they did after Northwestern, when the rush defense was a giant question mark.

'I think we're doing our jobs assignment-wise,' linebacker Josey Jewell said. 'Everybody has a lot of juice and energy. We just need to keep doing our jobs on an individual level to be able to give everyone else a shot. If it's the D-line pushing it to the linebackers, the linebackers pushing it out to the safeties and the corners, everyone has to do their job. We've been doing better with that.'

Of course, it's one at a time and this week is the Nittany Lions and their new up-tempo spread offense and sophomore running back who makes it all go.

Barkley might be the hottest player in the Big Ten right now. In the Lions' victory over Ohio State, the Buckeyes kind of held the 5-11, 223-pounder in check, holding him to 99 yards on 12 carries. So, 8.25 yards per carry isn't exactly 'holding in check.' Last week in a 62-24 rout at Purdue, Barkley had 207 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, earning B1G offensive player of the week.

Going into Penn State week, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer called Barkley a 'first rounder,' as in first-round NFL draft pick.

'Saquon is a physical running back and a guy who can run and change the momentum of the game,' cornerback Desmond King said. 'It's about doing your job and having great eye discipline.'

The term 'eye discipline' came up quite a bit this week. After plugging away with a prostyle offense his first two seasons in State College, Penn State head coach James Franklin hired Joe Moorhead as offensive coordinator. This includes four 'speeds' of tempo and a reliance on 11 personnel, which is one back, one tight end and three wide receivers. Those speeds and that formation come with constraints for a defense. The presence of three wide receivers will likely keep Iowa from crowding the line of scrimmage. Quarterback Trace McSorley runs read option with Barkley and is PSU's second-leading rusher with 251 yards and four TDs.

Defensive end is a position that is often 'read' in the read option. Iowa sophomore Matt Nelson focuses on his key and not where the ball might be going. And, yes, he hears 'eye discipline' a lot.

'All the time, all the time,' Nelson said. 'Every day, probably four or five times from either coach (Kelvin) Bell or coach (Reese) Morgan in the meeting room or on the practice field. It could be every rep, depending on what they're doing. It's a common thing we hear.'

The last three weeks have shown the Hawkeyes have been listening. If the rush defense can sustain, it's something that might be able to push Iowa during a November schedule that, as of now, includes three teams in the College Football Playoff rankings and a road trip to Illinois.

'Going into this week, we have to keep building on that,' defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson said. 'The month of November is where it gets tough. You get down to your last few games, there are teams that just want to fall off the map, end of the season, everyone's hurt. With us, that's not the case. We have to keep our foot on the gas pedal. There's no letting up.'