Burned by the jet (sweep)

IOWA CITY - Jerry Kill and his offense had two weeks to scheme the Hawkeyes. They came up with a play you've seen and one that has become hugely popular in the last few seasons, mostly thanks to Wisconsin and Melvin Gordon.

Even Iowa's running the 'jet sweep.” You line up a running back in a slot receiver position and have him cut counter to the play and take a handoff. He gets to the edge of the defense with a full head of steam.

It's not usually a play a team makes a living off. Minnesota had just about everything work for it in last week's 51-14 victory over the Hawkeyes, but the jet sweep, with wide receiver K.J. Maye running it, worked way more than it should've. In fact, Maye posted carrie highs for carries (10) and yards (66) and scored the first rushing TD of his career (9 yards) all off the jet sweep.

'We weren't prepared for that play,” said cornerback Desmond King, often the object of a double-team block from wide receivers on this play last week. 'They came out in a lot of formations that we didn't cover. We didn't have much leverage on the outside. They used that and it damaged our defense.”

Minnesota ran the play to the weakside of the field, away from outside linebacker Bo Bower. That left weakside linebacker Josey Jewell one-on-two with Minnesota running back David Cobb, the lead blocker, and Maye, one of Minnesota's speediest weapons.

'Teams like to run it to the strength because there's a big gap between the leo linebacker (Bower) and myself,” strong safety John Lowdermilk said. 'I don't think teams have done that at all against us. They just got a back on somebody and the receiver on someone. They schemed it where they had everybody blocked. We have to get off blocks and be more physical outside.”

In the second quarter, when everything was falling down on Iowa, the Gophers ran three straight sweep plays to Maye on a drive that ended with QB Mitch Leidner's second TD of the quarter to tight end Maxx Williams.

The jet sweeps were run toward defensive end Drew Ott's side of the field. He followed blocking inside on two of the three, and that's his job, he said. Jewell bit on the zone read fake on the first one, a 13-yard gain to Iowa's 20. He read the second one correctly, but was blocked by Cobb leading the play. It went for 10 yards. Iowa finally kind of read it correctly and stopped it for just a 6-yard gain on the third time.

'All week we've been working on getting the ball on the perimeter, making those guys run side-to-side,” Maye said. 'I knew coming into the game I was going to get those carries.”

Three straight jet sweeps for 29 yards from Iowa's 33. That exposed lack of discipline and an array of fundamental flaws. There was no disruption and Iowa was exposed in space against a speed player.

'We felt we had to get the ball outside,” Kill said. 'It happened to be, the opportunities that he was given, we kept staying with it. They were struggling with it and we had a lot of other things to the field that we didn't do. When you get something going, you don't go away from it.”

It was going and going and going.

In Iowa's three losses - Iowa State, Maryland and Minnesota - the Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-2 Big Ten) have been exposed on the perimeter.

'Trying to get it on the perimeter was a huge part of our game plan,” Iowa State QB Sam Richardson said after ISU's 20-17 victory over Iowa. 'It's a bigger defense than we'll face all year. With that, I thought we had more speed on them. Getting those guys in space worked out for us.”

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz also has noticed this recurring theme.

'Hitting the perimeter is probably a good play against us,” Ferentz said. 'We're more veteran inside. We're giving up more rushing yardage than we care to, certainly, not only just last week but over the course of the season. That's something we'll have to shore up, because I imagine we'll see more of it.”

Before you skip to potential nightmares that are the running kill-bots of Wisconsin (the aforementioned Gordon) and Nebraska (Ameer Abdullah), let's consider Illinois (4-5, 1-5), Iowa's opponent this week.

It looks like quarterback Wes Lunt will play. He's pure prostyle with 13 TDs and just three interceptions this year. That doesn't mean Illinois will be easy to defend. The Fighting Illini are the fourth straight team Iowa will play coming off a bye. Offensive coordinator Bill Cubit was the head coach of a Western Michigan team that came into Kinnick Stadium in 2007 and upset the Hawkeyes, leaving Iowa 6-6 and home for bowl season.

Iowa knows it has a perimeter problem. The players know what to do. They identified the problems. Now, it's on them to shut the door, because the stiffest run tests of the season are still ahead.

'Teams hadn't gotten us on that because we were more physical and we got off blocks,” Lowdermilk said. 'We got in the alley and we didn't get cut [blocked]. That's what we have to get back to.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com