Nielsen helps Iowa defense figure it out

IOWA CITY -- Tyler Nielsen tried to "aw shucks" his way through the postgame.

"Nah, you just have to tackle the guy with the ball, that's all that really matters," Nielsen said after he moved from outside linebacker to middle linebacker for the injured James Morris back to outside linebacker and then to the interview room to talk about it.

Oh yeah, to go along with a foot injury, he showed everyone a bandaged left hand. Kind of emblematic of Iowa's defense right now.

Still, no one was feeling a thing after Iowa's 41-31 victory over Northwestern on Saturday night.

"At least the foot thing is getting better," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "Bumps and bruises come and go. I don't think he's planning on missing anything, I know that, the rest of the way."

Nielsen, the 6-4, 235-pound senior, did a little of this, a little of that and it wasn't as easy as "tackling the guy with the ball." The move from outside to middle linebacker is technical and comes with a different set of keys and calls. You go from guy on the edge to making the calls for the front seven and putting the pieces in place.

"There are a couple of different looks you see and you have to make the checks out there, obviously," said Nielsen, who led the Hawkeyes with 12 tackles. "We knew Thursday that James wasn't going to be able to play, so I had to step in and play middle linebacker."

Yeah, just jump in and do that, that thing you've never done before.

Nielsen is emblematic of Iowa's defense right now. Pretty much, it's a bunch of guys jumping in and doing something they haven't done before, at least in front of stadiums with card stunts.

Morris just couldn't improve enough from a sprained ankle he suffered a Penn State. So, Nielsen. Then, tackle Tom Nardo couldn't snap back from a knee injury he suffered in the first half last week. So, there's Steve Bigach, who had a sack and recovered a fumble that led to a field goal in his first real moments on the field with the TV cameras whirring.

"Did you see Kinnick tonight? It was awesome," said Bigach, a 6-3, 282-pound junior from Cleveland who wore his Iowa sportscoat and black-and-gold striped tie to interviews. "It was a pretty good deal. You never know what plays going to be big. You just keep your head down and work hard."

Senior Tom Donatell, all 6-2, 205 pounds of him, replaced Nielsen at outside linebacker for awhile. When coaches wanted to get more size at linebacker in the game, Nielsen went back to the outside and true freshman Quinton Alston stepped in at middle linebacker.

Yes, true freshman.

"He's in the Army now, too," Ferentz said. "Quinton's in there. He's a football player. He's got a great attitude, an unbelievably positive attitude. He learns, listens, pays attention. He's got a good future because he thinks like a football player."

The Hawkeyes played 18 players on defense Saturday night, topping the 17 who played last week. Nickle, dime and 3-4 alignment. Defensive back B.J. Lowery played his first minutes of the season after recovering from a broken wrist. Lebron Daniel, Joe Forgy,  Carl Davis and Joe Gaglione rotated in on the defensive line.

And Northwestern did a lot of damage. The Wildcats put up 495 yards total offense. They held the ball for 38:23 compared to Iowa's 21:37. That's more than a quarter than Iowa. Northwestern ran 92 plays to Iowa's 50, almost double.

Still, scoreboard stat fell in favor of the Hawkeyes.

"We're not a perfect team," said defensive end Broderick Binns, who had a sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. "We're not up where we need to be. There's a lot of season left. Hopefully, we can get there."

At the heart of it all was Nielsen, a senior who's seen, and now, and done it all, including coming back from a broken neck.

"He had to learn a new position in one week," Donatell said. "He had to learn a ton of new checks against a fairly complicated offense. It was probably one of his best games for us."

Nielsen said it was fun. He said it felt like "real football."

"When I'm outside, I try to set the edge and keep everything in front of me," he said. "On the inside, I just go after the guy with the ball. It felt like real football again."

Nielsen has been around long enough to where maybe some outsiders take him for granted. He was the central nervous system for a defense that is making it up as it goes along.

His performance, leadership was exactly what the Hawkeyes needed Saturday night.

"He's quietly been a really good football player here for a long time," Ferentz said. "He's one of those guys, boy, you can count on him. He's a little better than people think, too. He's one of those guys."