Iowa State defense shows ability to stop the run

AMES - Before the season, Iowa State safety Kamari Cotton-Moya said this front seven was the best the Cyclones have had in 10 years.

Halfway through the season, Cotton-Moya has been proved right. Iowa State has one of the best run defenses in the Big 12.

The Cyclones have mixed up their defense, switching between three down linemen and four down linemen. That's allowed them to keep opposing offenses off balance and for Iowa State to have success.

Iowa State has allowed 150 or fewer rushing yards in four of its six games.

The Cyclones have only allowed four rushing touchdowns all season, which is tied for fewest in the Big 12 and tied for fourth fewest nationally.

'If you're just playing a three-man front all the time, I think that teams can have the ability to take advantage of you,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. 'Our ability to be flexible, to be multiple, to have the ability to play a four-man front and a three-man front is important. We pick up a guy in coverage but also have the ability to be exotic when we need to be in our blitz packages when we need that three-man front, and then do the same thing in a four-man front.”

Campbell credits the success to his players' understanding of the system in his second season.

Defensive football is all about how confident a player is in a situation and system. They need that comfort to be able to read and react quickly.

'I think on defense, when you know where to line up, now you can read your keys and actually react,” Campbell said. 'You felt at times last year we were still trying to get settled into a new scheme and where do you fit and how do you react. Defensive football is so much about reaction and being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there.”

Campbell praised defensive lineman Ray Lima early in the season for always being where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there. Lima is the anchor of Iowa State's front seven.

'You can get fitted correctly when the defensive linemen are in the right gap or responsibility, and at times have the ability to create vertical penetration,” Campbell said. 'Now the gaps become real.”

And when Lima and the defensive line do fit their spots and create gaps for the linebackers to fill, that's when Iowa State's run defense becomes stout.

Campbell credited linebackers coach Tyson Veidt for the linebackers being gap responsible.

'Our linebackers worked downhill and had the ability to play off of those fits really, really well,” Campbell said of his run defense in Saturday's 45-0 win over Kansas. 'Joel (Lanning) was really impressive in the game, maybe his best game playing linebacker. Marcel Spears was outstanding as well. I thought those guys did a really good job fitting where needed.

'That's the key to success playing that three-man front. You have to be able to play gap responsibility whether it's a three-man front or a four-man front, that's the ticket.”

Too many times in the past, Iowa State had people out of position to make tackles. Linebackers read run plays wrong and attacked the wrong gaps and linemen rushed too far up field too quickly, allowing space for running backs to run behind.

So far, Campbell has remedied those ailments.

'(Being gap responsible) is unselfish team football,” Campbell said. 'You're not always going to make the play, but you're going to have the ability to turn it to the right people and the free man so he's able to make the play.”

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