Prior to Iowa’s 27-17 victory over Arizona over the weekend, the Hawkeye defense was receiving the most focus.

It had performed well a week earlier at Iowa State, causing six Cyclone turnovers. But the talk surrounded two things — an inability to record sacks and facing a premier running back in the Wildcats’ Nic Grigsby, who was the nation’s second leading rusher entering last weekend.

By the end of the contest on Sept. 19, Arizona came away with 17 points. But seven of those points came from the Wildcat defense on a Ricky Stanzi interception.

Arizona’s other touchdown came on a pass thrown by backup quarterback Nick Foles with the outcome all but decided.

As for Grigsby, he was held to 75 yards rushing on 11 carries.

“The coach tells us to hustle to the ball … six seconds,” said sophomore cornerback Shaun Prater, who made his first career start on Sept. 19. “Every play lasts for about six seconds, so as long as we all hustle to the ball, we all try to surround the guy, good things will happen.”

One of those 11 carries by Grigsby resulted in a 58-yard run during the second quarter.

But there was one problem — he needed 59 to reach the end zone.

Just as the junior running back came cutting across field, looking to put Arizona ahead, there was Iowa cornerback Amari Spievey closing in from behind. The Hawkeye junior tackled Grigsby at the 1-yard line.

Getting that stop proved to be enormous, because the Wildcats could only muster a field goal out of that drive. Instead of being ahead a touchdown, a 20-yard field goal by Alex Zendejas put the game, 10-7, in favor of Arizona.

“I looked, and I had seen him about to cut, and I kind of maneuvered my body so I could have a good angle on him and just run him down,” Spievey said about the play he made on Grigsby. “If they had scored [a touchdown], it would have been a lot different game.”

The key for the Iowa defense was to stop the Wildcats’ ground game and force them to throw. Matt Scott, who started the game at quarterback for Arizona, didn’t end up finishing it.

His final numbers were as followed: 4-for-14 and 50 yards passing.

He also threw a costly interception toward the end of the third quarter, which went right into the hands of Iowa safety Tyler Sash. The sophomore’s pick came a week after hauling in three interceptions against Iowa State.

“We were in a base coverage, and they ran two deep crossing routes. They crossed them deep probably 30 yards, and I picked up the guy running from my left,” Sash said. “He was trying to get outside the hash on me, and I started running that way. I was still looking at the quarterback, and I saw him just throw it up, and I just turned around and fell into it.”

Overall, the effort out of the Hawkeye defense was strong. Now that Iowa sits at 3-0, it will be counting on the defense to continue its solid play going in against No. 5 Penn State.

“We’re still not playing to our potential yet,” junior linebacker Jeremiha Hunter said. “We still got a lot of work to get done.”