On Purdue

Danny Payne, Pregame editor: Guys, what was the biggest thing from Purdue that jumped out at you?

Charlie Green, football reporter: Clearly, it was an emotional day for Iowa. Concerns here and there, sometimes visible, such as that there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure on Austin Appleby, who had been Purdue’s backup, came in and looked very good.

Payne: Very good.

Green: I think because he felt comfortable, and he didn’t really get stopped or knocked out of rhythm until the end of the game. He’s a guy that played really bad early in the season but put up some pretty good numbers against Iowa.

Jordan Hansen, football reporter: It’s kind of interesting, though; I was reading something on Pro Football Focus, and it mentioned Jaleel Johnson and Nate Meier as both being plus defenders.

Green: In that game?

Hansen: No, just in general. But I would agree, I didn’t see a whole lot of pressure. I thought everything was just OK, nothing special.

Payne: Yeah, that’s fair. We knew going in that Purdue was just an awful team.

Green: Yes.

Payne: Two conference wins in Darrell Hazell’s tenure. You knew what you were getting coming into the game.

Concerns for Iowa

Green: It’s troubling to me to see Iowa’s huge leads disappear and those leads continually cut down to just one possession. It’s a point of concern. There’s a lack, it seems, of a defensive killer mentality at that stage in the game. I think pressure is the answer to that. It’s a drive-killer, it’s a rhythm killer.

The best teams in the FBS, the best teams in the NFL are really built from the line out, with a few exceptions, and it’s one of the things that is the core of a good defense. Being able to get pressure, with the front four, that brings you up so much, and it wasn’t really there against Purdue.

Payne: No, it wasn’t. Austin Appleby, say what you want about him, but Iowa made him look so much better than what I think he actually is. That’s concerning. That can’t happen next week against Tommy Armstrong.

Hansen: He can put up numbers, though. I think it’s going to look a lot like the Indiana game.

Payne: Yeah, that’s fair. Nebraska, this week, it’s a more talented team than Purdue, probably more than Illinois. Nebraska, it could easily be a contender right now. It has lost what, four games in the last final seconds? Yeah. It’s a dangerous team, not a team that you want to take lightly.

The pass rush needs to be a whole hell of a lot better this week than it has in the past few weeks.

On Nebraska

Green: So Nebraska, ever since it has come into the Big Ten, ever since it came in after its last really good year, when it played Texas in the Big 12 Championship, with Ndamukong Suh, it almost beat Colt McCoy that year.

Hansen: Wasn’t there some sort of controversy in that game?

Green: Probably, Suh probably stomped all over Colt McCoy’s face. But they got branded the Big Ten’s new power. However I’ve found that most of the games they play against the Big Ten’s best teams are just blowouts in the wrong way for the Cornhuskers. But they always finish near the top of the standings, meaning they beat the lower guys up pretty badly until they get ranked and lose to Michigan State like 45-10.

Hansen: That’s a great point.

Payne: Yeah, I mean just look at the 2012 title game, in which Wisconsin hung 70 on them.

Green: To be fair to Nebraska, they beat Michigan State, which is looking like a really good win, but this year is kind of an anomaly, and I’m pointing more towards Bo Pelini’s time.