By Jordan Hansen
Somehow, the Iowa football team managed to win its last three games, which, quite honestly, did not seem possible a couple weeks ago.
But here we are. The Hawkeyes are 8-4 on the season and are in line for a pretty solid bowl game. So how did this become a reality?
One of the most impressive defensive resurgences in recent memory, for starters. Let’s take a quick look.
Rushing yards given up per game (last three weeks): 83
Now the more impressive second half of that stat — Iowa gave up 176.5 rushing yards per game over its first nine.
That was capitalized by the 359 Penn State managed to rack up. Whether it was the embarrassment of getting annihilated by the Nittany Lions or some voodoo magic, Iowa figured out how to playing rushing defense again.
Until the last three games, the last truly good defensive performance the Hawkeyes had was in the Big Ten Championship last season. The defense just hasn’t looked cohesive this year.
But that’s changed now. Iowa’s front seven has played lights out over the last bit of the season. Defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson looks like a fourth- or fifth-round draft pick. Linebacker Josey Jewell has taken his game to yet another level, and fellow backer Ben Niemann looks much better than he did early this season.
The Hawkeyes are still having an issue building up a pass rush, which brings us to our next little point.
Passing yards given up per game over the past three weeks: 122.3
Granted, the quarterbacks the Hawkeyes have faced over this last little part of the season haven’t exactly been murderers’ row.
Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight broke his collarbone when the Wolverines lost to Iowa, the Illinois quarterback situation is just sad, and Tommy Armstrong was playing on an injured hamstring.
So yes, those absolutely are going to affect the game. However, Iowa has suffered injuries to the secondary and has gotten tremendous contributions from backup cornerbacks Manny Rugamba and Josh Jackson after starter Greg Mabin was injured.
This is all pretty impressive considering Iowa only has 5 sacks over the last three games. It’s really not outside the team’s production during Big Ten season, though the Hawkeyes’ tackles for loss have gone up a bit.
Bottom line? The defense is playing better, and that has led to three Iowa wins.
Punt return average: 12.28 (14th nationally)
Somehow, Riley McCarron got a punt return touchdown before Desmond King did, even though King has been doing his best to get one for a long, long time.
Regardless, Iowa has been extremely good at returning this year, which has helped flip field position more than once. Even more than that, those are big, momentum-shifting plays.
It also helps jump-start an offense that struggles on occasion. Special teams have long been a hallmark of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s plan for success. This is no different.
There’s an argument to be made that putting King in situations in which he has an increased chance of getting injured isn’t good, but so far he’s been able to avoid injury.
Follow @JordyHansen for Iowa football news, updates, and analysis.
