The Iowa defense has a simple mantra: focus on itself. At least that’s the message that Hawkeye defensive coordinator Phil Parker shared with reporters last week when asked if he ever feels like his defensive unit has to pick up Iowa’s offensive slack.
“My thought about the way we coach on defense is we’re looking for perfection on every play. So I don’t care what the score is. I could go off and we could win the game or lose the game. Everything is going to go on to what’s happened to that play and how did you do.
“And I’m going to evaluate you on that play: Are you giving me enough effort? Are you giving me hustle? Are you in the right positions? Are you making the right communications? Are you making mental mistakes, critical errors, leaving a guy open when you have a man-to-man? Those are the things that we coach on,” Parker said.
Defensively, Iowa has largely been terrific. The Hawkeyes currently rank No. 7 in total defense, surrendering just 265 yards per game. In the all-important category of scoring defense, Iowa actually ranks even better than that. The Hawkeyes are No. 3 nationally in scoring defense, allowing opponents just 9.83 points per game.
As Iowa travels to Ohio State for perhaps its biggest challenge this season, Iowa’s defense will once again need to be great to give the Hawkeyes a puncher’s chance.
“That’s all that we can control what our guys are doing. That’s our job. They all know it. Our job is to go out there and play the best that we can play to our ability. I think they’ve done that.
“I see no guys ever sitting there questioning anything that’s going on about — all they do is worry about, hey, you get off the field and get to the bench; let’s make sure we cover our stuff that we need to cover, and let’s get it corrected as fast as we can and make sure that we’re giving them enough information to help those guys on the field. That’s the way we look at it,” Parker said.
One of the areas Iowa can actually improve this week defensively is getting a stop to start the game. The Hawkeyes have surrendered opening scoring drives in each of the past three contests.
With its biggest test of the season looming, Parker served up his evaluation of the Hawkeyes’ defense so far.
“Well, I’m always looking to make sure that they’re playing better than the week before. You start looking at how many points you give up. This many, this many. That really doesn’t matter after a while.
“Hey, did you win or did you lose? That’s what it comes down to a little bit to everybody in the outside world. To me it’s the way they go about the game. How good this team can be? You know, don’t know. Don’t know. I think they still have room to improve to even be better than where we’re at right now.
“I think we gave up some cheap explosive plays that might have led into a touchdown or something like that. Obviously, you go all the way back to the Michigan game. You know, there are some things out there that we left on the table that I thought we could have done a better job. I’m still going to preach to these guys that, hey, we need to play well, and our standard keeps on going up every time you become a better football player, a better game. I want you to play your best game always on the next time,” Parker said.
Iowa kicks off against the Buckeyes from Ohio Stadium at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday on FOX.
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