CHAD LEISTIKOW

Leistikow's DVR Monday: How Phil Parker's Iowa defense stifled Brock Purdy in Cy-Hawk win

Chad Leistikow
Hawk Central

Road wins against top-10 opponents are difficult to come by. For all the signature moments of Kirk Ferentz’s 23-year Iowa tenure, Saturday’s 27-17 triumph at Iowa State marked just his third top-10 road win in 12 attempts.

The only two others bring back special memories for Hawkeye fans: 2002 at No. 8 Michigan (a breakthrough 34-9 demolition) and 2009 at No. 5 Penn State (the 21-10 win in the rain highlighted by Adrian Clayborn’s blocked-punt return).

Both of those seasons finished with Iowa in the Orange Bowl.

The 2021 Hawkeyes are a long way from earning major postseason opportunities, but Saturday’s win at then-No. 10 Iowa State was a team effort — defense, special teams and … yes … a little bit of offense.

Phil Parker’s selective blitzes pay off, as usual, in the Cy-Hawk rivalry.

Two years ago in Ames, Iowa’s defensive coordinator was tired of being picked apart by Cyclones quarterback Brock Purdy. They were averaging 10.3 yards per play and leading, 14-6. But Parker sent pressure on 12 of Iowa State’s final 24 snaps, turning that game around for an 18-17 Iowa win.

Saturday, Iowa’s defense was excellent from the start. But with an offense struggling for three of four quarters, the defense needed to make plays. Parker only blitzed a handful of times, but three made a big difference.

Brock Purdy is normally a potent runner, but Iowa bottled him up on the ground and in the air. Here, Logan Lee and Seth Benson team up for a 2-yard loss.

Second quarter: Seth Benson pressure on second-and-7. Benson surprised the marching Cyclones with his entry into the backfield, and Purdy was hurried into an incompletion that stalled their momentum in a 7-3 game. A subsequent punt led to Iowa’s best drive of the day, a 71-yarder that resulted in seven points.

Third quarter: Jack Campbell blitz on third-and-8. Now in a 14-10 game, Iowa State had just tried a deep shot with Purdy from its own 48. Campbell’s addition to the pass rush got Zach VanValkenburg a one-on-one battle that he won (despite being held), and Purdy barely could throw the ball away.

Third quarter: Dane Belton/Campbell pressure on second-and-12. After Logan Lee dropped Purdy for a 2-yard loss on first down, the natural tendency for an offense facing Iowa might be to try to get half the yardage back. But Iowa State wasn’t prepared for a Belton/Campbell blitz combo, with defensive end Ethan Hurkett dropping into coverage. Purdy was swallowed for an eight yard loss (Campbell and Deontae Craig got half credit each), and Iowa got the ball back at Iowa State’s 43 — after punting on the previous drive from its own 6.

While turnovers (four) got the headlines Saturday, don’t discount the manufactured pressure in causing added stress on the Cyclones.

Shout-outs to more Hawkeye defenders after video review.

As good as linebacker Jestin Jacobs looked in live action, the tape and numbers backed that up. The rangy sophomore was on the field for 21 snaps, and 20 of them went for six yards or less.

If there’s one defender Iowa can ill-afford to lose to injury, it’s Jack Campbell. Sure, Iowa has three good linebackers and often only plays two. But Campbell is the heartbeat in the middle of this defense. His physical edge/presence gave Purdy second thoughts about running Saturday. Purdy had one rushing yard Saturday; he was averaging 40.1 over his previous 10 games.

Two years ago, Jack Koerner was making his second career start and came up big in Ames with a fumble recovery and clutch pass breakup. Saturday marked the free safety’s 21st Iowa start, and it belongs among his best. Koerner had several open-field tackles of Iowa State all-American Breece Hall, including early in what looked like it could go for a long touchdown.

Jack Koerner was fantastic at helping to limit big Iowa State plays in the run game Saturday. Breece Hall was held to 69 yards rushing.

Hat tip to Iowa’s defensive linemen for getting their hands up at the line of scrimmage. When Noah Shannon couldn’t get a pass rush midway through the third quarter, he alertly stuck his hand up on Purdy’s over-the-middle throw to Xavier Hutchinson. That seemed to bother Hutchinson’s timing, and the ball bounced off his hands and into Benson’s for an interception. Then on Matt Hankins’ second pick of the game, defensive end Joe Evans’ deflection ultimately ended Purdy’s day.

Two games in, and Zach VanValkenburg reminds me of Drew Ott with the way he disrupts both the run and pass game off the edge.

What the Hawkeyes can extract from an impressive second quarter of offense.

Iowa gained 136 yards Saturday against a tough Cyclones defense on three second-quarter possessions that produced 14 points. That was the good news. The bad was that Iowa managed just 37 net yards on 37 plays in the other three quarters combined.

While I realize that there will be a lot of hand-wringing about the offense (which ranks 126th out of 130 FBS teams at 238.0 yards per game), I’d encourage you to be patient. After Petras went 8-for-10 for 94 yards in the second quarter, he was only asked to throw seven second-half passes — and his primary objective was to play it safe. With Iowa's dynamic defense and punter, the offense's main task was to not give away the game.

A perfect throw by Spencer Petras and catch by Charlie Jones for 26 yards was Iowa's longest play Saturday in Ames.

Stuff to like about that second quarter, when Iowa was at its most risk-taking state:

Petras was more effective on first down, something that ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit echoed. “Easier on the pass protection. Easier on the timing,” he said. Petras’ 17-yard strike to Luke Lachey was his second-best throw of the day, a precise dart between two Cyclone defenders where only his tall tight end could catch it.

Ivory Kelly-Martin and Tyler Goodson are separated by one inch and one pound, so Kelly-Martin isn’t exactly a change-up back … but his fresh legs seemed to benefit Iowa’s 71-yard TD drive with two 8-yard runs. More "IKM" might make Goodson fresher, too.

The 26-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Jones was perfectly thrown and the right read. The Cyclones dropped eight into coverage, but three ended up defending Lachey over the middle which is Petras’ go-to range. But Petras softly dropped the pass behind defenders Isheem Young and Datrone Young where only Jones could catch it. It might be one of the better throws of Petras' career, and it was clutch to give Iowa 14-3 lead with 1:01 left in the first half.

What happened on the four sacks (for 31 yards) that Iowa surrendered?

I received a lot of reader questions on this. My takes on all four:

No. 1: Third-and-9 from ISU’s 28 (loss of 4). There is no blaming Petras on this one. In his first series, right tackle Jack Plumb was overmatched by terrific defensive end Will McDonald, who had his hands on Petras within 2.5 seconds of the snap. Petras, frankly, did a good job to tuck it in and only lose 4 yards in a shotgun situation. Caleb Shudak’s subsequent 50-yard field goal was foiled by a bad snap by Austin Spiewak (who was later replaced by freshman Luke Elkin).

No. 2: First-and-10 from Iowa’s 29 (loss of 7). A play-action pass against a three-man rush shouldn’t break down this quickly. Left tackle Mason Richman (a freshman) lost his battle against Zach Petersen, and Petras began a throwing motion but tucked the ball in and cut his losses. It was the first sign of how Iowa was going to operate with the lead: Don’t make a dumb throw at all costs. This sack was on the offensive line, not the quarterback.

No. 3: Third-and-10 from ISU’s 30 (loss of 11). A bad play all around. Iowa State rushed five and Richman was beaten quickly by McDonald to flush Petras to the right. Petras’ biggest mistake was thinking he could outrun linebacker Jake Hummel, who blew past DeJong to push Iowa out of field-goal range. It looked like Petras was trying to get outside the pocket to throw the ball away (and thus avoid intentional grounding). The ensuing punt did work out for Iowa, as it set the stage for Campbell’s fumble-return touchdown that made it 21-10.

No. 4: Third-and-9 from ISU’s 24 (loss of 9). I don’t blame Petras here as much as the play call. With an 11-point lead and third-down struggles, a safe running play to set up a shorter field goal would’ve been smarter. Petras’ first two reads (Tyrone Tracy on his left, then Sam LaPorta over the middle) were well-covered … and after that he was out of time against a five-man rush that saw DeJong and Justin Britt fall apart vs. Petersen. Turns out, the big loss was moot as Shudak buried a 51-yard field goal for a 24-10 lead.

The 31 yards of losses led to an ugly-looking rushing day (39 carries, 67 yards). Take away Petras scrambles, one kneel-down and the four sacks, and Iowa’s straightforward running game was better — 32 attempts for 93 yards.

Iowa sophomore punter Tory Taylor punts the ball from the HawkeyesÕ end zone in the third quarter against Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.

One last round of appreciation for Tory Taylor and Iowa’s special teams.

Taylor on Monday was named co-special teams player of the week by the Big Ten. Herbstreit called him Iowa’s MVP Saturday, and that was hard to argue after four of his first five punts were downed at the 8, 6, 10 and 6. The other was the 69-yarder that would’ve traveled 80 if Terry Roberts hadn’t prematurely scooped it up.

But here are some stats about Saturday that I wanted to share: Iowa punted only one more time than Iowa State, yet it netted 155 more yards than the Cyclones in the punt game alone — plus-113 off Taylor’s leg and plus-42 on Jones’ return yardage. That’s almost as many yards as Iowa gained in offense (173). Throw in an additional 53 return yards by the defense, and Iowa had more than 200 hidden yards in Saturday’s game. Those yards are supremely important in the Hawkeyes' weekly formula.

Thanks to Taylor and Iowa’s defense, here was the most telling stat of all: Iowa’s average starting field position was its own 42-yard line; Iowa State’s was its own 20.

Talk about a tilted field … and a tilted rivalry.

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 26 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.