Defensive Line: Interior or Perimiter?
by HawksFlyHigh on Jul 26, 2009 5:17 PM CDT
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PrintNews flash: Iowa loses the interior of it's vaunted defensive line from last season! Alright so we all know that by now. King and Kroul both four-year starters combined for 111 tackles and six sacks last season, blah blah blah.
Hold on now though. With eight returning starters on defense Iowa does not appear to suffer much of a drop off in overall defense. The run defense may be just a tad easier to attack up the gut, but three returning linebackers in a Norm Parker defense isn't making me lose any sleep for Iowa's chances to stop the run. The question is, which is more vital to a defense? An interior presence to collapse a pocket, or fierce defensive ends wreaking havoc off the edge?
Then-sophomores Adrian Clayborn and Christian Ballard combined for 90 tackles and three and a half sacks last year, so it's not like King and Kroul did everything -- Iowa has talent at end. With another year of experience under their belts, there is no reason to expect anything but improvement from the defensive end position. It may be harder this year for them to make plays without running backs and quarterbacks getting stoned at the line or flushed outside to them.
Last year we had two young ends, and the vets inside who made it all happen. Fast foward to September and we have two veteran ends and two tackles with little playing time under their belt be it Junior Karl Klugg, or sophomore Mike Daniels.
(With Iowa's talent level on the line, they will undoubtedly be employing a nice rotation to keep all the players fresh, so the matchups will change depending on who's on the field.)
In Iowa's defense it all starts up front, so considering that you have all three linebackers returning, which would you rather have the force up the middle or an outside rush?
Personally I'll take the rush off the edge all day. Don't get me wrong, what King and Kroul did for our defense was outstanding. I haven't seen a defensive tackles get that much pressure on a quarterback since who knows when, and their support in the run game fueled everything we did.
However, a force off the edge can be deadly to a quarterback. A quarterback can usually see a defender chasing him up the middle. A quarterback doesn't always feel a defender crashing towards them off the edge. These plays often times result in sacks and turnovers, and will help us rise from our 96th ranking last year in sacks and 69th in fumbles recovered. While an interior presence helps tremendously (avoiding the rush and stepping up into a clean pocket is never a good thing for a defense) having a quality set of ends will mean more to this defense in terms of sacks and turnovers than if we were trotting out the second coming of Warren Sapp and Tommie Harris (when healthy) with little to no help from our ends.
As far as impact to the our run defense I'm going to assume that since our first and foremost responsibility is always to stop the run, and that we're returning five of the front seven, our overall run defense isn't going to be a concern. We may be a little easier to run up the middle, but stopping the run is always the first obligation.
It was also noted that during spring drills more of an emphasis was being put on getting after the quarterback.
So which is it? Do you go with the Mitch King or the Matt Roth?
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I tend to think...
that, in Norm Parker’s scheme, D Tackles are a bit more important. It is awesome to see Matt Roth, Howard Hodges, Clayborn, Ballard, Iwebema, Mattison, (and Derreck Robinson for about a year and a half) chasing down a QB. But, it doesn’t happen as much as we usually want, especially last year. When it is causing fumbles, great. But, if your QB is even remotely intelligent, he can throw it away.
To me, more important (but less noticed by the media or some fans) is the disruption that King, Kroul, Jon Babineux, Jared Clauss, Colin Cole, and Tyler Luebke produce. These guys take doubleteams, and usually don’t give up a ton of rushing yards.
I would argue that the fact that our LBs and DBs had quite a few interceptions was at least slightly affected by the fact that our whole D Line was solid and brought eventual even pressure. Who was the “strength” of the D line last year? The D tackles.
This is probably a pointless argument, because you probably need decent-to-good players all the way across. Luckily, Iowa has usually had that.
WaterlooChazz I agree with most of what you said.
When I referred to forcing fumbles, I’m talking about getting pressure blindside, and getting your hand in there or hitting him when the QB doesnt feel the pressure. If he doesnt feel it, it can be a great benefit. But you’re absolutely right, if he does feel it he can throw it away. But a main reason I like the DE’s is that they can come blindside and have a higher chance of creating turnovers IMO
And as far as the double teams on the Dline, I think casual fans might not understand what they do, but us guys who live and die football fully understand what they do. Iowa’s defense is always built around stopping the run, and in that having to control the line of scrimmage and allow our backers to flow. I agree completely about how they were the reason for our turnovers. We trust our line so we can drop 7.
It’s not a pointless argument I’m just looking at what we didnt do well last year on defense and talking about it and how we might improve in 09 thats all.
Hawkeyes n Cowboys. Bleeding Black, Gold, Sliver and Blue since 1987.
by HawksFlyHigh on Jul 28, 2009 7:05 PM CDT up reply actions
DTs
I loved Roth, but he was only able to really do his thing because of the work that Babs and Clauss did on the inside.
Also, while I like Clayborn and Ballard a lot as ends, they’re not exactly the second comings of Dwight Freeney. Which is to say that it might be different if we had some truly elite, unstoppable pass-rushing ends, but I don’t think we do. Given that, I’d rather have a rock-solid middle and be good/very good on the outside.
I agree…I dont know that we’re ever going to have elite pass rushing ends like Freeny. We’re always going to stop the run number one and getting upfield in a hurry ala Freeny leaves you vulnerable.
I can see your point w/ the solid interior. Football is the ultimate team sport, everyone around you needs to be doing their job.
Hawkeyes n Cowboys. Bleeding Black, Gold, Sliver and Blue since 1987.
by HawksFlyHigh on Jul 28, 2009 7:08 PM CDT up reply actions
Yep...
I definitely see how DEs can cause fumbles. I think safeties or CBs could also, but we almost never use them to blitz.
I feel like Iwebema and Mattison were pretty prototypical DEs. I think most Hawkeye fans would say Mattison improved little by little over time. Iwebema, probably mostly due to health, never really became the great rusher we hoped for (only had 106 tackles and 15 sacks for his whole career). In Iowa, we are probably more likely to find DTs in state and have to find DEs from Texas or other places.
by WaterlooChazz on Jul 28, 2009 11:33 PM CDT up reply actions
"Perimiter"??? Really? Seriously? C'mon!!!
People should remember that while they have the right to their opinion, they are not entitled to be taken seriously. --Bruce Bartlett
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