IOWA CITY — On his second passing rep of last Saturday afternoon, Iowa cornerback Deshaun Lee, freshly reinstalled in the starting lineup after missing the Michigan State game, missed a tackle on Northwestern wide receiver A.J. Henning and let the Wildcats into Hawkeye territory.
With the defense still nursing its wounds after the 32-20 loss to Michigan State the week prior, it could have been "here we go again" time for the secondary.
Not for Lee, though.
"The play, I kinda knew what was going on, but I hesitated just a little bit," said Lee. "If I would have just believed in myself and just went on my first instinct, I probably would have made the play. But I'm a defensive back, it's next-play mentality. I can't let that affect the rest of my play."
Instead, Iowa's secondary locked the Wildcats down in the 40-14 win on Saturday in a welcome return to form, holding the visitors to a meager 120 passing yards and a pair of interceptions in the win.
In fact, for all the consternation over the pick-six and general ineffectiveness of Cade McNamara before Brendan Sullivan's entry, Northwestern starter Jack Lausch was actually the worst-rated QB of the afternoon Saturday, registering a mere 62 yards on 10-for-19 passing and both interceptions before being (mercifully) pulled for Ryan Hilinski.
"I feel like we were all just everywhere, just had it to a T, everywhere," said senior defensive back Sebastian Castro, who returned after missing the Michigan State game. "We put a lot of pressure on [Lausch] and made him have to make quick decisions. Wherever he looked, we were around him — we just covered all the spaces."
Sixth-year senior Jermari Harris has emerged as the secondary's most consistent cover man on the field — and it starts with his approach off the field.
"You have to win a game throughout the week," said Harris. "You have to win every day. Preparation is key in that: whether it's watching film, waking up at the same time every day, or making sure you get into into the training room and getting your body right. So all that ties into being the best version of yourself."
Harris' methodical day-to-day habits, a staple of defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Phil Parker, carries over to the rest of the secondary room as well.
"I definitely want to be a leader, and I feel like that comes with your everyday habits," said Lee. "I can be a leader now: just doing what I'm doing every single day, just trying to be better. Trying to see how [seniors] lead, and be the best version of me every single day."
The secondary needed little reminder that it was far from its "best self" against Michigan State two weeks ago, allowing 116 yards to true freshman wideout Nick Marsh and 100 more to senior Montorie Foster Jr.
"We're going to have a hard time against anybody if we don't tackle well," said Ferentz. "I'm not discarding what Michigan State did, they played really well. But it's our job to try to match tempo, and if a guy has got the ball, you've got to tackle him somehow."
While Lee confirmed Tuesday that he had been a healthy scratch against the Spartans before returning to his listed role as starter, Castro had to sit out the MSU game due to injury, and watching the game from the sidelines hurt Castro as much as his absence hurt the secondary.
"I didn't know how I was going to react," said Castro. "At one point during the game I wanted to just go out there. And yeah, I did miss it, and I didn't know how much I was going to miss it. I'm just glad to be back."
"When you get a sixth-year veteran back, his presence is felt out on the field," said Harris of Castro. "His physicality in coverage, or just putting guys in the right position. It was definitely great getting him back, and that's my brother. My roommate."
Whether it was having Lee and Castro back on the field, better effort and consistency from the secondary, or just the familiarity of the home environment, Iowa looked like the ball-hawking secondary that strikes fear into most quarterbacks last Saturday.
"I'm encouraged, certainly, and it felt more like us out there on the field," said Ferentz. "I thought our tempo was better. I thought everybody was where they should have been. Didn't see a lot of guys reaching or on the ground, those kinds of things, which are really a bad sign defensively."
Just as one bad game doesn't establish a trend, though, one good game isn't reason for the secondary to exhale just yet either.
"I said after the MSU game that hopefully it was uncharacteristic, but that's talk; you have to go out and prove it," said Ferentz. "Based on this past Saturday, maybe we'll be able to look back and say it is uncharacteristic. But we looked a lot better. We looked like a team that had maybe practiced, and was doing things a lot more fundamentally sound."
The good news for Iowa, at least historically, is the calendar switching to November in a precious few days. Iowa is 18-2 in November dating back to 2020, and the late-season dominance is a prime part of the team's identity.
"We just harp on November football," said Lee. "That's where teams show who they really are. Just more focused."
""November is a time when you really fall in on your routine," said Harris. "Everything we've done for these past 13 weeks leads up to this. At this point it becomes second nature."
Through all the routine, though, Wisconsin will pose a unique challenge: not only are the Badgers rounding into form with an air-raid offense, but Saturday night's forecast includes steady rain for the game, which may hamper the passing games — not that the secondary is changing its preparation as a result.
"The weather doesn't have too much of an effect on your preparation; at the end of the day, you've still got to prepare the same," said Lee. "You can't be worried about, 'it might be wet,' this, this and that, because that can throw you off your focus just a little bit. As a DB, you've got to be focused and locked in, every single little detail."
And ultimately: it's still Wisconsin, the standard-bearer of success in the days of the Big Ten West.
"They've been a good football team as long as I can remember, and it's always a tough contest," said Ferentz. "It's typically going to be a physical contest, good defenses, and hopefully both teams are trying to run the ball a little bit and that type of thing."
No matter how Wisconsin tries to move the ball Saturday night, Iowa's secondary will have to prove it's capable of taking on a challenge like the Badgers — otherwise, the only consistent thing about the secondary's 2024 season will be its inconsistency itself.
