Iowa's defensive line coach Kelvin Bell is happy with the progress his group has made to this point in the season.

Through five weeks, his group only put together just three sacks, 20 tackles-for-loss and 14 QB hits — all as the team still staked a 4-1 start to the year. Against Purdue, the group finally made a splash, registering six sacks, 12 tackles-for-loss and three QB hits.

In Madison last Saturday, the Hawkeye defensive line put together a sack, tackle-for-loss, two QB hits, three pass-breakups and a safety. They also forced two fumbles and allowed just 89 yards on the ground to a perennially formidable Wisconsin backfield.

"Defending Wisconsin is always a challenge," Bell said during a Zoom call on Wednesday. "We always go into games knowing that we need to stop the run, and how we do that, I think, is extremely unique to Iowa. To be able to limit the run game as much as we did, with as big as that offensive line is and as talented as that running back is, that's a step in the right direction."

Following the win over Purdue, Joe Evans and Aaron Graves credited a pre-game meeting they held prior to the game for their improvement. Bell said he wasn't aware of the meeting until later the following week, and that it was prompted not only by their play to that point in the season but because of a below-standard practice.

"The precursor for that meeting was one of the worst Friday practices that I've ever seen," he said. "That's the day that things are supposed to be polished, and that Friday before Purdue was absolutely horrid."

"They came out there and basically just went through the motions. They jumped offsides like four or five times. So after that practice, we had a very clear and blunt conversation about that practice and what I had thought about them to that point. Just the complacency -- and I felt like we missed an opportunity. So that blunt conversation probably led to the player-only meeting."

And even though he's happy with where his position group has made leaps and bounds since that Friday practice, Bell still saw things they can improve on in the Wisconsin game.

"We knew that coming out after halftime was going to be critical, because the lead wasn't insurmountable," he said. "I felt like in the third quarter we bled some yardage there that we didn't need to. A lot of it was Xs and Os."

"It wasn't physical, per se. It was calls being made, guys not having their eyes in the right place, then they're out of position and it looked a lot worse on tape physically that what it really was. Defensively, if we can play four quarters where everybody is on the same page and everybody is looking at the same thing, I think we have a chance to be really good and not have those lapses."

Ultimately, Bell enjoyed the win, but he and the men he coaches are looking forward.

"I'm glad we won the game and got the trophy back, but at the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next," he said. "We're on to Minnesota."