Published Nov 11, 2018
Pro Football Focus Grades: Defense
Tom Kakert  •  Hawkeye Beacon
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The Iowa defense did their part as far as the scoreboard, limiting Northwestern to just 14 points, sacking Clayton Thorson twice, and creating two turnovers. But, their tackling in key moments was lacking and the run defense allowed their highest total since the Wisconsin game and the result was a 14-10 loss to the Wildcats on Saturday.

Northwestern came into the game averaging 93 yards rushing per game. Against an Iowa defense that had been allowing 86 per game, they rushed for 184 yards. While they only allowed 122 yards passing by Clayton Thorson, it was the run game that proved to be the difference.

We take a look at the snap counts and the grades for the 79 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus for the Iowa defense.

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DEFENSIVE LINE
SNAPRUN DPASS RUSHOVERALL

Brady Reiff

24

75.3

76.7

82.5

Matt Nelson

48

74.0

67.4

75.4

Sam Brincks

48

79.0

59.1

74.7

Parker Hesse

55

74.0

62.7

72.0

A.J. Epenesa

31

66.8

67.9

70.5

Cedrick Lattimore

25

69.2

56.5

67.2

Anthony Nelson

55

61.7

56.9

59.7

Chauncey Golston

32

66.4

60.0

59.7

DL GRADE THOUGHTS

The grades for the defensive line are kind of surprising and somewhat telling.

I'm a bit surprised at the low grade this week for Golston. I thought he played a pretty solid game overall and yet, he ends up with the lowest grade from the entire unit. Anthony Nelson didn't have a tackle in the game and had his lowest grade of the season as a result. He's one of Iowa's best pass rushers and didn't get that part of his game going at all on Saturday.

Nice to see Brady Reiff having a good game against Northwestern. He really did a nice job in his 24 snaps of getting a push in the middle of the line. Matt Nelson continues to have a quietly good season at defensive tackle.

Iowa only had three tackles for loss in the game and two from this group. That was lacking if they were going to have a significant impact on the game.

LINEBACKERS
SNAPRUN DTACKLECOVEROVERALL

Kristian Welch

5

61.3

N/A

70.3

90.4

Amani Hooker

79

75.8

83.1

76.0

79.6

Nick Niemann

13

68.0

77.4

60.0

68.8

Jack Hockaday

74

73.6

67.7

52.2

63.1

Djimon Colbert

72

55.1

55.2

65.3

62.5

LINEBACKER GRADE THOUGHTS

Once again this week we included Hooker in this grouping because he played the majority of his snaps at outside backer. He once again graded out very highly, according to Pro Football Focus. He was the clear best tackler of the group among players who played significant snaps.

On the other hand, both Hockaday and Colbert had a rough day on different fronts. Hockaday's tackle numbers were ok, but his coverage was graded as poor. Colbert was ok in coverage, but his tackling was graded as the lowest of the group.

DEFENSIVE BACKS
SNAPCOVERTACKLINGOVERALL

Michael Ojemudia

78

74.5

78.8

74.3

Geno Stone

69

78.1

68.8

73.1

Jake Gervase

79

74.1

70.6

71.5

Matt Hankins

78

66.8

82.3

69.1

Riley Moss

4

60.8

N/A

61.9

DEFENSIVE BACK GRADE THOUGHTS

The grades for the Iowa defensive backfield was a little better than expected, especially the tackling numbers. It felt like there were more missed tackles, but everyone graded out pretty well on that front. Only Geno Stone had a grade below 70 in the game.

The overall coverage numbers weren't too bad either. Hankins was the lowest grade of the players who saw significant snaps and that's the way it appeared during the game. Some of that could be a little rust after not playing for several weeks. Nice game for Ojemudia on Saturday after moving back into the starting lineup.