PFF Grades for the Iowa Defense
The mantra for the Iowa defense has always been bend, but don’t break. For the most part, the Hawkeyes did just that on Saturday afternoon in Ames. They bent many times, but fortunately for Iowa fans, they did not really break. In fact, they came up with a huge stop late to secure the 20-13 win in the Cy-Hawk game.
Overall, Iowa allowed 290 yards of total offense, with 111 of those coming in the fourth quarter as the Cyclones scrambled to get back into the game. Iowa’s defense held them to 87 yards rushing and 203 yards in the air.
Iowa State had 76 snaps in the contest. How did the Iowa defense grade out according to Pro Football Focus?
DEFENSIVE LINE
Ethan Hurkett – Overall grade of 75.4
Joe Evans – Overall grade of 74.0
Logan Lee – Overall grade of 73.8
Aaron Graves – Overall grade of 72.8
Deontae Craig – Overall grade of 63.4
Yahya Black – Overall grade of 61.8
Jeremiah Pittman – Overall grade of 47.5
TAKEAWAYS – Overall the grades were solid for the defensive line. They generally averaged into the 70’s in terms of run defense and tackling. Pittman, who only played 16 snaps, graded low in the run defense category and Graves was low in tackling at 48.6. One area where the defensive line did not grade out very well was pass rush and pressure. Zero sacks for Iowa this past week. Only Logan Lee and Joe Evans cracked the 60 mark as far as a grade, which is pretty average.
LINEBACKERS
Jay Higgins – Overall grade of 76.5
Nick Jackson – Overall grade of 60.5
Kyler Fisher – Overall grade of 59.2
TAKEAWAYS – Once again this week, Higgins had a strong grade from PFF. His coverage and run defense grades were in the 70’s this week. Jackson had a better overall performance and he had the highest tackling grade on the team with 83.2. However, his coverage grade was in the low 50’s. Fisher was in the upper 50’s across the board.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Cooper DeJean – Overall grade of 77.5
Sebastian Castro – Overall grade of 76.1
Quinn Schulte – Overall grade of 73.1
Xavier Nwankpa – Overall grade of 65.5
T.J. Hall – Overall grade of 64.3
Deshaun Lee – Overall grade of 61.5
TAKEAWAYS – No surprise with the top two at this position give how they played. DeJean lead the team with 10 tackles and he was above 70 across the board. Castro had the pick six, so he had the highest grade as far as coverage at 78. Quinn Schulte was a solid day tackling, while Nwankpa had just a 21.4 in that category. Lee kind of got picked on in this game and graded out at 56.9.
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