As the game clock wound down at Kinnick Stadium, one side of the scoreboard showed 34 and the other 6 with no indication of those numbers changing. No one could have predicted the Hoosiers would fail to score a touchdown in their season opener; Head coach Tom Allen was even stunned by the 28-point loss.
"I didn't expect this to happen," Allen said. "I thought it was gonna be a great football game to come down to the finish."
A glance at the scoreboard with little context and you might expect the defense surrendered all 34 points. However, Iowa's defense returned two interceptions thrown by Michael Penix for touchdowns, with a third resulting in a field goal, combining for 17 points from turnovers.
The 28 point defeat was nothing short of unpleasant for Allen, exposing areas that need improvement, but it wasn't all doom and gloom for the defense. They played well enough for some positives to come from Saturday's game.
While Iowa running back Tyler Goodson scored a 56-yard running touchdown on the fourth play of the game, IU defensive coordinator Charlton Warren praised his players for their ability to bounce back after facing early adversity.
"Obviously, when you give up a 56-yard run, that kills it," Warren said. "But I'll tell you, the guys responded to that, being down I think at that point 14-0, [they] came right back on the field and got a 3-and-out."
Warren said defensively the game never reached an uncontrollable point, but the failure to execute consistently led to Iowa creating explosive plays downfield.
"I didn't feel like the game got out of hand on us defensively; we couldn't stop them," Warren said. "There was a bunch of 2nd and longs; I think they were 4 for 12 on 3rd down. So I thought some good things were done; we just didn't execute consistently throughout that game, which led to the plays."
And while huge plays are bound to happen occasionally, Warren wants to avoid what he sees as fatal plays, like Goodson's run.
"The one run I would call catastrophic, where you give up a home run ball for seven points," Warren said. "That's a catastrophic run, which we can't have any of those. We want to limit explosives, but we can't have any catastrophic's to be a great defense."
Iowa's primary source of rushing yards came from Goodson, whereas passing yards resulted from connections between quarterback Spencer Petras and tight-end Sam LaPorta.
LaPorta's five receptions for 83 yards might have exposed an area needing improvement for IU's defense, but they also clarified one thing; IU's cornerbacks successfully prevented Iowa's wide receivers from regularly being open.
"If you look at the catch chart, the tight end had most of the receptions; the receivers on the outside, one or two catches not for any explosive plays," Warren said.
Warren continued by talking about the effectiveness of blitzing. Defensive end Ryder Anderson and cornerback Reese Taylor led the team with two tackles for loss and one sack, respectively.
"You see, Reese got the sack," Warren said. "A couple [of] disruptive plays on the perimeter where we were able to get a tackle for loss. So I thought they did some good things ... [I] wish we could (of) had a chance when the tight end was making a couple [of] plays to go up and contend for the ball, but I thought they had a solid game all game."
The first week is in the books and while it was not the result Allen and Warren hoped for, there were positive contributions on defense. But there is still vast room for improvement in preparation for the home opener against Idaho.
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