If Rashede Hageman and Aaron Hill can make plays like the last two Saturdays?
Iowa is a good football team, keep in mind NIU was a bowl team last year that played in the Orange bowl and they went in to Iowa city and won the football game because they had one heck of a determined effort by Harnish at QB and good skill postion players. Hageman and Hill are going to have to defeat double teams and make plays even if it looks like they can't.
Stopping the run is going to be a "tremendous challenge".
The challenge will be can the Gophers defense stop the Iowa offense more and create turnovers. Iowa has a decent if young QB, and are good at play action.
We need to see the Gophers keep the score low, not panic when adversity hits and keep on playing hard when the bleep hits the fans. We cannot see the steamroller get going like last year.
Then we have a lot of hope for Saturday. The Gophers defense is going to have to match zeroes this week, create turnovers and keep touchdowns off the board.
Those TFL's that Hagemen has had the last two weeks have been snot bubblers and what we have needed for a long time. These were "BIG 10 hits". Cocharan getting after the QB is nice but this week he needs to focus on helping also shut down the run, he cannot get sucked in as Iowa likes to run counter action a lot to his side of the field.
The tip and the interception that Aaron Hill had helped turn the momentumn against SJSU and was a Big 10 type of play.
Iowa is going to key on Hageman and Hill because they know both are good BIG 10 players, are two of the Gophers best defensive players and try to isolate and keep them out of the play. #31 Eric Murray he may be fast and can cover a lot of ground but teams must be seeing something on film that they can make plays to his side of the field because they keep keying on him. I know he did not get burned by the home run like Wells did last week, but teams have been dinking and dunking in front of Murray all four games. Eric Murray is going to have to step his game up this week as Iowa is going to come at him and to his side of the field.
They will focus on getting a lineman on Devondre Campbell because they know he is all over the field chasing guys down and making tackles. It is going to be up to Roland Johnson and Botticelli to help keep the linebackers clean this week to bring down Weismann. There tight end is a big time player also, we cannot let him burn us with the drag routes and play action this week, Damien Wilson is going to have to be able to cover him without leaving the middle of the field vacant.
This is a big step up in class for the Gophers defense this week, are they up to the challenge? We shall see Saturday,
this games outcome rest's on that side of the ball, who can stop the other side more Saturday. Gophers need to beat Iowa and they will need a great effort from the defense in order to do so. This game is on the defenses backs.
