Wisconsin Football: 5 Questions with Dear Old Gold on Iowa

Question 2: How does the Hawkeye defense match up with Jonathan Taylor and the powerful Wisconsin running game?

Dear Old Gold:

Badger of Honor: The only time the Hawkeyes have been “gashed” by the ground game was against Saquon Barkley.

That was without hyperbole one of the best performances ever against Iowa football.  And the Hawkeyes lost by a fingertip.

They have limited other teams running attacks with the experience at linebacker, but outside of Barkley, they haven’t faced a challenge the likes of Taylor.  Although, Justin Jackson for Northwestern made them pay on a few plays.

Badger of Honor Reaction:

Saquon Barkley ran 28 times for 211 yards and a touchdown.  He also caught 12 passes for 94 yards.  So yes, definitely not hyperbole by any stretch.

Now of course Jonathan Taylor is a great running back but putting up even half that total would be job done for the Wisconsin offense.  Barkley is really good is the takeaway here.

However, thanks in no small measure to Barkley, the Iowa rushing defense is only ranked 8th best in the Big Ten.  The Hawkeyes are allowing 147.3 yards per game on the ground which is actually worse than past Wisconsin opponents Northwestern and Purdue.

Last season, Corey Clement led the Badger ground attack with a rushing touchdown with134 yards on a whopping 35 carries.  In 2015, Wisconsin mustered just 86 yards on 34 attempts (that number does include 4 for -14 by Joel Stave).

Iowa has a good defense but it’s not an impenetrable rushing defense by any stretch.