Previously: Indiana Offense

the first one went well, at least

I don't think anybody would describe Iowa's offense as "explosive." They're 125th in the country (out of 128 teams) with just 19 plays from scrimmage that have gone for 20+ yards.

Four of those occurred against Indiana. Two went for 60+ yards; they've had one other such play all year. While the Hoosiers defense has taken a small step forward from 2013's pathetic group, it's just that: a small step. The Indiana defense remains the Indiana defense, and that provides quite a bit of hope for Saturday.

Personnel: The diagram [click to embiggen]:

Indiana brings back plenty of experience from last year's group; you can decide whether or not that's a good thing.

Base Set? 3-4, for the most part. This is how Indiana set up versus two receivers against the Hawkeyes, with a safety rolled up to the line:

And here they are against three wide:

They'll have "BANDIT" Nick Mangieri—essentially a DE—put his hand in the dirt on occasion; for the most part, though, they go with three down linemen and shade the strongside linebacker over the slot, keeping their base personnel on the field most of the time.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the breakdown.]

Man or zone coverage? A decent mix of both. When going zone, they tended to play soft on the outside, ceding some pretty easy completions in the 8-12 yard range. Man coverage tended to be something of an adventure.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? IU played it relatively conservative, though it appears they get most of their pass rush from blitzing linebackers; defensive linemen have combined for just 7.5 sacks this season, and four of those come from one man, SDE Bobby Richardson. Richardson's sack against Iowa came when a Hawkeye guard completely blew his assignment, allowing a free run to the QB, so even that number is a bit inflated.

Dangerman: Pass? Can I pass? No?

Fine. Nobody from the Hoosier front seven really stood out to me, and their pass defense is abhorrent, but cornerback Tim Bennett at least makes a good number of plays on the ball— he has eight pass breakups this year already—when he's not beat clean. This was a nice recovery in man coverage against Kevonte Martin-Manley:

Bennett is an excellent athlete, as you can see above, and he's good at getting his head around and playing the ball, though with one career interception I don't think he's quite as good at catching it. He'll get burned over the course of the game, but he'll also make a few decent plays when he's picked on.

Yeah, that's the best I've got for Indiana's dangerman. It's not a very good defense. 

OVERVIEW

The Hoosier front is not particularly big for a 3-4, and it shows in their run defense. As you'd expect from undersized athletes, the Hoosier defenders did pretty well against Iowa's attempts to gain the edge, especially on outside zones—they'll get people to the football on any long-developing outside run. On the interior, however, it was pretty easy to push them around; Iowa started this play on the left hash, and just after this screencap Iowa's back cut upfield for a solid gain:

Yes, the entire front seven got pushed past the hash. This was pretty typical on the day; if IU didn't shoot a lineman upfield and disrupt the play immediately, they got blown off the ball.

There look to be two paths of success on the ground against the Hoosiers. One is straight up the gut. The other is a quick-hitting run to the edge; their defensive backs didn't handle the jet sweep well at all:

No clue what the corner or safety to that side of the field were doing, but it wasn't good.

The defensive line couldn't generate much of a pass rush without an Iowa bust. The linebackers did a decent job cleaning up after the interior D-line against the run; there were a couple instances when MIKE TJ Simmons managed to tackle Weisman even though both DTs were cut to the ground. In coverage, however, the LBs were often exposed; Iowa's first TD went to TE Jake Duzey when SLB Flo Hardin couldn't stay within two yards of him on a simple deep cross.

The corners were tough to evaluate because the safety play was, well, bad. Bennett got beat a few times, once for a 72-yard touchdown, but it sure looks like a safety totally screwed up the coverage on that play:

I don't think the underneath route was the priority there.

The other starting corner, Michael Hunter, is a bigger guy (6'1, 192) who held up decently in man coverage; Jake Rudock had to fit a couple balls into tight windows against his coverage, with mixed success.

The safeties, as you'd probably guess on a pass defense this bad, weren't good. They blew coverages, took some terrible angles against the run, and struggled to cover ground in their zones. Deep stuff should be there. You know, should Michigan decide they want it.

Michigan should find success against this group. Indiana isn't strong up front, so they won't be able to take advantage of M's weakness up front as much as the other Big Ten squads the Wolverines have faced. Their secondary looks quite a bit like last year's secondary, which M obliterated even in the midst of an otherwise awful stretch. This should go well.

Should.