Defensive Line
Daniel: You can’t find much on the stat sheet from this unit – zero sacks and zero tackles for loss. It’s not like the Vols absolutely dominated Iowa’s lauded offensive line. But the Hawkeyes felt their presence. Derek Barnett, despite one bad penalty, was close several times and made Iowa quarterbacks uncomfortable. The defensive tackles held their own as well, even without any spectacular plays to show for it. Like the rest of the defense, the line bent a few times, but didn’t really break until the backups were in and the game was well in hand for the Vols. This was the area that concerned me – if UT could hang with Iowa up front – and the Vols certainly did enough to take care of business. Grade: B-
Houston: This group may not have filled up the stat sheet, but their impact on the game was huge. Iowa’s highly touted offensive line really struggled to keep Derek Barnett and Curt Maggitt out of the backfield, and Iowa quarterbacks took plenty of hits as they threw the football all game long. Iowa did have some success running the football up the gut and ran a lot of successful naked rollouts with their quarterbacks that led to some notable gains. For those reasons, this wasn’t a flawless performance for the defensive line, but they more than held their own in this game. Considering that Iowa appeared to hold on nearly every play, the defensive line was clearly doing enough to cause problems for the Hawkeye offense. Grade: B
Reed: Tennessee’s defensive line visibly impacted the game even though the box score doesn’t show it. Barnett and Maggitt regularly won matchups with Iowa’s talented tackles and Vol defensive tackles plugged running lanes in the middle. Their ability to disrupt Iowa’s ground attack and pressure the passer, perhaps more than anything, led to UT’s dominant win. Iowa had no room to operate despite their highly touted offensive front. Grade: B
Average Grade: B
