Iowa City, Iowa - After completely dominating Indiana's offense in the second half last week, the MSU defense could not put on an encore performance at Iowa.
The Spartans (2-3 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) gave up 464 total yards to Iowa (3-2, 1-1) - the worst offensive team in the Big Ten prior to this weekend.
"As far as the defense is concerned, I don't think we played very smart today," senior linebacker and captain Ron Stanley said. "A couple times, we had the ball carrier wrapped up - we just need to do better at tackling. We had poor tackling (Saturday)."
The Spartans missed numerous tackles, starting on the first drive of the game for the Hawkeyes.
"The first touchdown run was real good, what'd he break? Three? That was pretty positive," MSU head coach John L. Smith said sarcastically.
Iowa running back Jermelle Lewis ran around the left side of the line, where MSU senior linebacker Marshall Campbell and junior safety Eric Smith both missed tackles on the play. Lewis then ran by another Spartan and into the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown run.
The tackling never seemed to get better for MSU, as the Spartans gave up yards after contact throughout the game.
On the fourth play of the second half, Iowa quarterback Drew Tate hit wide receiver Ed Hinkel on a hook route. Hinkel caught the ball and broke through an attempted tackle by senior cornerback Roderick Maples. That play set the Hawkeyes up for another touchdown.
"Tackling is always important, whether you're lined up right or not," Stanley said. "That's what the defense is out there for - to tackle. Once we get to the ball carrier, we need to wrap up. We didn't do that some times today, and it cost us."
Stanley and senior safety and captain Jason Harmon talked about not being lined up correctly on plays throughout the game. Both felt the team did fine when the were lined up correctly.
"As far as our calls and our communication, we didn't get lined up right," Stanley said. "That's when they got the big plays on us.
"When we were lined up right, we stopped the plays. We didn't get ourselves in the right position and we didn't line up right."
Harmon said the secondary had more trouble than usual getting lined up for plays, tackling and overall performance. Some of the confusion was due to Iowa throwing the ball more than the Spartans expected.
"We couldn't cover their guys," Smith said. "They threw it every first down - it was a little bit of a surprise.
"(Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz) did a good job of getting (Tate) out in a lot of play action. They play-actioned the snot out of us. That got them into good situations and kept them in good situations."
Of Iowa's 464 total yards, 340 yards came via the pass. Harmon said the types of passing plays the Hawkeyes ran kept MSU on its heels and led to frustration in the secondary.
"They basically did anything they wanted to do," Harmon said. "They were doing a lot of sit-down routes, where they would go deep and then stop and sit down. You really can't make every play on the sit-down routes, but the deep balls, we could have controlled those (plays)."
It was the Spartans' inability to control defensively that led to Saturday's frustration after the game. The defense finished the game with one sack, one interception and two tackles for loss.
When asked about the defense carrying the team through the first half of the season - something Smith has alluded to almost every week since the beginning of the season - Smith responded with a less-than-pleased answer.
"'Cause we're really bad," Smith said.
When asked if he really believed his own statement, Smith did not respond.
