Anatomy of a fourth-down stop: What clutch stops say about Iowa’s defense, football

IOWA CITY — It does not require a robust football knowledge to understand the importance or sheer tyranny of will required to make a stop in short-yardage situations.

Iowa came up with three critical stops in short-yardage situations in Saturday’s loss to Indiana and held the Hoosiers to 6-of-15 (40%) on third down and 0-of-3 on fourth down.

On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Phil Parker explained the mixture of scheme and effort required by the fourth-and-short stops and a Zach Lutmer stop on third-and-short, which set up the first turnover on downs.

“It’s both,” Parker said. “When you start going through it, there's always some thought process how you want to play the things. When you got to have it, what do you want to do? Whether it's you want to blitz on third and down. You got to h