The Iowa Hawkeyes will head into their Big Ten opener at Michigan State this weekend ranked ninth in the ESPN/USA Today coaches pull. The Hawkeyes closed out non-conference play 4-0 with a impressive 21-2 win over 16th rated Arizona State on Saturday. Defense was again on display as the Hawks bottled up the Sun Devils and quarterback Andrew Walter by holding them to just 184 yards of offense, including just 24 on the ground. Hawkeye linebacker Grant Steen says the defensive line keeps the pressure off the rest of the defense by getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback. He says that pressure makes it tough on the offense to get anything going. Steen says there was no special game plan to try and slow down Arizona State. He says they go into every week with a basic strategy that does include blitzes. He says they haven’t had to use the blitzes though, because the defensive line has gotten so much pressure on the quarterback.
