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Iowa football: Matt Nelson named to PFF’s Week 2 Defensive B1G Team of Week

By Andrew Wade

IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 23: Quarterback Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions runs on a keeper during the second quarter past defensive end Matt Nelson #96 of the Iowa Hawkeyes on September 23, 2017 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 23: Quarterback Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions runs on a keeper during the second quarter past defensive end Matt Nelson #96 of the Iowa Hawkeyes on September 23, 2017 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /
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The Iowa football program played stifling Saturday, and Matt Nelson lead the charge. Today he was named to PFF’s Week 2 Defensive B1G Team of the Week.

The University of Iowa football team had a fantastic defensive effort on Saturday holding the Iowa State Cyclones to its fewest total offensive yards since 2013. Although the defensive performance was a team effort, there were a few standout players that led the charge. We covered a few of those players yesterday in our three standouts of the week article. 

As we alluded to in that article, almost any member of the defense could have been named a standout performer. Yesterday, sophomore defensive end A.J. Epenesa received Defensive Player of the Week Honors awarded by the Big Ten Conference. Today, Pro Football Focus released their Defensive Big Ten Team of the Week for week two, which included one Hawkeye on it.

Pro Football Focus is a website that provide game grades to every player that takes a snap. It allows media and fans to look at a different form of statistics, one that isn’t entirely predicated on box office statistics. I personally find it incredibly helpful to add this piece of data to any form of player analysis so when members of the Iowa football program made their teams of the week, I take notice.

Senior defensive end Matt Nelson made PFF’s Week 2 Defensive Big Ten Team of the Week.

This isn’t to say that Matt was the most valuable player on the Hawkeye defense, but it does say that he was a top performer at his position in the Big Ten. For the purposes of this week’s team, Matt was considered an interior defensive lineman.

Matt put together a great performance against the Cyclones notching three tackles and one sack in their 13-3 victory. The senior out of Cedar Rapids has been an impact player on Iowa’s defense since he became a full-time starter as a redshirt sophomore.

As mentioned in last week’s PFF Week 1 Team of the Week, the early part of the season can be misleading with these types of data mostly because teams like Wisconsin are playing cupcakes and can “pad” their stats in a sense. So while the Badgers had more players on the week two defensive team than the Iowa football team has had on offense or defense all year, this will likely change as we move into Big Ten Conference play.