By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Long-time Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker suddenly can’t coach.

His bend-but-don’t-break philosophy is now being heavily scrutinized in the wake of Saturday’s devastating 18-16 loss to Oregon at Kinnick Stadium.

The two-point loss, in which the Iowa defense failed to make a late defensive stand, is devastating because it will cost Iowa a chance of making the 12-team college playoff.

And in situations like this where emotions run high, somebody has to take the blame.

Iowa senior free safety Xavier Nwanpka stood at the podium in the post-game press conference on Saturday and took full accountability for the defense not rising to the occasion with the season on the line.

“Someone has to step up and make a play. It was down to us defensively,” Nwankpa said. “We like being in that position. But at end end of the day, we just didn’t get the job done.”

All the Iowa defense had to do was make one last defensive stand in the final two minutes of Saturday’s game.

But instead, the Ducks drove into field-goal range and ultimately won the game on a 39-yard field goal by Atticus Sappington with three seconds remaining.

Ever since then, Parker and the Iowa defense have been ripped on social media.

The critics and naysayers are pointing out that the Iowa defense in all three losses this season to Iowa State (16-13), Indiana (20-15) and Oregon (18-16) had a chance to secure a victory, only to come up short.

And while that is true, did you pay close attention to the final score of those three games?

They have something in common in that in each case Iowa’s opponent was held to a season-low in points.

Oregon entered Saturday’s game averaging over 41 points per game, and yet, had to scrape and claw just to score 18 points.

Iowa entered the Oregon game ranked second nationally in total defense, allowing just 234.9 yards per game.

The Ducks rushed for 261 yards in Saturday’s game, but still were held well below their per-game average in total yards with 373 yards overall. The Oregon running backs also made some incredible individual plays in which they eluded defenders in space or gained yards after contact.

On Oregon’s game-winning scoring drive, quarterback Dante Moore made some extraordinary throws, the most impressive being his 24-yard completion to Malik Benson near the sideline that gave the Ducks a first-down at the Iowa 27-yard line.

Moore had to throw into a tight window because Iowa cornerback TJ Hall was draped all over Benson, who then had to make a difficult catch.

So the coverage on the play was rock solid, but the execution on offense was even better as Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz pointed out in his post-game press conference.

“Then the last throw, they made throw and catch, you talk about a matter of inches,” Kirk Ferentz said. “It was a great throw. The guy did a good job bringing it in. TJ had great coverage, and he’s been playing his ass off all year.

“Sometimes that’s football. When you play a team like Oregon, you have to be right there. There’s nothing easy. This is the kind of game we were hoping it would be. We just couldn’t quite get it done.”

The Iowa defense is held to a different standard than the Iowa offense, and sometimes, that isn’t fair.

The offense has certainly made strides under second-year coordinator Tim Lester, especially the running game.

However, the level of performance on offense still leaves much to be desired as Iowa averaged just 2.3 yards per carry against the Ducks.

Iowa also entered the Oregon game averaging just 139.2 passing yards per game.

The margin for error for the Iowa defense is razor thin due to Iowa’s inability to score points on offense.

Blaming a defense for losing three games in which the opponents scored 20 or fewer points is sort of like blaming a basketball team that prides itself on playing good defense for losing a low-scoring game on a 3-point shot at the buzzer.

The offense deserves praise for driving 93 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against Oregon.

But the offense wouldn’t have been in position to score a go-head touchdown without the defense having held Oregon to a season low in points.

Football is considered the ultimate team sport in which all three phases – offense, defense and special teams – complement and feed of each other. But in Iowa’s case, the defense way more times than not has held up its end of the deal, while the offense hasn’t.

It was just two years ago that the Iowa offense was a punchline for jokes and a source of ridicule due to its dysfunction.

The situation became so bad that Brian Ferentz was fired as the Iowa offensive coordinator with four games left in the 2023 season despite being Kirk Ferentz’s son.

Meanwhile, the Iowa defense played well enough for Iowa to still win 10 games that season.

Parker and his cohorts on defense certainly aren’t above being scrutinized or even criticized.

The defense did have a chance to win the Oregon game with one last stand, but it just didn’t get the job done.

But again, there wouldn’t even have been a chance to win without the defense keeping the score close.

Iowa’s defense will face another huge challenge against USC on Saturday in Los Angeles.

The Trojans are similar to Oregon in that they can score points in a hurry and they have multiple playmakers on offense.

Iowa struggled with missed tackles against Oregon, but in most cases, it had more to do with talent and execution than coaching.

The Iowa defense has been the strength under Kirk Ferentz for so long that it’s easy to take it for granted, and to hold it to a different standard.

Hawkeye fans have become spoiled with how well the defense has performed under Phil Parker.

Former linebackers Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson, both of whom used up their eligibility last season, formed one of the best linebacker tandems in program history, while former cornerback Cooper DeJean, who declared for the NFL Draft after the 2023 season, was one of the best defensive backs in program history.

The bar has been set so high on defense that it’s easy to lose the proper perspective.

It’s okay to be frustrated and disappointed with the defense for failing to make one last stand against Oregon.

But to say, or even to suggest that the defense is responsible for Iowa failing to climb to elite status is unfair and misguided.

The defense is the biggest reason why Kirk Ferentz is the Big Ten’s all-time winningest head coach, and why Iowa sometimes comes close to being elite.