"Hitting down on the ball" - NO!!!     Don't think of it as hitting down on the ball.  Think of it as making contact with the ball just before the lowest point of your swing.  When people are told that, or try that, they tend to change set up positions, come in too steep to force a divot.  Divots are not a necessity in golf and some of your bad shots may be caused by concentrating on making a divot instead of pure contact. 

Hey 808HACKER, most great iron players have one thing in common: they take a divot, whether the ball is teed up or on turf. It usually comes from a shallow angle of attack which produces a long, shallow divot about the size of a dollar bill. So when you are compressing the golf ball you are trapping the ball against the turf and the ball compresses ( pops up ) into the air. To stop coming in too steep and hitting fat shots try shallowing out your backswing -- swinging a little more around your body. That sets up a shallower angle into the ball and a long thin divot. Hope this helps!

Connor,

Thanks I'll try that =)