What is the story about?
Indiana football earned its first ranked win of the season on Saturday evening, beating USC 27-13 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
The Trojans were No. 15 in this week’s AP Top-25 poll and No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Of course, there’s always the possibility that this loss in itself causes them to fall completely out of one if not both sets of rankings, but that’s a conversation for later.
For now, the Hoosiers are winners once again. There was plenty to like from that one and,
yes, enough to dislike. Here’s some quick thoughts from the matchup:
- Indiana’s defense remains the real deal. Jayden Maiava entered this game having thrown three interceptions and never more than two in a game. He left it having added three to his total, including a pair of late ones on key plays from Isaiah Jones and Jamari Sharpe that kept the Trojans from cutting into the Hoosiers’ lead. This performance wasn’t without its issues, USC’s offense consistently got down the field before the Indiana defense refused to break in the red zone, but holding it to 13 points is as solid as it gets and, of course, proved more than enough.
- Khobie Martin just might be RB1 moving forward. Indiana’s running game has struggled for quite a while behind the tandem of Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe Jr. That’s not all their fault at all, the Hoosier offensive line has had its issues creating space and dealt with injury. Without Richard, it looked like this would be another rough performance on the ground. That was true for the first two quarters when Indiana managed just 36 rushing yards. Then the Hoosiers went for 110 in the second half, with Martin adding some real explosives that previously seemed lost to the offense entirely. If he can keep doing that… there’s not a lot of reasons he shouldn’t be the back on first downs.
- The Hoosiers quarterback questions aren’t without answers yet. Ah, you probably thought these were all gonna be positive, huh? Not so! Grant Wilson performed admirably, completing 17 of his 27 attempts through the air for a pair of touchdowns and an interception. He also threw several passes that he, and the USC defenders who dropped them, would probably want back. Going deep for Charlie Becker worked a few times, but Indiana’s going to need to be more consistent at quarterback to win the kinds of games it went into this season wanting to win.
- Nick Marsh deserves more credit than he’ll probably get, in general. Marsh brought in four passes for 80 yards, made some key blocks in the run game and even logged a pass breakup that very well could’ve saved the game for Indiana. He’s done a lot of the little things that add up during his time in Bloomington and deserves commendation for it.
- There’s still season to go. Indiana got the nice win it needed, now the Hoosiers need to avoid any potential pitfalls. Washington on the road could prove festier than you’d think and there’s always Purdue and the offense that nearly beat a tough Wake Forest team and sandblasted the same Minnesota group Indians struggled with on Halloween.
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