No. 2 Indiana beat No. 1 Ohio State in the Big Ten Football Championship game on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
It was the Hoosiers’ first appearance in the conference title
game and marks the program’s first Big Ten championship since 1967. The win caps off Indiana’s first 12-0 regular season in program history and first win
Winning the rushing battle
This was a matchup of two of the top defenses in the country led by coordinators Bryant Haines for the Hoosiers and Matt Patricia for the Buckeyes.
Being a Big Ten football game, running the ball was gonna be huge here. Ohio State’s running game isn’t what it was last year, but Bo Jackson is every bit of an incredible running back coming into this game with over 900 yards and several touchdowns to his name. Indiana’s had a reliable two-man punch of Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black throughout the season, with both showing up when called upon.
The Hoosier duo won out over Jackson. Hemby and Black finished with 52 and 69 yards, going for 4 and 4.3 yards per carry. Jackson, taking the lion’s share of carries, finished with 83 yards on 49 per carry.
Fernando Mendoza’s second Heisman moment?
Fernando Mendoza logged his first Heisman moment with a late go-ahead touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. on the road at Penn State to preserve the Hoosiers’ undefeated season.
The problem was he caught plenty of criticism at the time. He’d thrown an ill-timed interception not to long before that set the Nittany Lions up in Hoosier territory to take said ill-fated lead. The Heisman came down to this game, with Mendoza battling Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin for the Big Ten championship and, seemingly, the award.
Facing third and six in his own territory and just under three minutes on the clock, Mendoza let loose a dime down deep down the right side of the field to a flying Charlie Becker, who leapt and made the catch to set the Hoosiers up on the Buckeyes’ side of the field.
It moved the chains and put Indiana in position to run the clock further and keep Ohio State out of comfortable scoring position. It was the play of the game.
Indiana won the Big Ten, dude
Indiana football, until quite recently the losers of more games than anyone ever, took down No. 1 Ohio State and won the Big Ten championship.
It happened. That’s real. In year two of the head coach’s time in Bloomington. This is a space filler of a third thing but, like.
Dude. The Hoosiers.
