Indiana’s 22-game winning streak came to an end today with a loss to the No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes in Memorial Stadium. It’s Curt Cignetti’s first loss at home as Indiana’s head coach.
The Hoosiers had a chance to win it today, though I cannot say the offense deserved it. Indiana actually had two possessions down five with the game on the line, but could not cash in, which was the story most of the game.
Add in a missed field goal, a pair of uncharacteristic turnovers, and even more uncharacteristic penalties,
and the luck finally ran out for this group.
Here are three observations from the game:
Defense
Let’s start with the positive. Indiana’s defense looked absolutely world-class today, holding Jeremiah Smith Jr. to under 100 yards and fewer than five receptions. As expected, Julian Sayin was locked in on Smith, which Indiana made him pay for with an interception when he threw into double coverage.
Watching the game today, it’s hard to believe that this is the same secondary we’ve seen the rest of the season. Bryant Haines did get to start A.J. Harris, but the whole unit looked much improved over what we saw in the first six games of the year.
The defensive line was the real story though, arguably the most dominant unit on either side today. The Hoosiers sacked Sayin four times, pressured him every drive, and completely shut down Ohio State’s rushing attack. They did everything they could have to get the win.
Moving forward, it’s good to see this unit, especially the secondary, start to reach its potential.
Josh Hoover
I try to be as charitable as possible to college athletes, but it’s tough to avoid the conclusion that Josh Hoover’s performance today cost Indiana the game. He avoided throwing a pick, but did lose a fumble and completed only half of his passing attempts on a day that the Hoosiers really could not afford his accuracy problems.
Hoover has definitely never played in a game of this stature, which is probably the reason behind his early game overthrows. He never settled in though, and I frankly lost track of the number of chunk plays Indiana missed out on due to his errant passes.
When he put it in the general area of Nick Marsh or Charlie Becker, good things usually happened. He just had a hard time getting to those guys, throwing a number of passes to wide open patches of green turf.
Simply put, Hoover has to be better. Indiana’s offense will struggle for as long as he does. That cannot keep happening.
Everything else
The result and final offensive play will dominate headlines, but today’s loss was concerning for a number of reasons. Nico Radicic, who only missed one field goal all of last year and one this season coming into today, missed a pair of field goals in what ended up being a five point game.
Besides the field goals, Cignetti seemingly tried to keep his special teams out of the game, fair catching nearly every punt and kickoff throughout the whole game. Turbo Richard’s returns were a strength for Indiana early this year, so it was confusing to see the staff take this off the table. Especially in a game when the offense needed all the help it could get.
After going 1,437 snaps without losing a fumble, Indiana lost two in eight snaps as Davion Chandler was stripped on the first drive of the second half, then Hoover lost the ball getting sacked on the next drive.
As a whole, the game gave the impression that Indiana’s luck simply ran out, as it was bound to at some point. The near completion to Marsh at the end of the game really sealed the deal; that was the kind of catch Indiana made in each of the 22 games before today.
With just one loss, Indiana’s postseason ambitions are very much alive. Cleaning up the mistakes and getting better quarterback play will be the key to achieving those goals.
