Winning a football game by 47 points is always going to look good and feel better, but no performance is without its flaws.
Indiana pretty thoroughly dominated most of its 56-9 win over Kennesaw State on Saturday in Memorial Stadium, but there were moments that looked a bit shaky that don’t really show up in the box score. This isn’t to say the Hoosiers were bad, at all, but it’s fair to take a few of those moments into account.
For instance, the receiving corps was plagued by drops through much of
the first half, which kept Indiana from stretching its lead earlier on. That was largely solved after halftime as the Hoosiers seized control of the game in the third quarter.
One issue that kept showing up? The Owls were able to find plenty of space past the sticks of Indiana’s defense to get down the field through the air on top of a few explosive runs. Kennesaw State played three quarterbacks in the game with the second, Amari Odom, taking a majority of snaps and finding some success through the air.
Odom completed passes of 38, 32, 19 and 34 yards against the Hoosiers to keep the Owls moving down the field and into scoring position. They weren’t able to get into the endzone once they got there, but getting there at all was a feat in itself considering a better team, Old Dominion, failed to do so at all in Week 1, getting its long explosives on the ground instead.
It’s good that Indiana never broke after it bent that often. What isn’t good it that it’ll face enough teams this season talented enough to do what Kennesaw State couldn’t and score there.
If Odom is able to find those gaps in Indiana’s defense, you can bet guys like Luke Altmeyer, Dante Moore and Drew Allar can. Add in those explosive runs from both Old Dominion and Kennesaw State? Illinois and Penn State can capitalize there too.
This could be nothing, maybe the secondary just had an off day. But there’s always a chance this is a lingering issue and the Hoosiers have very real problems looming at safety either way.
With Bryson Bonds out for the year and Byron Baldwin dealing with an injury, Indiana is a bit more thin at safety than it’d like to be, with Curt Cignetti himself saying so. On top of that, Louis Moore’s eligibility case is still moving through the legal process and it isn’t a guarantee that he’ll be able to play in the games that really matter. Moore’s impact was felt against Kennesaw State when Odom went for another one of those chunk plays and instead found the former’s waiting arms.
If Moore should be deemed ineligible, Indiana’s experience at safety falls off a cliff and the Hoosiers will have to rely on a few players who haven’t seen much of the field up to this point in Jah Jah Boyd and Baldwin, once he returns from his injury.
It’s fair to wonder if Indiana makes a few personnel moves or shakes something up schematically in response. Bryant Haines has already proven himself a shrewd defensive mind and will almost certainly be running a program of his own somewhere someday. Trusting his judgement wouldn’t be ill-advised.
It’s a situation to consider lightly over the course of the next few weeks.
