Indiana responded to a lackluster week one performance by taking care of business against Howard. The Hoosiers took a 41-0 lead into halftime, enough for Curt Cignetti to play bench players for the majority of the second half.
Charlie Becker continued his red-hot start with three more catches, all of which went for touchdowns. The running game also excelled, with both Lee Beebe Jr. and Turbo Richard eclipsing 100 yards on the day.
By the end of the game, Indiana was in control enough for us to see
Tyler Cherry’s debut, completing the comeback story from the season-ending injury he suffered last season.
Here are 3 observations from the win:
Responding
Cignetti was very clear in the lead up to this game that last week’s win over North Texas was not up to the standard on either side of the ball. He expected things to be different this week, and they were.
The passing game didn’t really get to show much because the offensive line was so dominant that Howard had no answer for Indiana’s running game. Beebe Jr. averaged 7.8 yards per carry on 16 touches while Richard went for 9.8 yards per carry and a touchdown.
The defensive front took a little bit to finally record a sack, but it’s because Ja’Shawn Scroggins was wiling to do everything – including a very bad interception – to avoid being sacked. By the end of the game though, the Hoosiers totaled five sacks, led by Keishaun Calhoun with two.
Again, it wasn’t a perfect effort, but the team appeared to know where it looked sloppy last week and made noticeable improvements, basically across the board.
Josh Hoover
Josh Hoover was probably the only Hoosier who didn’t show improvement over week one, in part because of how high he set the bar last week.
Hoover missed some passes, including his first attempt of the game which would have had a chance to be six points if he hadn’t under-thrown Tyler Morris. He also under -threw Becker on Becker’s first touchdown, which will just add more to the latter’s film as he builds a case to be WR1 in his NFL Draft Class.
More concerning today were his decisions. Bad throws happen and won’t kill Indiana, but bad decisions could hurt. He looked for the home run on a few plays at the expense of open throws that would have gone for first downs, even after receiving an earful from Cignetti about it.
Becker’s performance today is indicative of the room for error that this receiver core gives Hoover, but I’m sure Cignetti would like Hoover to make things easier on himself going forward.
The Depth Chart
With the game comfortably in hand by halftime, Cignetti and company were able to turn to the bench earlier last week, giving us more of an idea of how the depth chart looks through two weeks.
Grant Wilson was QB2 again, apparently for good reason. We did get to see Tyler Cherry, but he looked like somebody making his college debut, missing on both of his pass attempts. He looks like he needs a little more experience under his belt to get comfortable.
At running back, we didn’t see Sean Cuono until the starters were fully done, at which point he split carries with Jayreon Campbell. Of the two, Campbell looked better today, averaging 7.2 yards per carry on five attempts versus 2.7 for Cuono.
The defense was without Jamari Sharpe and A.J. Harris again, but continued to use a lot of players up front to better results than last week. I expect the defensive line rotation to be deep for as long as Cignetti and Bryant Haines can get away with it, as there appears to be a lot of talent in that group.
