College football is back, which means Indiana had what looked like an underwhelming opener.
The Hoosiers, as I’m sure you’re aware, started the game in nightmare-inducing fashion when Monarchs quarterback Colten Joseph scampered 75 yards to the endzone on an option keeper that completely vexed Indiana’s defensive front.
It even got Aiden Fisher and Rolijah Hardy. The first two levels of the defense were completely zeroed in on Monarchs halfback Maurki James as Joseph ran right past, leaving the secondary trying to cover the entire field on their own.
Needless to say, a terrible start.
But that scoreboard says “Old Dominion, 14.” The Monarchs scored again in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter when Joseph almost the same exact thing. The defensive line was ready for it that time, in a sense, but he still ran all the way down the field.
Indiana sent the house on that one expecting a run from the halfback. Old Dominion’s line kept them contained as Joseph took the ball again. Why the Hoosiers didn’t have a quarterback spy set up after that first run, I don’t know, but you should expect to see one against future mobile passers now that this tape is out.
Then there were the plays were the Hoosiers left some meat on the bone. Obviously Omar Cooper has to haul in that long touchdown pass from Fernando Mendoza in the TIME but
When Joseph threw his first pick early in the second quarter, Amare Ferrell had a decent opportunity to take it to the house if he runs outside instead of going through the teeth of the Old Dominion’s line. Fisher noticed this in real time and tried to direct Ferrell and the rest of Indiana’s defense to the right to leverage said opening, but Ferrell ended up running inside and getting tackled. The Hoosiers turned that into a field goal on offense.
There were a handful of other issues, including what was certainly a missed interference call on the Monarchs when Elijah Sarratt had established leverage in the endzone early in the fourth quarter and did everything he needed to catch the pass except not get tackled while the ball is in the air.
Let’s address the defense in detail as well. The Monarchs got into Hoosier territory all of once, during the second quarter, and didn’t even get to take a snap there because of a false start that dragged them back to the opposite side of the 50 before Joseph threw another incompletion and Old Dominion punted on 4th & 8.
So, yes, Indiana surrendered 218 (oof) on the ground, but 153 of those came on those two wacky runs from Joseph. Flip those for the Monarchs average of 9.5 (generous, given it includes said runs) and that’s just 84 yards. Runners not named Joseph combined for 39 yards on 13 carries.
Yes the “well if you discount the bad things and only leave the good things it looks good” point seems simple it’s because it is. This game was far, far, far closer to being a 40-point shutout win for Indiana than it was to being an Old Dominion victory or even a competitive game. At no point during Saturday’s contest were the Monarchs a serious threat to pull the upset.
If Indiana’s gonna have a game like this where it makes a litany of errors you’d prefer they go on tape in week one while they’re still correctable and the team is in the developing stage than, say, week 10 when Indiana should be a fully realized version of itself.
The play calling and design, especially in the redzone, left something to be desired, but I don’t think Indiana was wanting to reach too deep into its bag for Old Dominion. If there’s a true concern there, it’s the lack of push the Hoosiers were able to generate on offense in the redzone, but I’d wait to see if that’s a true pattern as opposed to a weird off day before coming to that conclusion.
Sarratt didn’t exactly dazzle, but the staff doesn’t need to see any sort of “prove it” performance out of him. They know what he can do. I’m not surprised the ball was spread around because, for one, that’s how Indiana’s offense is designed and, for another, they needed to see more from a guy like E.J. Williams, who led the team in catches.
The absolute bright spot (outside of that one pretty bad fumble) is Indiana’s ground game. The Hoosiers love stout, bruising backs that hit a defense like a strong safety, and Indiana’s trio of halfbacks were pretty excellent, with each getting an explosive run in that moved the chains.
If you take a second and look a bit deeper, this wasn’t all that bad. The season opener against FIU last year wasn’t all that pretty either. We know how that turned out. This is extremely not saying I expect Indiana to win 11 games again, but there was plenty of promise on Saturday.