Indiana’s season-opening 27-14 win over Old Dominion was far from perfect, with red zone performance being among the primary issues last Saturday.
The Hoosiers visited the red zone pretty frequently, but had trouble getting into the endzone from there. Getting stuffed on the ground and a few passes that didn’t break Indiana’s way kept it from putting more points on the board and turning the game into a true blowout.
Asked about his team’s red zone performance, Curt Cignetti provided a fair amount of
insight. Here’s the full quote:
“First, when you get down there, you’ve got first and one at the 1. They jumped into a different front than they had shown the previous year, but still you’ve got to be able to gain a yard. We had a running back take the wrong footwork and the wrong course one time. We had a missed assignment up front one time. And two poor blocks. And then on the fourth-down pass, didn’t make the right read. And then got down there again and had two more missed assignments in the run game. Had to settle for a field goal. And we scored two touchdowns. Then we were really running the ball really well. We’re up 27-7. And, look, they were running the clock in the second quarter. End of the second quarter they were milking the clock. They were tired gassed on defense. We threw a pass on second and six, in it was incomplete. Puts us in a third and 6. And didn’t make a great call on third and 6. And then the last series, I thought that was pass interference on Sarratt. They didn’t call it. Sometimes the officials feel like the game’s over; they just want to get home. You’ve still gotta call them. So dropped a touchdown pass, overthrow a touchdown pass — wide open — and fumble going in. So really you could build a case that there’s 55 points minimum. I guess the difference between FIU and that game was we were much more consistent for 90 yards or 93 yards than we were last year. Last year we led the country in red-area touchdown percentage. But we’ve got to get better. Doesn’t matter what you did in the past, gotta get better now. So, that’s that.”
There’s plenty of new faces on the roster but enough continuity in personnel and scheme to think last Saturday’s performance was more of a fluke than anything. The Hoosiers will look to get back on track this Saturday at home against Kennesaw State.
