Indiana football absolutely dominated Illinois during a 63-10 win on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
The Hoosier defense kept the Illini from getting anything going offensively while Fernando Mendoza took advantage of a depleted defense with score after score through the air.
Here’s three major observations:
The Hoosier defensive line
Indiana’s defensive line entered the 2025 season with questions rather than real concerns. CJ West played a massive role in the success of 2024, ultimately getting selected by
the San Francisco 49ers in this past NFL Draft.
The Hoosiers still had impact players like Tyrique Tucker, Mario Landino was set to battle for a role, Mikail Kamara elected to return rather than go pro and the staff added portal talent like Hosea Wheeler and Dominique Ratcliff. Could Indiana once again find a way to succeed against power five offensive lines with a defensive front built largely of players who’d either played at or been recruited to the Group of Five level?
Well, yes. It certainly seems so.
The eye test really tells the story on this one. The Illini were so thoroughly outmatched in the trenches from the beginning of the game that it was difficult to see any path to victory that didn’t involve a series of Hoosier mistakes that’d make Benny Hill blush.
Luke Altmyer had no time to throw and usually ended up in the turf. The Illini running backs had nowhere to go with the ball.
Here’s a handful of stats in case the visual wasn’t enough. Indiana compiled seven (7) sacks and ten (10) tackles for loss while holding Illinois to two (2) rushing yards. Two.
This is a Bret Bielema team. He understands the need to run the ball in this conference more than most. You can attribute that comical number to the equally comical amount of sacks the Hoosiers got, but it’s crazy either way you slice it. Illinois was forced to pass in a doomed attempt to get back into the game and, well, seven sacks.
Utter dominance.
Fernando Mendoza
Mendoza was operating at a different level on Saturday night, the kind that probably hasn’t been seen from an Indiana quarterback since leather helmets were the norm.
Completing 91% of 23 passes for 267 yards and five touchdowns is the sort of thing you do in a video game with the settings and sliders turned all the way down or with the other controller in the hands of your younger sibling. Not against a top-10 team’s defense.
Was Mendoza aided by the fact that Illinois suffered a series of injures to its defensive backfield and an ejection following a targeting call? Definitely and it’s important context for this performance. But that doesn’t account for the throws he was able to get off under pressure and multiple perfectly-placed balls he threw on Saturday night.
Circumstances can set the stage for a performance like this, but it’s still on the players to deliver and take advantage. Mendoza (who’s currently the Heisman favorite, by the way) did and did so masterfully.
That one mistake
I think it’s worth talking about this.
A busted coverage in Indiana’s secondary led to Illinois’ lone touchdown on the night, a long ball from Altmyer to Collin Dixon:
D’Angelo Ponds thought he had some assurance at safety here and could rotate over to the crosser. Turns out he didn’t and Altmyer, an experienced quarterback, spotted it quickly and made Indiana’s defense pay.
There’s a few reasons I think this play is worth revisiting. For one, Illinois’ one touchdown was the result of a busted play rather than any actual advantage over the Indiana defense. Aside from that, this was just about the only big whiff Indiana had all night.
The Hoosiers played some pretty mistake-free football from here on out. I wouldn’t really count those dropped picks because they were at worst pass deflections. The defense stayed firm and didn’t get rattled at all. They kept playing their game like nothing happened. That’s a mentally stout team.
