Crunch Time: Hoosiers Host Terrapins in “Must Win” Contest

Written By: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

After three straight losses, the Indiana Hoosiers sit at 3-4 and their hopes of returning to a second straight bowl game are in danger of being dashed if they cannot wake up the offense and knock off the 5-2 Maryland Terrapins on Saturday at 3:30.  IU has a pair of games where they will be significant underdogs (Michigan and Penn State) and a pair of games where they will be favorites (Rutgers and Purdue) remaining on the schedule so the clash this Saturday against the surprising Terps serves a crucial “pivot point” in this season. A win keeps IU’s season on track heading to New Jersey to face the 2-6 Scarlet Knights. A loss means Indiana would need to pull off a major upset at some point if they are to return to the postseason.

The biggest issue facing the Hoosiers during this current losing stretch has been the surprising struggle of the offense. IU has not scored 30 points since September 10th against Ball State and they haven’t surpassed 22 points since their victory against Michigan State in the fourth game of the season. The two biggest problems have been the running game and the inability to convert scoring chances into touchdowns. IU dearly missed All-American right guard Dan Feeney as the running game was torpedoed and fell apart during his four-game absence. They averaged 3.6 yards per carry against Wake Forest, four yards per carry against Michigan State, 2.5 against Ohio State, 2.9 against Nebraska and 3.1 last week against Northwestern. That means they haven’t surpassed four yards per carry since the contest against Ball State. Dan Feeney returned last week but he wasn’t able to do anything more than light jogging for four weeks and he was clearly not his normal self. Maryland is allowing 192.4 rushing yards per game and they have allowed at least 4.8 yards per carry in each of the past three games. Kevin Wilson knows the Hoosiers have to figure out the run game if they are to be successful in any game the rest of the way.

“When you are one-dimensional, it’s easy to tee off on the quarterback. It’s easy to rush in the pocket,” Wilson said on Monday. “To me, it all goes back to the line of scrimmage play, tight end play and running back play. If you cannot run the ball for four weeks in a row, you are easy to defend.”

The run game will be critical because Maryland’s pass defense has been stingy, surrendering only 175 yards per game, good for the 13th fewest in the country. IU throws for 290 yards per game but they haven’t been particularly efficient and quarterback Richard Lagow struggled with accuracy last week, missing a number of throws that could have resulted in big gains.

The other issue for the offense has been a failure to convert scoring chances into touchdowns. Continuing a season-long issue, the Hoosiers left multiple points on the field against the Wildcats. They marched inside of the 30 yard line six times and scored a total of 12 points (two field goals and one touchdown with a missed two-point conversion). Scoring touchdowns on even half of those drives would have been enough to get the Hoosiers a huge win in Evanston. They’ll need to figure out how to solve that problem and begin finishing drives with touchdowns instead of disappointment.

On the other side of the ball, Maryland will look to hand the ball off to explosive running backs Ty Johnson and Lorenzo Harrison and use efficient play-action passes to move the ball on IU’s vastly improved defense. Harrison is averaging 7.7 yards per carry and Johnson is averaging 10.3 yards per carry and they both have runs this season of longer than 60 yards. Quarterback Perry Hills doesn’t typically throw downfield but he’s improved his accuracy on short and intermediate passes and he’s now completing 66.4% of his attempts and he’s thrown only two interceptions. 

“They are well-coached, play extremely hard and they are very confident. They do a tremendous job of establishing the run and they have a lot of weapons,” defensive coordinator Tom Allen said on Monday. “They stretch you horizontally and make you make tackles in space.”

Indiana’s schedule sets up in a way that makes this as close to a “must-win” game as possible if they are to achieve the goal of making back-to-back bowl games. The Hoosiers defense is playing well enough to make seven wins this season a reality but the offense needs to breakthrough and the time for things to come together on that side of the ball is up. The Hoosiers need to play a complete game on Saturday. If they don’t, their postseason hopes will be run over by a large turtle.