Hopeless: Rutgers Grinds Down Hoosiers 31-14 in Homecoming Romp

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

On a gorgeous afternoon in Bloomington, the Indiana Hoosiers hosted the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a critical Homecoming contest. IU entered the contest at 2-4 and in desperate need of a victory to try and put the season and the Tom Allen era back on the tracks. Rutgers had other plans, using two critical special teams mistakes from IU and a dominant ground attack to grind out a comfortable 31-14 victory and earn bowl eligibility. The Hoosiers dropped to 2-5 with the defeat and there appear to be no answers on how to turn things around for Indiana football.

Indiana tabbed Brendan Sorsby as the starting quarterback and the Hoosiers began with the ball as Rutgers deferred to the second half. The offense quickly found rhythm with two first downs by Christian Turner and another to James Bomba. Rutgers forced IU into a fourth and seven on the 35-yard line. Sorsby evaded a free pass rusher and spun to the outside, lofting a pass to a wide-open Omar Cooper for a 35-yard touchdown. Indiana took nine plays to go 75 yards for the opening score. The Scarlet Knights responded with a methodical drive that also went 75 yards. Primarily pounding the ball on the ground, Rutgers took 15 plays on a drive that culminated in one-yard plunge for quarterback Gavin Wimsatt to tie the game. The Hoosiers got the ball back and the drive fell apart immediately with an offensive pass interference penalty called on Cam Camper. IU was forced to punt and disaster struck. Rutgers evaded the Indiana blockers and easily blocked the James Evans punt. The Scarlet Knights scooped up the ball and waltzed in for a touchdown to go ahead 14-7. The teams traded possessions with no success before Rutgers marched into IU territory with a grinding rushing attack. On fourth and two, Gavin Wimsatt tried to run up the middle for a first down but Louis Moore halted him short of the line to gain and gave Indiana the ball back in good field position with 5:23 remaining in the first half. A personal foul on Rutgers helped the Hoosiers get the drive going, Trent Howland moved it into the red zone with a nice run and Jaylin Lucas got the ball to the four-yard line. On first and goal, Brendan Sorsby kept it on a read option play and walked in untouched for the tying score. IU’s defense got a stop thanks to a sack by Nick James and Andre Carter and Tom Allen chose to call a timeout with around 30 seconds remaining. Rutgers punted to Jaylin Lucas but the sophomore muffed the punt and the Scarlet Knights recovered the ball with 28 seconds left. IU’s defense kept them out of the end zone but Rutgers took the lead on a short field goal as the teams headed to the locker room.

Rutgers kept the momentum to begin the second half, taking the ball and methodically moving down the field with the ground game again. After a personal foul on IU on the very first play of the second half, Rutgers again finished a drive with a short touchdown for Gavin Wimsatt. Whatever fight IU had left was gone as Rutgers squeezed Indiana’s offense and continued to chew the clock with its ground game. After another IU drive sputtered short of scoring territory, the Scarlet Knights effectively ended the game early in the fourth quarter. Gavin Wimsatt kept a read option play, beat IU defender Jordan Grier to the inside and galloped 81-yards for his third rushing touchdown of the day. With the score 31-14, the Hoosiers were unable to convert on a fourth down in Rutgers territory and the Scarlet Knights went to work on killing the clock with more running plays. Rutgers dominated the time of possession and hammered IU on the ground. The Scarlet Knights had the ball for 38 of the 60 minutes and outgained IU 276 to 153 in rushing yards. Trent Howland was a bright spot for the IU offense, rushing for 54 yards on just nine carries and showing some physicality. Brendan Sorsby went 15 for 31 for 126 yards to lead IU’s offense.

The Hoosiers now must go 4-1 over the last five games of the season in order to reach a bowl game. There are no reasons to believe Indiana can find a way to win even one Big Ten game but they’ll try again next Saturday in Happy Valley against Penn State.