Indiana @ Bowling Green: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Jason Spriggs and the Hoosiers leave Bowling Green, OH with a gut wrenching loss to the Falcons. Image Source: Hoosierstateofmind.com

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Hoosiers fell to the Falcons 45-42 in Bowling Green, OH. The offense and defense both did some nice things, but they also had some issues that need clearing up as well, and the special teams unit was downright ugly. So let’s get to breaking down the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Saturday’s loss.

The Good- Nate Sudfeld played great, as he threw for 347 yards and a touchdown while completing nearly 75 percent of his passes. He did nothing wrong today. Sudfeld spread the ball around to his playmakers as well, finding seven different Hoosier receivers. The seniors in the receiving corps led the way as Shane Wynn (10 catches 139 yards) and Nick Stoner (six catches for 59 yards) had big games, while true freshman J-Shun Harris (7 catches 68 yards) and Dominique Booth (1 catch 15 yards) handled playing on the road for the first time very well.

Tevin Coleman’s second half was outstanding as well as he found the end zone three times while running for 190 yards for the game. While the defense had a difficult second half they kept the Hoosiers in the game in the first half. They forced two turnovers and were flying around with a ton of energy early.

The Bad- The Hoosiers second half defense and team discipline took a nose dive in the second half as the Falcons scored 33 second half points, many of which were aided by IU’s 11 penalties. On multiple occasions the Hoosier defensive backs were called for absolute disastrous pass interference infractions. Coach Kevin Wilson and his staff cannot be pleased with the lack of discipline on defense.

The Ugly- The Indiana special teams were horrific today. Erich Toth had three punts for an average of 25.7 yards and Aaron Del Grosso missed his only field goal attempt. While many people brush aside special teams until a last second field goal is needed, the unit proved to be an undoing of sorts for the Hoosiers. Many times in the first half the IU defense was forced to defend a short field because of poor kicks. Adding to that was the fact that the offense had to go for it on fourth down when, if Mitch Ewald would still be booting the ball, it would be a field goal attempt. All of these aspects ended up putting points on the board for Bowling Green and taking points off for the Hoosiers. That is not a recipe for success at any level of football.