IU Opponent Recap – Week 7

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The Hoosiers lost in overtime to Michigan this week to fall to 3-3 on the 2017 season. Instead of going through each past opponents game, we’ll spend less time on the past and more time on the future opponents as IU needs three more victories to reach their third straight bowl game.

Previous Opponents

Ohio State 56 Nebraska 14

The Ohio State Buckeyes are hitting on all cylinders right now and they could have set the score against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln. They settled for a convincing 56-14 victory after being ahead 35-0 at halftime.

Virginia 20 North Carolina 14

IU’s second opponent, and first win of the season, is looking like more of a “quality win” with each passing week. The Virginia Cavaliers are now 5-1 and 2-0 in the ACC after they knocked off North Carolina 20-14. The Hoosiers remain UVA’s lone loss.

Georgia Southern 27 New Mexico 35

Georgia Southern faded late and fell to 0-5 with a 35-27 loss to New Mexico State. Penn State was on bye and preparing for their clash with Michigan this week.

Charleston Southern 7 Presbyterian 0

Charleston Southern improved to 3-3 with what I am sure was a thrilling 7-0 victory over the Presbyterian Blue Hose!

Future Opponents

Michigan State – 30 at Minnesota – 27

IU will be facing their fourth ranked team of the season as they travel to East Lansing to play the 18th ranked Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans led 23-6 after three quarters but saw their large lead slip away as Minnesota’s backup quarterback Demry Croft found some success connecting with emerging star Tyler Johnson (8 catches, 106 yards and three touchdowns). LJ Scott had a career-high 194 yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns to lead the offense and Madre London added 74 bruising yards on the ground. MSU relied heavily on toss sweeps that had their offensive line pulling and running over a weary and depleted Minnesota defense. The passing game continues to struggle for Michigan State but their physical play on both sides of the line of scrimmage will be a real test for the Hoosiers to try and withstand. MSU is now 5-1 and 3-0 in the Big Ten.

Maryland – 21 vs. Northwestern – 37

The vaunted duo of Ty Johnson and Lorenzo Harrison has been completely silenced the past two weeks and Maryland’s offense has been reduced to a one-man show. That one man is D.J. Moore and no one is good enough to beat a decent opponent by himself. Moore had 210 receiving yards on 12 catches with a pair of touchdowns but no other Terrapin had more than 18 yards and they only mustered 85 total rushing yards. Clayton Thorson wasn’t great for Northwestern but the combination of him and Justin Jackson’s 171 rushing yards was more than enough for the Wildcats to cruise to a 37-21 win that dropped Maryland to 3-3. Maryland now has a bye week and then travels to Wisconsin before hosting the Hoosiers on October 28. IU needs to find a way to split the next two road games and the game at College Park appears to be the more likely of the two to be a “W”.

Wisconsin – 17 vs. Purdue – 9

The score was not lopsided and the Boilermakers deserve credit for that but the numbers suggest a one-sided affair and the outcome never felt in doubt as the Wisconsin Badgers remained unbeaten (6-0) and dropped Purdue to (3-3). The Badgers continue to rely on freshman Jonathan Taylor and it is clear he is capable of handling the burden. He ran for 219 yards on 30 carries and helped Wisconsin amass 295 yards on the ground. Alex Hornibrook added 199 passing yards and Wisconsin outgained Purdue 494-221 and had the ball for nearly 40 minutes of the game. However, the Badgers turned the ball over three times. The turnovers prevented the score from reflecting the numbers. Wisconsin appears very likely to be 8-0 and ranked in the top five when they play the Hoosiers, making them the third top five team IU will have played in 2017. Purdue now travels to Rutgers before hosting both Nebraska and Illinois.

Illinois – 24 vs. Rutgers – 35

The Lovie Smith era is not looking likely to be a long and illustrious one. Illinois is now 2-4 (0-3) after losing to Rutgers in a largely non-competitive contest at home. Their best running back (Epstein) is out for the remainder of the season and Jeff George Jr. had two more interceptions and again struggled with accuracy. The Scarlet Knights relied on Gus Edwards (21 carries for 91 yards with two touchdowns) and the running game to grind out 274 yards on 5.8 yards per carry. Kyle Bolin was pulled from his starting duties and Rutgers turned back to Giovanni Rescigno. It likely doesn’t matter much either way as RU would prefer to run the ball 80% of their offensive snaps. It’s one-dimensional but it is more effective than anything Illinois does. These remain two teams the Hoosiers will need to get wins over.