IU's Offense Explodes on a Record Setting Night in Bloomington

Written by Nick Gonzales

After a less than impressive performance last week against FIU, the Hoosiers decided to change it up and came out firing against Western Illinois. Last week against FIU, IU showed how talented their running backs are this season and continued to do so in Friday’s game while also showing how explosive their receivers can be.

If you’re familiar with how Indiana performed in the passing game last week, then you already know that a change needed to happen and quickly. Cignetti drilled it into his players all week about how disappointing the offense’s execution of plays was after Indiana went up 21-0 and was hoping to refine the offense for the following week. After their stellar performance tonight, Cignetti seemed fairly satisfied with the results of the game. 

“It was a good night. I was pleased that our team played with an edge and an attitude and at a high standard. The ones that I'm talking about didn't play down to the competition.” Cignetti stated in his post-game press conference Friday.

Besides the drives to conclude the first and the second half, Indiana scored on 10 of their 11 drives (and all of their scores were touchdowns). One of the key players who helped put on this spectacle for Hoosier fans was Kurtis Rourke. Rourke showed evident improvement Friday night compared to his week one performance against FIU.

Rourke started the game hot, capping off the first drive with a 38-yard laser to Andison Coby for the first touchdown of the game. Marching down the field for 68-yards and capping it off with a 38-yard touchdown has got to feel amazing for Kurtis after a week one performance where he completed 15 of 24 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown and recording a 42.7 QBR. Rourke showed no signs of that affecting him and got into a great rhythm early on.

After being up 14-0 with seven and a half minutes left in the first quarter, Rourke decided to sling it to Elijah Sarratt on the first play of the drive for a 71-yard touchdown reception. Sarratt did an outstanding job against the Leathernecks putting up 137 yards and a touchdown on 6 receptions. After the game in an interview Sarratt talked about how much he enjoys being a part of the Hoosiers and playing with a QB like Kurtis.

“Very fun. It’s always fun playing with him. I’ve never not had fun playing with him. You all saw it, he is on one right now, clicking on all cylinders.”

Rourke was indeed clicking on all cylinders Friday night and putting his talents on full display. His stat line for the night was 15 for 17 completions for 268 yards and 3 total touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) which accumulated to a 98.3 QBR.

You would think that a team that’s up 49-3 at the half would decide to rest their starters for the remainder of the game, but Cignetti had no such thoughts. After shutting down the Leathernecks’ drive at the start of the second half, running back transfer, Justice Ellison led the Hoosiers into the endzone with a 47-yard run — scoring his second touchdown of the game. Last week we got a heavy dose of Lawton and this week it was all about Justice who posted 117 yards and 2 TDs on his 9 carries.

Near the middle of the third quarter Cignetti decided to take out the majority of the starters and put in Tayven Jackson (3/3, 104 yds, 1 td) so he could get some playing time. Running a touchdown in for himself on his first drive, his second and final drive of the night consisted of a 69-yard pass for a touchdown to Omar Cooper Jr. (4 rec, 131 yds). Omar Cooper Jr. had one hell of a game for the Hoosiers, catching passes from both Rourke and Jackson. 

The whole night it was just one big play after another. The entire offense was playing their hearts out and since they were up so big, it gave them a chance to empty their bench. The Hoosiers broke two program records in their Friday night performance with the most points scored in a single game (77) and most total yardage in a single game (701). They also did a great job at eliminating unnecessary penalties and only had two penalties (only one offensive penalty) called against them compared to the nine they had last game.

IU plans to carry that momentum into next week when they travel to the historic Rose Bowl to face off against the UCLA Bruins.