Opponent: Penn State Nittany Lions
Location: Beaver Stadium, State College, PA
Why They Played:
The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions have met annually since 2014.
What The Game Meant:
This was Indiana’s most difficult test left on paper in the regular season and it proved to be the toughest game to date. IU was on high “Upset Alert” as they trailed 24-20 with less than two minutes left. It turned into one of the legendary drives in IU Football history.
Heartwork Brewing Players of the Game
Offense
Charlie Becker, WR, Indiana
Everyone will be talking about Omar Cooper’s game winning catch, but sophomore Charlie Becker had a heck of a game filling in for the injured Elijah Sarrat. Becker made seven catches for 118 yards. Two of those catches could have been top 10 plays of the day.
Fernando Mendoza, QB, Indiana
Mendoza’s Heiman campaign looked as if it was going to take a hit after 58 minutes of game play. He threw a bad interception that led to Penn State’s go ahead touchdown. However, on IU’s final drive Mendoza may have had his ‘Heisman Moment’. He completed 6-9 passes for 80 yards with the touchdown on the final drive. On the day he was 19-30 for 218 yards and two total touchdowns.
Trebor Pena, WR, Penn State
Pena was Penn State’s best receiver finding seams in IU’s defense. He made six catches for 99 yards.
Nicolas Singleton, RB, Penn State
Singleton found the end zone three times for Penn State on Saturday. He hurt the Hoosiers running, receiving and in the return game. He had 143 all-purpose yards.
Defense
Aiden Fisher, LB, Indiana
Fisher returned to action after missing most of the last two contests. He had a big impact on the game recovering a fumble and intercepting a pass. Fisher totaled nine tackles.
Rolijah Hardy, LB, Indiana- Hardy was Indiana’s leading tackler with 12. He added a tackle for loss and sack to his total today.
Dom DeLuca, LB Penn State- DeLuca disrupted the Hoosier offense early and his absence on the final drive proved costly. DeLuca finished with three tackles and two tackles for loss.
Special Teams Performance
Today was the first time IU felt the absence of Brendan Franke. The Hoosiers let up a 32-yard return to Nicolas Singleton and that led to a squib kick, a pop up kick, a kick out of bounds and a terrible squib kick after IU retook the lead. Quinn Warren had done a great job filling in, but today he was not great.
Punter Mitch McCarthy got his most work all season on Saturday and he looked rusty. With multiple chances to either flip the field or pin Penn State deep he failed. He finished with a 40.5 average on four punts.
Nicolas Radicic hit both his field goals and continued his assault on the IU record book.
Key Stat(s)
2 Feet
Omar Cooper got two feet in bound on his game winning touchdown catch with 36 seconds left in the game.
Turning Point:
There were so many turning points and the final one came on Cooper’s catch, but the tide started to turn when Indiana failed to put Penn State away when they settled for a field goal instead of a touchdown off Aiden Fisher’s interception to start the second half.
I Knew it Was Over When…
Penn State’s final heave fell incomplete.
What I take away From the Game
Indiana is 10-0 and that is all that counts. They got Penn State’s best shot and it nearly knocked them out, but a Heisman caliber final drive from Fernando Mendoza and two mind blowing catches revived IU.
The Hoosiers did not play their ‘A’ and the Hoosier coaches did not coach their ‘A’ game either. IU’s offense was out of rhythm from the start and really could not get Mendoza in rhythm really until the final drive. IU scored 10 points off of Penn State turnovers and used a 52-yard strike to Charlie Becker to set up an 18-yard Mendoza run for a score. The offensive line struggled to keep the pressure off Mendoza and surrendered eight tackles for loss that cost the Hoosiers 29 yards. Now, IU started redshirt freshman Adedmola Ajani his first career game at left guard and tackle Kahlil Benson looked hampered with an ankle injury.
The Hoosiers had a chance to really put the Nittany Lions away with an interception on the second play of the second half. A touchdown would have put IU up 24-7 and likely gets the PSU faithful to head back to their tailgates. Instead IU settled for a field goal and let the Nittany Lions off the hook.
The defense allowed seven big chunk plays from the Nittany Lions, six of them in the passing game. Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer had plenty of time to find open receivers against IU’s zone defense most of the day.
There were substitution issues, poor clock management and just a general lack of aggressiveness on offense.
The bottom line is IU should have put this Nittany Lions team away early and when you give a talented, but under performing team life, they can be scary. Penn State got real scary. A win is a win and that final drive will go down in IU history as one of the greatest, but IU has a lot to clean up if they want to make the Playoff run IU fans are rooting for.
What’s Next
IU is 10-0 and host Wisconsin at noon in Bloomington in the final regular season home game for this senior class.