Tobi Osunsanmi Speaks on the Current State of the Indiana Defensive Line

Indiana’s defense had its first real challenge of the season against a worthy opponent in Northwestern. In this game, Indiana’s defense won the first-half battle but surrendered 23 points to Northwestern in the second half.

The defensive line is seen as the deepest and best unit on this Indiana football team, but they struggled with Northwestern quarterback Aiden Chiles. Chiles was sacked four times, but it could’ve been more, especially in the second half. Indiana pass rusher Tobi Osunsanmi had this to say about the Indiana defense directly after its 29-23 victory over Northwestern.

“I know a lot of sacks were missed,” Osunsanmi said. “Just by not getting to the high shoulder of the quarterback. I know I missed a couple just by not wrapping them up all the way… I mean, that’s fatigue, that’s everything, but we can’t let fatigue affect us if we want to be a top team”.

There definitely was a level of fatigue to what happened to the defense, but fatigue cannot be the only answer. The truth is, a lot of credit needs to be given to Northwestern, specifically Aiden Chiles and tight end Luke Dehnicke. While these players had great games, IU knew that this game wasn’t up to the standard they have set.

Moving on from the Northwestern game, last night the media got to speak to Osunsanmi once again.

“Whenever we limit our mistakes and limit kind of our brain farts on the D line, I feel like we really get after the quarterback; we really get after the run game,” Osunsanmi said. “So, I feel like that’s the goal moving forward”.

This defensive line knows their talent and how good they can be. Now the only question will be if they can clean up their mistakes. Now the Indiana defense is looking ahead to its matchup against Rutgers.

“Just being physical and being fast,” Osunsanmi said. “Making fast decisions. We have really good linebackers that are behind us to make us right with whatever we do. So that’s really the goal of this game”.

Indiana will be able to do this by battling its complacency. That was a big deal within the program this offseason, and that same approach is being taken into the regular season. This all comes from the coaches.

“I feel like it starts at practice,” Osunsanmi said. “A lot of the times I’m feel like the intensity at practice is the same type of intensity in the game. Regarding coaching there’s going to be like a lot of emotions, a lot of yelling at practice, but that’s good. So, the first time you hear it isn’t during the game, but it’s throughout the week, so you get better that way”.

IU knows that they need to have the next-play mentality and never feel comfortable in a game as well. If you make a bad play, move on, but also if you make a good play, move on and do it again. Indiana’s defense will get the opportunity to improve on the road at Rutgers on Saturday at 8 p.m.