Game Wrap and Reaction: Michigan 27 Indiana 20 OT
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(Photo: Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports)
Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Opponent: Michigan Wolverines
Location: Saturday October 14th, Bloomington, IN
Why They Played: The Hoosiers and Wolverines meet annually as Big Ten East foes.
What The Game Meant:
This was a chance for Indiana to break a few losing streaks (21 games vs. Michigan and a 6-game Homecoming skid).
Top Offensive Performers
Morgan Ellison, RB, Indiana- Ellison ran well against what is the best defense in the Big Ten, at lease statistically. The true freshman ran 14 times for 68 yards and a score. He averaged nearly five yards a carry and was IU’s best runner by a large margin.
Luke Timian, WR, Indiana-Michigan effectively took Simmie Cobbs out of the game with tight coverage, but Luke Timian stepped in and made play-after-play to keep IU’s offense moving. He made seven catches for 95 yards.
Karan Higdon, RB, Michigan-Higdon was Michigan’s offense running for a career-high 200 yards and three touchdowns.
Top Defensive Performers
Chase Dutra, Safety, Indiana-Dutra led all players with 13 tackles on Saturday and he was a force crashing down on the run from his safety position.
Jonathan Crawford, Safety, Indiana- Crawford has been putting together a very good season and Saturday was no different as the junior added nine tackles and a pass break-up.
Rashan Gary, DL, Michigan-Peyton Ramsey is going to feel the effects of playing Gary for a few more nights as the sophomore defensive lineman made seven tackles including a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss and two more quarterback hurries. IU had no answer for the future NFLer.
Maurice Hurst, DT, Michigan-Hurst was another monster in the middle for the Wolverines as he made six tackles and had a huge block on Griffin Oakes’ 51-yard field goal attempt.
Special Team Performance
Overall, Saturday’s special teams performance was great. However, before we get to the great part, IU still needs to do something about their kick return unit. DeVonte Williams ranks last in the conference in yards per return with 16.47 on 16 returns. Yesterday, he cost IU a ton of field position fielding a ball that would have landed out of bounds and had just 29 yards on three attempts. Head coach Tom Allen needs a change there because the Hoosiers cannot survive with that lack of production, especially with an offense that could use good starting field position. It’s now been one-and-a-half seasons of ineptitude on kick return.
Ok, now on to the good stuff. After getting a long 51-yard field goal blocked when Hurst ran through an IU lineman, Griffin Oakes was great. He hit a short field goal before halftime and a clutch 46-yard kick to force overtime as time expired. One has to hope that vanquished the ghosts of missed kicks past. Oakes also kicked all three of his kickoffs for touchbacks. Oakes and the kick team all pulled off a great on-side kick that was wrongly ruled out of bounds. It was a perfect kick and Simmie Cobbs raced down the sideline to grab it, but the officials ruled he bobbled the ball before stepping out of bounds.
Our match-up to watch this week featured both team’s punters and Haydon Whitehead was terrific averaging a net average of 43.6 yards per punt including pinning Michigan inside their own 20-yard line once on eight punts. He consistently put the defense in position to succeed after the offense would go three-and-out.
The biggest special teams play of the game was arguably J-Shun Harris’ 53-yard return that injected some life into the Hoosiers and sparked a 10-point fourth quarter comeback. [It’s great to see Harris back after missing most of two games and while he looked a little conservative early with fair catches, he was stellar and returned three punts for 74 yards.
Key Stat(s)
Minus-2
The Hoosiers lost the turnover battle 2-0 on Saturday and the lack of creating takeaways continues to haunt this defense. This is the third game of the season where Indiana failed to record a single takeaway.
Turning Point
There were many turning points in this battle, but the final one came omn the first play of overtime when it looked as if the Hoosier defense had stuffed Karan Higdon for a loss, but he bounced to the outside and scampered 25 yards for the game winning score.
I Knew it Was Over When…
When Peyton Ramsey started rolling to his left on the final play of the game. The play was dead as soon as it started.
Players of the Game
IU Special Teams-Outside of the lack of production from DeVonte Williams, this unit kept IU in the game all afternoon and gave it life with big plays late in the fourth quarter. IU will need this unit to continue to be a strength the rest of the season.
Karan Higdon, Michigan- The running back was the main reason Michigan survived this trip to Bloomington.
What I took away from the game
This was another game where Indiana was right there with a big boy of the Big Ten East but ultimately fell short. I firmly believe our site’s evaluation on Michigan is correct. Great defense, bad offense, but the outcome of the game was decided by the plays IU couldn’t make rather than the plays Michigan did make.
The Hoosiers fielded a kick that would have gone out of bounds at the 13-yard line, failed to create a takeaway from an offense that handed the ball to opponents like Chinese take-out menus in it’s first five games and finally, they failed to score on five plays inside the Michigan five-yard line in overtime.
Offensively, the Hoosiers are too predictable and conservative. Yes, they have a redshirt freshman quarterback starting, but they don’t utilize their best receiver, Simmie Cobbs, and underutilize their best running back, Morgan Ellison. Ellison averaged a healthy 4.9 yards per carry. We knew it wouldn’t be easy against Michigan’s defense, but it seemed like IU played like they were afraid of making the big mistake. Outside of a failed double-pass, the offense lacked anything that would catch Michigan off-balance.
Defensively, Indiana held Michigan to just 20 points and 57 passing yards, but failed to make the big play they needed to turn the tide of the game. Early on they missed tackles up front that led to long Michigan drives and could not record a takeaway. They played well after falling behind 13-0 and kept IU in it long enough to get the game into overtime.
One of the biggest gripes from Saturday is with Big Ten officials. It has become a Saturday tradition to see officials routinely screw the lower teams in the Big Ten when they are playing a traditional power. This manifested itself four times. First on a Simmie Cobbs 55-yard catch and run he was ruled that he was shoved out of bounds and never re-established himself in bounds. He was shoved while the ball was in the air and it should have been pass interference. Second, Rashard Fant had an interception called back because of pass interference where he was hand-fighting with a receiver and was ultimately a soft call. The third occasion came on a perfectly executed onside kick with about four minutes left where the referees made a call on the field of Simmie Cobbs being out of bounds before controlling the ball. After reviewing it, and replay clearly showed he had a foot in bounds and control, they upheld the ruling on the field. Finally, to top of the day officials missed an assault on Cobbs in the back of the end zone on the game’s final play. Cobbs was tackled by a defender before the ball hits a Michigan defender. Word like bias and corruption are rightly being thrown around and one has to wonder if the Big Ten is going to do anything about this embarrassment or they will continue to say these officials have it so tough working second jobs and staying up with the speed of the game. Tom Allen said all of the right things after the game, saying calls have to be earned and such. He’s not wrong, but the enforcement of basic rules shouldn’t have to be earned, a terrific batter or pitcher earning borderline strike and ball calls is earned, not assault in the back of the end zone that would’ve been illegal in NFL Blitz.
At the end of the day IU is now 3-3 heading into a pivotal two-game road swing starting with the upstart Michigan State Spartans. The Battle for the Old Brass Spittoon should be a good one if IU can make the plays it has to make, plays that, honestly, they should be able to make.