Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Lightning lit up the sky in Bloomington, delaying the kickoff of IU’s second game of the season by 35 minutes. A steady downpour made for adverse conditions on the field. A much-improved Idaho Vandals squad and a slew of miscues from the Hoosiers dug a 10-0 halftime hole for Tom Allen’s team. Despite all of that, the Hoosiers found answers in a very strong second half and pulled away for a 35-22 victory to move to 2-0 on the young season.

Idaho won the coin toss and elected to give IU the ball first. The Hoosiers got a nice run from Shaun Shivers for a first down but had to punt it away. James Evans pinned the Vandals at the five and Idaho quickly went three and out. The punt was a poor one and the Hoosiers had the ball in enemy territory at the 39-yard line. IU converted a short fourth down with a Shaun Shivers run but a penalty on Andison Coby stalled the drive and set up a 32-yard field goal. The weather possibly played a factor as Charles Campbell missed the kick wide. IU’s defense was dialed in and again forced a three and out that gave the Hoosiers the ball in Idaho territory once again. They advanced to the ten-yard line but were forced to try a 27-yard field goal that was missed but a penalty on Idaho gave IU another shot. The Hoosiers were unable to punch it in as Shivers was stuffed at the two-yard line. The Vandals went on their best drive of the day, getting a long pass play from Gevoni McCoy to Jermaine Jackson for 50 yards and scoring on a sweep to Jordan Dwyer. The 98-yard touchdown drive put Idaho up 7-0. On the ensuing possession Josh Henderson had a nice run but fumbled as he was falling. The ball was picked up by Idaho at the 45-yard line. The IU offense was completely out of sync as Connor Bazelak was consistently missing receivers and the running game was mostly ineffective. They went three and out and gave Idaho a shot to extend the lead. An attempted pass on fourth and one was intercepted and returned well into Idaho territory by Tiawan Mullen but pass interference was called on the Hoosiers. The pass was nowhere close to the intended target but the flag flew anyway. Idaho was able to get a field goal and take a 10-0 lead. The Hoosiers moved the ball but Connor Bazelak again sailed his receiver and his pass was intercepted, ending the first half.

The Hoosiers knew they had 30 minutes to change basically everything from the first half and they came out with a renewed fire and urgency, quickly forcing a three and out on Idaho’s opening possession of the second half as Dasan McCullough sacked McCoy to force the punt. Indiana took over at the 30-yard line and got things going with a 31-yard run by Shaun Shivers. DJ Matthews had a pair of very tough catches to set IU up inside the five-yard line and Donaven McCulley took over as a Wildcat quarterback and powered in for a four-yard touchdown to get IU on the board at 10-7. IU’s defense turned up the pressure on Idaho and the Vandals cracked. A bad snap rolled into the end zone, McCoy fell on it and IU had two more points to make it 10-9. Indiana began its next possession at the 35-yard line and got across midfield with a 19-yard pass to Cam Camper and then took the lead on a 41-yard touchdown pass to AJ Barner. The tight end bounced off three different defenders as he stormed into the end zone to put IU ahead 16-10. In just 6:19 seconds, Indiana had erased the sins of the first half and taken the lead. They would not stop there, forcing another three and out and scoring again on a 25-yard strike from Bazelak to DJ Matthews to make the score 23-10. Idaho knew the game was slipping away and tried going for it on fourth and eight. The attempt failed and the Hoosiers kept the ball on the ground with Josh Henderson driving in for a touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter to make it 29-10. The Hoosiers went for a two-point conversion but were unsuccessful. Idaho refused to go quietly, finally responding after 29 unanswered points from Indiana. The Vandals moved down the field methodically and scored on a well-designed pass to running back Roshaun Johnson. They also failed on a two-point conversion so the score was 29-16. Idaho tried an onside kick they did not recover and the Hoosiers took only one play to answer. Shaun Shivers exploded through a gap in the middle of the offensive line and galloped for a touchdown run of 46 yards. Another unsuccessful two-point conversion made the score 35-16. Idaho would keep fighting as IU’s defense broke down with a pair of missed tackles that let Michael Graves loose for a 71-yard score. You guessed it, Idaho went for two and failed so it was 35-22 with another unsuccessful onside kick giving the ball to IU with around five minutes remaining. The Hoosiers picked up a few first downs on the ground and killed the clock to finish the game.

After a disastrous first half, IU’s offense had a terrific response in the second 30 minutes. In total, the Hoosiers had 436 yards and were paced by 155 yards for Shaun Shivers on 20 carries. IU ran for 239 yards and a 6.6 yards per carry average. Connor Bazelak struggled with first half inaccuracy in the rain but finished 16 of 29 for 197 yards and two touchdowns. Idaho fought hard as freshman quarterback Gevoni McCoy was 13-23 for 204 yards with three touchdowns. Idaho finished with 330 yards but they could not stop the Hoosiers in the second half and the game finished 35-22.

Indiana will stay in Bloomington and host Western Kentucky next Saturday at noon. Hoosier Huddle will have extensive post game coverage of IU’s victory.

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