Indiana Offense Continues to Do What It’s Done All-Season...Falter

Written by: Zach Greene (@zachegreene)

It was a rough way for the No.17 ranked pre-season team Indiana to end their season. Expectations for the season haven’t been anywhere close to where they wanted it to be all season. You can say what you want about injuries, coaches, and the schedule but at the end of the day the Hoosiers finished 2-10 and ended the season without a power five win.

It has been huge setback for the up-and-coming program. They will have to do a lot of evaluating and rethinking starting tomorrow. The first step should be to summarize what went wrong.  

We can go all the way back to the second play of the season when pre-season All Big Ten QB Michael Penix threw a pick six to an Iowa DB and from there on out the offense just hasn’t been the same.

We don’t see teams go from great to bad in a year. If you were to ask anyone how the Hoosiers would do this season, they would have said at least .500. This is the amazing thing about sports. Nothing is predictable and things can change... Fast

Today the offense only totaled a slim over 200 yards and one touchdown. They started the game looking solid and then took their foot off the gas pedal. It seems that Tom Allen's pre-game speeches work, but the players can’t take that energy and play with it all 60 minutes.

The Hoosiers totaled 58 rushing yards. It is tough to win a D1 Football game when you average less than 2 yards per carry. The unit played with minimal effort in the second half. After receiving the ball to start the second half, the Hoosiers hopes were up, but then a three and out took their hopes out, and then all hell broke loose. 

The Hoosiers were outscored 27-0 in the second half. It was practically unwatchable, and I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to watch. It was a disaster. I am sure the Hoosiers fans who made the journey to West Lafayette received a lot of trash talk after the game, and the only thing they could say back is that we are a “basketball school.”

The Hoosiers will not be hyped up for the rest of the off-season from here on out. I think this is exactly what this program needs. Before the season, the program was not used to so much attention and coverage, and I believe they handled it well off the field but not on the field.

Changes will be made. It will likely come on the offense side of the ball, but it is crucial to keep in mind that changes can never hurt, but they can't fix the problem.

Now let’s all take a seat and watch the rest of this unique college football season and forget and learn from this lost season.