Indiana Offensive Keys to the Game: Maryland

Written By: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Indiana’s first loss this season was full of offensive storylines. On one hand, Michael Penix and his receivers, especially Ty Fryfogle, packed the box score with career-best performances. On the other hand, the Hoosiers failed to establish any semblance of a run game and dug themselves into a large hole that was ultimately insurmountable, despite a dominant second half.

The challenge should be a bit smaller this week: Indiana is back at home and get to face a Maryland team that has been on pause for two weeks rather than Ohio State. Nonetheless, the offense will still need to bring their best. Here’s three keys for the Hoosiers to get back into the win column this week.

Start Better

Despite a couple first half forced turnovers by the defense last week, the Indiana offense was unable to convert opportunities into scoring drives. When all was said and done, the Hoosiers were staring down a 28-7 deficit at halftime – a deficit that had only grown to 35-7 by the time Indiana saw the ball in the second half. This is a lot to ask of an offense trying to catch up, or a defense trying not to allow the hole to be dug any deeper. This week against Maryland, the offense should focus on getting off to a better start.

“You just cannot do that when you are going against this type of team,” said Coach Allen. “We are getting the focus with the plan that we need to be able to generate some of those drive starters, per se, on the offensive side of the football…To me, that is really where it starts in my mind, to be able to create more of those opportunities to stay on the field with more manageable third downs.”

“Certainly, we are trying to start faster than we have,” noted offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan yesterday. “Some of it is play design, that is my job. Some of it is execution, which is also my job. Making sure that our players can execute well early.”

Dare I Say… Balance?

With five games worth of data now to evaluate, it’s beginning to become apparent that Indiana simply doesn’t have a good enough offensive line this year to consistently run the ball well. Stevie Scott and Sampson James combined for 10 carries but just 16 yards on Saturday, and the team overall finished with -1 rushing yards. A lot of this can be credited to the play of Ohio State’s defensive front seven, but the Hoosiers really haven’t been great at running the ball at all this season until the fourth quarter when they’re just trying to run clock.

All that considered, it would still be nice to see some balance going forward out of this Indiana offense. Penix has been great, but he could be even greater with defenses forced to respect the run game as well. Even if it’s just swing passes to the running backs out of the backfield, enough balance to not rely on explosive plays or long third-down conversions would go a long way for the sustainability of this offense.

“I told the offensive staff yesterday principles are set in stone, but methods are not,” said Sheridan. “Are there things that we feel like we can do schematically, formationally, whatever it may be to be more creative to create better angles and leverages for our players so that we can have a better run game than we did on Saturday? Then we are open to that, and we are exploring any and all options. You want to be able to control the game, you have to have a run game to do that.”

Eliminate the Drops

Penix finished Saturday’s Ohio State game with nearly 500 yards passing – an incredible accomplishment, and one of only a handful of performances ever allowed by an Ohio State Buckeyes team. That being said, it could have been even better. A Ty Fryfogle drop on a critical fourth down in the first half and a David Ellis drop one play before Penix threw his lone interception of the day stand out as game changing plays that easily could have been avoided had the receivers not dropped catchable passes. Drops are drive killers, and as hit or miss as this offense has been, it needs to avoid drive killing drops and play its best football for an entire game.

“Did not play four quarters of our best football and cannot do that against a team of Ohio State's caliber and talent and coaching,” Allen opened the interview by saying.