Indiana Unable to Get Anything to Work Against Iowa

Doug McSchooler, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Written By Lauralys Shallow

Indiana got trounced at home, losing 42-16 to Iowa. Indiana struggled in all three phases: offense, defense and special teams. After taking an early 3-0 lead, IU was unable to do anything offensively and the defense looked flat and undisciplined for the bulk of the game.  The defense was unable to get off the field and the offense was unable to get anything going, and we are going to take a closer look at why.

Penalties:

Indiana had 10 penalties for 99 yards total on the game. In Iowa’s opening drive, it felt like the IU defense was getting called for a penalty nearly every other play. The Indiana defense committed three penalties on the its first drive: pass interference, defensive holding and unsportsmanlike conduct. Iowa jumped to a 7-3 lead on a drive that was created by mostly defensive penalties. Furthermore, IU was given a sideline warning and Head Coach Allen was called for unsportsmanlike conduct late in the second quarter. Heading into halftime, IU had more unsportsmanlike penalties (2) than it did touchdowns (1). Indiana was flagged six times for 65 yards in the first half alone, and the defense looked unprepared and the coaching staff seemed rattled.  

Getting Pressure:

The defensive line and backs struggled with rushing the quarterback and stuffing the rush. Indiana was getting owned up front early in the game, which was part of the reason why Iowa jumped out to a 21-10 lead. Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley had plenty of time to stand in the pocket and make accurate throws, and he was able to make throws on the run accurately when Indiana flushed him out of the pocket. On Iowa’s second touchdown to go up 14-3, Iowa was in a 3rd and long when Marcelino Ball blitzed untouched and had a wide open shot to sack Stanley in the backfield, but Ball missed and Stanley rolled to his right and found Fant for the 28-yard score. Indiana struggled to put any pressure on Stanley and when they did get pressure, they could not  get him down in the backfield and disrupt his throwing motion.  

Secondary Struggles:

Nate Stanley lit up the field, throwing for 320 yards and 6 touchdowns. A key matchup coming into this game was how the Indiana defense would matchup against Iowa’s daunting tight end tandem of Noah Fant and TJ Hockenson. Fant and Hockenson tore up the Indiana defensive secondary, combining for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns. Both tight ends were averaging over 25 yards per catch–Hockenson averaged 26.8 and Fant averaged 25.3. Most of Indiana’s secondary struggles had to do with a lack of discipline and that lack of discipline manifested into missing tackles. Hockenson had a 54-yard touchdown in the third, and Juan Burgess missed a tackle on his explosive scoring play. Too many times throughout the game, Indiana missed open field tackles, which allowed too many extra yards and gave Iowa the chance to open up the game and put it out of reach early in the second half.

Ramsey’s struggles:

Peyton Ramsey missed open receivers and struggled to get the offense in a rhythm. While the play calling was not great either, Ramsey was not putting the ball were it needed to be. For example, in the second quarter IU was in a 4th & 1 and driving until Ramsey missed a wide open Hendershot over the middle and threw an incomplete pass to Harris who had three receivers on him. Later in the game, Indiana put together a solid drive and found itself in a 1st & goal on the Iowa 6-yard line. The next play, Ramsey threw an interception in the end zone and ended what (little) hope IU had of climbing back into the game. Later on in the fourth, Ramsey threw another interception in the end zone, making it two red zone interceptions on the day for Ramsey. When IU needed to move the chains, it would go three and out, and when IU put together a drive, it was unable to get any points to show for it.

Home(coming) Sickness:

The Hoosiers haven’t won a homecoming game since 2010 and this year the team and department did themselves no favors. IU chose to have this game played at noon and continued the baffling “tradition” of picking good teams as their homecoming opponent. Noon games are poorly attended and continuing to lose game on the day where the most alumni are on campus just fuels their notion that IU stinks and will always stink.

Off the field Indiana has priced out fans and have totally bungled tailgating. People are not going to continue to pay $70 a seat to see their team get hammered. The in-game entertainment is a joke and Indiana seems to deliver the punchline to themselves. For example, the ‘Oblivious Cam’, meant to be funny, looks for fans not paying attention. IU already has enough people laughing at the football program, they don’t need to laugh at themselves. The department needs to look at their game day ops department very closely in the offseason.