Ole Miss’s Up-Tempo Offense and IU’s Lack of Takeaways Doom Hoosiers

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss’s head coach and offensive guru, and quarterback Matt Corral wore out Indiana’s defense gashing the Hoosiers will huge plays, quick tempo and protecting the ball. It was no shock that Ole Miss’s offense was going to be really tough to stop, but for the Hoosiers to not record a takeaway and look beaten for the majority of the afternoon was surprising. While the Rebels only score 26 points, they torched the Hoosiers for 493 yards and 27 first downs.

Indiana used its blitzing 4-2-5 scheme to confuse opponents’ offenses this season and it did not accomplish that on Saturday. Much of that was due to the up-tempo pace of the Ole Miss offense.

“To me the tempo is really the hardest part.” Allen said after the game. “We rely so much on disguising things. It's hard to do that because you're just trying to get lined up to play a snap. You have to give them different looks, different things to be able to match up with them. Yeah, I just thought they were finding holes, going fast, and they do. Takeaways...They were trying to keep us from having chances to do that. There wasn't a lot of those. We had more opportunities in the first half I thought to get some of those. Some RPOs early on, hard to play the way we play.”

There were a few opportunities for the Hoosiers to get those takeaways early. Cornerback Reese Taylor jumped a screen route and had the ball glance off his hands and there were several passes batted up in the air, but the Hoosiers just did not create the opportunities they’re used to.

“Didn't make enough plays.” Allen said bluntly. “Talked to them about the turnovers that we had, the two that we had on offense,

none that we got on defense, minus two. That's how you win football games, creating those takeaways, being plus in that category.”

The Hoosiers had tied the game at 20 with under five minutes to play, but a personal foul set up Ole Miss with great starting field position. However, the Indiana defense had chances to still make stops. However, they didn’t. “That last drive is kind of the one.” Allen said. “Gosh, can't give that long pass play up. Just had a mistake there from one of our better players.”

The Hoosiers, who led the Big Ten in sacks, only got two sacks and just four tackles for loss.

The IU defense was the bedrock that the 2020 season was built on and Ole Miss showed the Hoosiers just how much further they have to go.