Warren Says the Defense Needs to “Execute More Consistently”

Written by Matt Smith

The Hoosiers had a rough Saturday after a disappointing opener against Iowa that resulted in a 34-6 loss. On the defensive side of the ball Indiana did not play as well as defensive coordinator Charlton Warren would’ve liked.

However, they did do some things well, the group gave up 158 yards rushing with a third of that coming from a 56 yard rush from Tyler Goodson.

“The guys responded well, after being down 14-0, they came right back out and got  a three and out,” Warren said in his press conference on Monday. “You saw some sacks, you saw some takeaways.. I thought our guys did compete, they showed great effort. When they got down they didn’t change the way they operated.” 

Warren said they did cause some second and longs, and Iowa was 4/12 on third down. The issue was that there wasn’t consistent execution which allowed for the big plays.

Another bright spot from the defense over the weekend was the cornerbacks, who kept the receivers out of the game for the most part.

“I thought they did well, I thought I could’ve put them in more situations to play tighter man coverage, so I thought they played well,” Warren said.

According to the catch chart, the tight ends had the majority of the catches for the Hawkeyes. 

The biggest issue on the defensive side of the ball was the havoc stats, which includes takeaways, sacks, tackles for losses, etc.

“When you lose a football game, there is never enough of anything,” Warren said. “ From a havoc standpoint, our standard per game is 20% and in this game it was 19.5.”

There was a chance for the Hoosiers to hit their goal, because there were a bunch of missed opportunities, with tipped passes and not enough sacks.

“We control how much havoc we create, and no one else does, so we have to do better than that,” Warren said.

As far as the game against Idaho, the Hoosiers are a “match-up,” defense. They can be a big unit or a speed unit depending on the opponent.

The Hoosiers will look for better execution in what hopefully will be a tune up game this weekend.