COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana went down with its first loss of the season Saturday to Ohio State, 38-15.
It was a top five matchup and the first game that the Hoosiers have played this season against a ranked opponent. With a record of 10-1 Indiana left Columbus with its first tally in the losing column and a chip on its shoulder.
Traveling to any stadium is never an easy task but the Buckeye fans in “The Shoe” made sure that it would be one of Indiana's biggest challenges yet in the season. The noise was so loud that center Mike Katic was unable to hear and Indiana had to resort to snapping the ball based on que from the sideline — something that Ohio State picked up on and one of the many challenging situations Indiana faced.
Indiana came out with an extra jolt in their step to open up the game. The defense shoved the Buckeyes out of possession in three plays to start the game and then the offense complemented that by taking it down the field and scoring a touchdown via Ty Son Lawton. But that was all fans would see of Indiana's offense for about the rest of Saturday's game.
Throughout Saturday’s game, Indiana's pass game was nearly non-existent. Kurtis Roukre threw for 68 yards completing eight out of 18 passing attempts. Ohio State's defense was awfully successful at blitzing and taking him down for five sacks. The offensive line really struggled against this, giving Rourke very limited time to pass in the pocket, hurting a lot of offensive opportunities.
Receivers also faced pressure resulting in numerous dropped passes that held potential especially when the team needed it most. Indiana had limited success with its run game as well. Both touchdowns of the day did come from Latwon and paired with Justice Ellison they were the only two who were able to make any progression for an Indiana offense who just seemed to be stuck, especially in that south end zone area for a majority of the game.
Special teams also was a basket case of struggles for Indiana, arguably responsible for 14 of the points scored against the Hoosiers on Saturday. In the first half, IU punter James Evans fumbled a snap which gave the Buckeyes the ball deep in Indiana territory for an easy score. Then in the second half, Ohio State’s Caleb Downs returned a punt for a touchdown. Indiana made mistakes Saturday that it had not made all season.
However when Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti spoke to the media after the game he approached the podium in reasonable spirits.
“All good things come to an end,” Cignetti said.
Touching on the things that hurt their play in the matchup like lack of pass protection and communication, Cigentti mentioned that their lack of quarterback protection was what ignited the shift in the game early on.
“Every time we dropped back to pass, something bad happened,” Cignetti said.
And while it may not look flashy on paper, Indiana's defense did hold on and seemed to fall apart the least through Saturday's game, recording three tackles for loss and an interception by Jalin Walker the defense held Ohio State fairly well. Almost every player recorded at least one tackle recording 60 tackles to the Buckeyes’ 65.
“We’re gonna learn a lot from this, how to handle different things and adversity,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said.
With a lack of discipline and other factors like noise affecting Indiana’s game Saturday in a matchup that had many eyes on it, brings speculation to the ever circling question: Will they still make the College Football Playoff? Well that decision now lies with the committee and what they are looking for. However, when Cignetti was asked about it after the game his response was…blunt.
“Is that a serious question? I'm not even going to answer that. The answer is so obvious,” Cignetti said.
A follow up was asked saying that they should be in. Cignetti responded with a wink.
In a week Indiana will host in-state rival Purdue at home in Bloomington for its final regular season matchup.
