Sudfeld bemoans off night for offense
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – While the Hoosiers’ defense will again fall under the microscope for its pitfalls in Saturday’s 45-28 loss to Missouri, Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld said the normally explosive offense deserves plenty of blame also.
“I didn’t think we played well as an offense,” Sudfeld said. “It’s a little disappointing. It’s not a good feeling. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I was maybe a little antsy. I never really got settled. I wasn’t on top of my game. We started off decently. We were never able to have a consistent drive. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot, whether it was a penalty or me making a bad throw or something.”
The Tigers dominated time of possession, controlling the ball for 36:45, limiting Indiana to only 20 offensive plays in its first four series while Missouri built a 14-0 advantage in the first quarter. Sudfeld conceded that standing around on the sideline and falling behind was frustrating, but said it was his responsibility not to press the issue when the offense did get back on the field.
“I don’t think we played as bad as the score,” Sudfeld said. “When we would drive, we would get shut down. That’s a very good football team over there. Missouri really came to play. They’re really athletic and sound on defense. But I think it was more us stopping us than them stopping us. We fought through the whole game.
“There were a lot of situations we can see how we can do better. Some things are correctable that we can fix. I maybe held the ball too much. I can’t afford to be that way.”
Sudfeld said there is no quarterback controversy and he expects to share snaps with Tre Roberson against Penn State, but admitted that coach Kevin Wilson is obligated to ride the hot hand. On this night, that meant substituting Roberson early in the third quarter as Sudfeld struggled. As Sudfeld summed it up, “Whoever has the better week of practice, as long as this team wins, (even) if I didn’t play well, we’re excited. Since we didn’t, we don’t like the feeling.”
