Despite Hoosiers’ loss, all is not lost
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Assistant Editor
You saw the inconsistency of the Indiana Hoosiers and their inability to win Big Ten games on the road. You saw a team that prides itself on mastering offensive timing and pace unable to keep a drive alive when it mattered most. And you’re frustrated with a defense that still gives up big plays far too easily.
Feel free to vent a little. The Hoosiers will be hard on themselves after a 42-28 road loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday that was – putting it mildly – an effort which left a lot to be desired.
Mental errors. Questionable coaching decisions. A team that failed to make tackles in key moments. Shaky quarterback play. It all conspired to leave the Hoosiers (3-3) with season lows in total offense, yards passing and yards rushing while matching a season-worst point total.
While seeing yet another opponent run wild and Nate Sudfeld factor heavily as a reason for the defeat are concerning developments, what unfolded Saturday at Spartan Stadium was not all that meaningful in the grand scheme of things. This was the first away date, which is always a sign of trouble, and we’ll touch on what went wrong in a bit.
But let’s start by taking stock of where Kevin Wilson has the program.
Once a team that got hit early, laid down and struggled to feign competence, they were competitive for the majority of the game Saturday, and no point of comparison illustrates that more than Indiana’s previous visit to East Lansing. The Hoosiers lost 55-3 and did virtually nothing right that day, letting Michigan State take a 34-3 lead with 48 seconds left in the first half.
At 1-10 with no conference victories, and with one game remaining, Wilson was staring at rock bottom. Ugly.
Less than two years later, the Hoosiers have reasonable talent on the roster, a signature victory over Penn State and an outside chance to finish above .500 for the second time since 1994. The best-case scenario for 2013, however, essentially is playing in a bowl game, something Indiana has done nine times in school history.
Wilson can take solace in the fact that the loss to Michigan State doesn’t put the Hoosiers in much of a tougher spot. It still comes down to taking care of business at home against three winnable opponents: Minnesota, Illinois and Purdue.
At 5-1, the Spartans are a good team with a great defense, but Indiana had moments of success. Tevin Coleman, with help from devastating blocks by his offensive line and center Collin Rahrig in particular, unleashed a 64-yard touchdown run. Cody Latimer outmaneuvered an All-America caliber cornerback for a scoring catch on third-and-goal. Shane Wynn tried to trigger momentum on one second-half series by taking a pass 53 yards and a lateral 2 yards to the end zone to make it a one-possession game.
Why get too upset? On the road in a raucous environment, the Hoosiers could have played better, but were underdogs for good reason.
“We’ve been pretty good throughout the year,” said Wilson, always one to take responsibility and avoid spin. “There’s always going to be a glitch or two along the way. You’re playing a pretty good prize fighter. They played pretty good today. That’s a program I respect. We’re going to keep rolling. Our guys competed, kind of battled toe to toe. I felt this game as much as any game, ‘Man, we’re close.’ The 28 points is the most they’ve given up in two years.”
The Spartans, who converted 10 times in 14 attempts on third down, looked even better because Indiana didn’t play smart.
Sudfeld, piloting a pass-first attack that basically abandoned the run (53 drop-backs versus 20 rushes) – what happened to balance? – was 14-of-30 despite entering the game having completed 63.5 percent of 244 career pass attempts.
And Wilson, who’s made a living organizing offenses for most of the past 26 years, found himself unable to pull the trigger on a quarterback switch he should have made at intermission instead of at the end of the contest. Tre Roberson was a temporary substitution midway through the second quarter. The Hoosiers trailed 14-7 and had just been handed a gift when the Spartans fumbled a punt, giving the ball back to Indiana at the Michigan State 41-yard line with 6:04 left.
Immediately Roberson looked more confident, decisive and accurate. He zipped a 15-yard pass to Isaiah Roundtree, drilled another into Latimer for a gain of 17 and finally beat star Spartans corner Darqueze Dennard with a perfectly placed touchdown throw. Yet that was the last we saw of Roberson until the Hoosiers trailed 42-21. By then, it was too late.
“We stopped ourselves more than they stopped us,” said Sudfeld, who started for the fourth game in a row, with Roberson playing a little each time. “We just weren’t in sync. We were a hair off on some deep balls that usually are our bread and butter. I missed throws that were there.”
Yes, this game revealed a fundamental truth; the Hoosiers have glaring holes on defense. Coaching looks so simple when all the other team has to do in a key situation is say, “Let’s stop messing around, just hand it off and make this happen.”
Not that the secondary is impenetrable. Indiana’s defense put the Spartans in a third-and-11 just outside of field goal range early in the third quarter. Down 21-14, it was a chance for the Hoosiers to get a stop, take the ball and score to level things. Instead, Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook found tight end Josiah Price completely uncovered over the middle. Price’s 39-yard catch-and-run put the ball at the 5. Two plays later, Michigan State had a two-possession lead.
But really, the Hoosiers know this game, in the big picture, isn’t one to lose sleep over.
“We just need to play better and work on some things,” Latimer said of Saturday’s game, composed, shoulder-shrug sentiment mostly echoed by teammates.
Those “some things” are not quite as daunting as the ones the Hoosiers dealt with in the past, and the players do sound convinced in their ability to regroup. After the Penn State game, so many expressed belief. One game cannot undo that confidence.
“We just need to learn from it, just look at it on film and try to get better,” said cornerback Tim Bennett, one of the team’s captains Saturday. “We can’t harp on it now. We just have to keep fighting.”
“We try to keep our spirits high,” safety Greg Heban added. “We’ve just got to execute as players. Coaches did a good job putting us where we need to be.”
As bad as it got at times, they still had plenty of opportunities, and just as Wilson talks about keeping the team on schedule, the biggest ones remain within reach.
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: chrisgoff_ISL.
