Hoosiers’ defense faces harsh reality at Michigan
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Assistant Editor
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ryan Phillis is a positive thinker and believes the Indiana Hoosiers’ defense can turn things around in time to achieve special things this season. Even with the current state of affairs, Phillis insists fellow defenders are as much the optimist as he is.
Asked if this defense stopped believing in itself somewhere between being gashed by Michigan State (42 points) and Michigan (63 points) in consecutive weeks, the fourth-year junior insisted it never did.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I know so. We had busts. We kept grinding it out. It was a hard-fought game. No, we’re not down. We’re not down-and-out.”
You wouldn’t know by looking. This defense was shredded to its last man and last scheme on the biggest stage of the season, in the type of game that gave fans a true measure of where the team stands.
Given the disgraceful performance on one side of the ball, it’s fair to ask the question: Will this coaching staff ever have the answers that produce winning seasons?
Saturday afternoon’s debacle in Ann Arbor – in which the defense gave up nine plays of 20 or more yards and turned in perhaps the most shameful play of Kevin Wilson’s three-year tenure on Devin Gardner’s fourth-quarter 6-yard touchdown scramble – reinforced fears that Indiana is a lost cause because of a still-lost defense.
That unit just can’t hold its own against the top competition.
Even reliable parts felt apart in this 63-47 loss. Wilson may not micromanage this defense, but he is the boss and needs to be able to make adjustments.
When Michael Hunter is beaten in man coverage by Jeremy Gallon for a 21-yard touchdown pass, and then is in single coverage again on a critical 33-yard reception in the third quarter, it’s fair to ask whether Wilson – an offensive coach – was remiss in not making an adjustment.
“If we play two deep, they’re going to get 7, 8, 9 (yards) all day,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to load it up. My comment to the defense was, ‘Keep coming, keep blitzing.’”
In other words, Wilson felt Indiana’s run defense was so incompetent that he could not double team the guy who was in the process of setting a Big Ten record for receiving yards. Gallon dominated with an unthinkable 14 catches for 369 yards and two touchdowns. Wilson acknowledged those numbers are “ridiculous.” They are.
After the game, Michigan’s offensive players spoke as though they were competing against themselves, as if all factors were under their control. Gallon said he had no idea how he continually came wide open against Indiana’s basic alignments, and that the Wolverines’ offensive performance was the kind “you dream of.”
A few more stops at home against lesser opponents might help Indiana reach .500 in the Big Ten and secure a bowl berth, but Indiana will need much more than that if the downtrodden program is to ever compete with such traditional powers as Michigan and Ohio State.
Absolutely, the Wolverines executed at an extremely high level, and part of Saturday afternoon’s demolition was borne from their brilliance. The quarterback, Gardner, doesn’t go 21-of-29 for 503 yards and two touchdowns just because Indiana’s defensive backs missed assignments and blew coverages that safety Greg Heban – who served as a captain for this game – described as “embarrassing.”
Phillis, a lineman, found the bottom line when he said, “We just can’t give up that many points.”
For the majority of the game, what defenders were giving up was just about everything. The inconsistent Michigan offense reached a boil on its second series of the second half, Gardner hitting Gallon for 50 yards and the score with cornerback Tim Bennett in coverage. From there the Wolverines added four more touchdowns and 235 yards.
But nothing was worse than Gardner’s 6-yard improvised score. The Hoosiers had six defenders rush the line of scrimmage and Gardner backpedaled 11 yards before then basically trotting 17 for the score.
“Not keeping him in the pocket and getting outside contain,” said Heban, who was far from the play but was one of a litany of Hoosiers, on both sides of the ball, holding himself accountable in an honest session with reporters just outside the locker room. “Losing contain and making him get rushing yards is one thing we needed to improve on. We didn’t respond.”
Phillis expressed frustration with the Hoosiers’ inability to fix defensive woes, but conceded “we just have to move on now.”
Most of what moved on Saturday night was Michigan’s offense. Indiana sliced through the Wolverine D. And fell 16 points shy.
“We’re not getting closer, because at the end of the day, if you look at our season we’re winning high, when you’re going up and down you’re not getting any better, you’re staying the same, and this would have been a great game to come back up,” receiver Kofi Hughes said.
Instead, it was a setback. Same old, same old.
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: chrisgoff_ISL.
