His defense gave up 45 points and allowed 571 yards of total offense in Saturday’s three-point loss to Bowling Green.
His Hoosiers couldn’t get off the field. IU was forced to defend 113 snaps.
After a promising start against Indiana State to open the season, the Hoosier defense couldn’t slow the Falcons’ up-tempo offense down.
The final blow came just before time expired. IU allowed Bowling Green to move the ball 88 yards with 12 plays over the final 2:04 to finalize a come-from-behind victory.
In the aftermath of the defeat, IU elected to not name a team Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
But at his weekly press conference Monday, Knorr’s message to fans and media alike was clear: no one is panicking just yet.
“I hope one-half of one game is not what people use to judge this defense,” Knorr said.
After a relatively successful first half that saw IU lead 14-12, the Hoosiers proved their transition into the 3-4 defense remains a work in progress.
In the second half alone, the Hoosiers allowed touchdowns on five of seven drives.
Bowling Green picked up 29 first downs with 63 plays in the final two quarters alone.
The Falcons routinely plucked away, consistently picking up medium chunks of yards. IU’s defense couldn’t get off the field to catch its breath throughout the entirety of the second half.
IU sophomore linebacker Marcus Oliver couldn’t put his finger on a specific reason for the disparity between the first and second halves.
He said the defense simply was not capitalizing on ?opportunities.
“I don’t want to say there was any reason,” Oliver said. “They didn’t really have explosive plays. They just kept getting us with little players here and there and just kept driving. When we had opportunities to kill the drive, we didn’t do it.”
IU Coach Kevin Wilson and first-year coach Knorr both agreed that IU needs to be more aggressive defensively like the new scheme is designed to allow.
Wilson stressed that his team has been making noticeable strides in practice, but said that the Hoosiers need to do a better job of showing those improvements on gamedays.
He joked that hearing and talking about practice weren’t what he wanted to do.
He even alluded to Allen Iverson’s infamous “We’re talking about practice” rant, saying the game is where the results matter.
The father of five went on to explain the struggles by comparing his team to his wife’s pregnancy.
“When everyone came to the hospital, they didn’t want to see my wife,” Wilson said. “They didn’t want to hear about how hard the labor was. They wanted to see the baby. Everyone comes to the game, they don’t care how hard we worked. They want to see us play.”
When he was asked what he would tell fans who have become increasingly frustrated with recurring defensive breakdowns, Knorr asked for more time.
“Let us keep building,” he said. “I believe we have the players that can be a good defense.”
The Hoosiers will look to put Saturday’s loss behind them quickly and move forward into another nonconference game before Big Ten season begins.
IU (1-1) will travel to ?Columbia, Mo., on Saturday for a 4 p.m. matchup against No. 18 Missouri (3-0).
The Tigers amounted 623 yards of total offense in a 45-28 win against IU in 2013.
Led by sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk, Missouri’s offense ranks No. 16 in the nation, averaging 490.8 yards per game.
Oliver said the defense is eager to get back onto the playing field. The Hoosiers have already moved on from last week’s struggles and are keen to return to form against Missouri this ?weekend.
“Bowling Green is behind us,” he said. “We’re just ready to take on this next challenge, this opportunity to go to Missouri and just prove people wrong.”
