IU lined up at the two-yard line, needing a touchdown to tie No. 14 Michigan at 48 and force a third overtime.
With Michigan fans chanting “Let’s go, Blue” and Indiana fans responding with boos, the game hinged on this final play. A force field of two yards stood between IU and the long-awaited Big Ten upset the team had been flirting with all season.
Senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld took the snap out of the shotgun, looked to his right and fired the ball to the waiting hands of junior receiver Mitchell Paige.
“I saw the quarterback look over to the slot, he had what he wanted — had the matchup he wanted on Delano Hill,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Very athletic quick guy in the slot there, very maneuverable, but Delano really competed for the ball throughout the catch.”
Paige was met by Michigan safety Delano Hill, who awkwardly grabbed the receiver and lodged the ball from his hands, sending the ball and IU’s hopes for an upset to the ground.
Paige fell to the ground with his hands on his helmet as the Hoosiers lost the game, 48-41.
“He made a good play,” Paige said. “I had the ball, ran a decent route. Suddy put it right on me. I just gotta make the play.”
The double overtime showdown with the Wolverines seemed like the game where the Hoosiers would “make it over the hump” as IU coaches and players have put it all season, after the team took several Big Ten East teams — top-15 teams — into the fourth quarter with a lead.
Then-No. 1 Ohio State, then-No. 7 Michigan State and then-No. 10 Iowa were all teams IU played competitively through the fourth quarter.
These are also teams that don’t typically find themselves in competitive, four-quarter games.
“I really don’t like to lose at all,” Paige said. “All of them are kind of tough for me, but taking it into overtime, being right there against such a good team. There’s really good players over there, and we went toe-to-toe with them like we do every week. We just came up short again.”
And no other time had IU dangled a touchdown lead above its opponent in the last three minutes of the game like it did against Michigan with 2:52 left in regulation.
And no other time had IU had the lead during the final play.
Michigan drove 2:50 down the field, where it faced a fourth-and-goal and quarterback Jake Rudock threw a line-drive pass to receiver Amara Darboh for a touchdown to send the game into overtime.
The Hoosiers took the ball to begin overtime and junior running back Jordan Howard scored the second of his two touchdowns to put IU up by a touchdown once again, 41-34.
With the IU defense allowing just 60 rushing yards in the second half and finding pressure on Rudock, the game seemed nearly finished, but two consecutive blown coverages allowed Michigan to flip the switch and take a touchdown lead on IU, 48-41, where it would stay.
Whe n he was asked what it would take to get “over that hump,” Paige said it came down to making the few plays when it matters most.
“Plays like the one I didn’t make,” he said. “We gotta make those plays. When you’re playing great teams like Michigan, it comes down to just a couple plays where it’s important going this way and important going that way.”
The Hoosiers saw their record fall from 4-0 — the best start in 25 years — to 4-6 after six Big Ten losses, four of which finished within an 8-point deficit.
Now IU will need to win its final two road games against Maryland and Purdue to become eligible for a bowl game.
But even with six consecutive losses on their resume and two must-win games looming in the coming weeks, Paige said he believes the 2015 Hoosiers will be a bookmark in the program’s history books.
“I felt, for whatever reason, that today was going to be different,” he said. “We’re tired of losing. This is the group. This group that we have, we’re going to change the program. You gotta start winning games like that. I thought that was going to be the one.”
