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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

IU's defensive line needs to pressure opposing quarterbacks

Senior Ralph Green III and Junior Tegray Scales on the field Saturday at Memorial Stadium. IU lost to Wake Forest 33-29.

Mark Hagen said he knows Nile Sykes didn’t mean to do it.

The IU defensive line coach looked on at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the loss to Wake Forest as Sykes, a sophomore defensive lineman, was called for a face mask penalty that negated a sack that may have stalled a Wake Forest drive.

Hagen said the penalty was an awareness issue, but most of IU’s inability to consistently pressure the quarterback this season has not been.

“I look at our pass rush through three games, and we’ve left more sack opportunities out on the field than we’ve been able to execute,” Hagen said. “I really see our total as easily being doubled, if not more than that, just from doing things that we shouldn’t do.”

Through three games, IU has just five sacks, tied for the least amount so far in 2016 by a Big Ten squad. A successful pass rush is a team endeavor, but it starts up front. Two of IU’s sacks came from junior linebacker Tegray Scales, and one came from freshman cornerback A’Shon Riggins.

Just two came from defensive linemen.

Michigan State, in its past two games, has lost at home to Wisconsin 30-6 and beaten Notre Dame 36-28. The Spartans didn’t allow a sack against the Fighting Irish but suffered four against the Badgers.

Michigan State quarterback Tyler O’Connor threw one interception against Notre Dame and three against Wisconsin. IU defensive coordinator Tom Allen and his defense preach the importance of takeaways, and if Hagen’s group can wreak havoc up front, they may be more likely to come away with a couple.

Hagen said in order to get after the quarterback, the defensive line has to be better in one-on-one situations with offensive linemen.

“It boils down to a lot of want-to, and sometimes it’s not pretty, but it’s scrapping and clawing and not, you know, if you’re toe-to-toe with a guy they’re going to grab you,” Hagen said. “You’ve got to do a good job, a better job of either keeping hands off or getting them off and getting on an edge and making that guy move his feet.”

Sophomore defensive lineman Jacob Robinson agrees with Hagen. Robinson said he feels he is still leaving a lot out on the field and needs make whatever extra effort is necessary to make a play.

The defensive line focuses on getting after the quarterback, and they take it personally that they weren’t able to as much as they wanted against Wake Forest, Robinson said. In order to do so against the Spartans, the line needs to stay positive, he said.

“You can’t look down on the plays that we should have had,” Robinson said. “You can’t be negative about it. You’ve got to learn from it, obviously, and transition that into making that extra step to make that extra play.”

Hagen said the Demon Deacons caught the Hoosiers off guard with how much they passed on first down, and the Hoosiers must be better at reacting to play-action pass and getting around the edges.

There may still be a little bit of growing pains this early in the season, but Hagen said he wants his group to take the next step.

“I think anything right now is nothing more than excuse, and we just need to do better,” Hagen said.

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