Hoosiers hope to bounce back from bad loss

The Hoosiers hope to snap their two game losing streak and break out of their recent offensive funk when they take on Northwestern at 12:10 p.m. in Evanston, Ill. Both teams are coming off big losses last week.\nIU (3-5, 1-3) lost an ugly game to Illinois last Saturday on the road. The Hoosiers are winless on the road this season. The IU offense was unable to produce any touchdowns until the final four minutes of the game.\nNorthwestern was equally as bad as they lost 42-13 at home against Purdue. The Wildcats (2-7, 0-5) are last in the Big Ten in points allowed with 40.3. Northwestern has lost 10 straight conference games going back to last season.\nCoach Gerry DiNardo said the two teams are very comparable when you look top to bottom at all the statistical categories. \n"My take is that we are evenly matched with Northwestern," DiNardo said. "I think we would be splitting hairs if we just picked one phase where we are ahead of them. If you look A-to-Z though, you'll find two similar teams."\nIU was unable to score any points against Illinois until late in the game. Sophomore wide receiver Courtney Roby said the team has put that game behind them.\n"We knew we had to come back out and just work," Roby said. "There are times when you're going to have bad days, but we can't have too many of those. It's a new week."\nOn defense, the Wildcats are last in the Big Ten in rush defense, giving up 341.9 yards per game. But the Hoosiers have struggled to maintain a consistent run game. They are last in run offense with 116.9 yards per game. \nSenior offensive lineman Enoch DeMar said the team would like to establish the run, but you never know what can happen.\n"One Saturday they could not be very good against the run, another Saturday they can," DeMar said. "You just have to go out there with the intent of playing as hard as you can and paying attention to detail, and doing the things it takes to be successful at running the ball. You can't show up and just expect that you will run the ball well."\nRoby said the Northwestern secondary plays a lot of man-to-man coverage against the receivers. He said the team will have to execute and continue to do what they have done in the past.\nOffensively, Northwestern will run a spread-like offense that DiNardo likens to Central Michigan. IU struggled in the first half against CMU on Sept. 21. But senior Kris Dielman said the experience of playing against that style of offense should help.\n"Now that we've seen it once, and we've played Northwestern before, we know how to approach it this time," Dielman said. "We'll do our no-huddle defense, and what we've done in the past. I don't think it will be a big factor at all. I think we can handle it, and it won't be nearly as stressful as it was against Central Michigan."\nThe weather in Evanston is supposed to be in the low 40s as the high on Saturday. Roby said the team will take some steps to help them out.\n"We have some gloves, so are hands are going to be cool," Roby said. "The cold weather is not going be an excuse. Coach wants this to be our best game. He said it's going to be cold, but that's still not an excuse to go out there and give in to it."\nGoing into the final four games of the season, the Hoosiers need three wins to become eligible for a bowl game. A win against Northwestern would be a big step, but the team knows not to look too far ahead down the road.\n"All of the rest of our games are going to be important," Roby said. "But still we got to take it a step at a time. Once we look ahead, we trip. All of the rest of our games are important to our post-season. We just got to go at it"