'Lack of awareness' kills IU defense

MINNEAPOLIS -- IU coach Terry Hoeppner did not know how to describe his team's defensive performance following Saturday's 63-26 loss at Minnesota. His Hoosiers gave up 541 yards of total offense and eight touchdowns, leaving Hoeppner speechless.\n"It's hard to put into words what a big step back we took defensively," Hoeppner said after the game.\nComing off a strong performance last weekend against Michigan State that saw it allow just seven points through three quarters, the IU defense struggled from the get-go against the Golden Gophers, allowing three first-quarter touchdowns. \nJust six minutes into the game, the Hoosiers had already fallen behind by 14 points. Minnesota senior quarterback Bryan Cupito did not have much difficulty finding his receivers, who simply ran past the IU secondary. \nTwo of Cupito's three first-half touchdown passes were to wide-open receivers.\nHoeppner said he thought the first-half letdown resulted from the IU secondary not realizing where the receivers were downfield.\n"I don't think it was confusion," Hoeppner said. "It was lack of awareness. When you have your man and he's right in front of you and you don't cover your man, that's not confusion. Maybe it's confusion on my part for putting that guy out there. But that was an amazingly embarrassing performance."\nThe defensive struggle to slow down Cupito and the Golden Gophers, coupled with the IU offense's inability to get into a rhythm, allowed Minnesota to take a commanding 35-7 halftime lead. \nIn the first half alone, Cupito threw for 304 yards and three touchdown passes. The senior finished with 378 yards while tallying one more touchdown throw in the second half.\nFor the game, Cupito had two receivers with 100-yard receiving days -- Logan Payne with 137 and Ernie Wheelwright with 116. \nThe Gophers also ran for four scores on the way to 163 net rushing yards.\nMinnesota coach Glen Mason utilized an offensive strategy similar to the one he used last year during the Gophers' 42-21 defeat of IU in Bloomington.\n"Our approach was that the passing game could back them off, and it worked," Mason said.\nThe Hoosiers improved defensively in the second half, only allowing 185 total yards, but were unable to make stops as the halftime deficit proved too large. Minnesota's 63 points were the most a Golden Gopher team has scored in a Big Ten game since Oct. 18, 1916, in a 67-0 shutout of Iowa.\n"You just can't make that many mistakes against a good team," said senior safety Will Meyers. "They're a lot better than their record showed, obviously."\nHoeppner challenged the Hoosiers as they head into next weekend's home game against No. 2 Michigan.\n"You have two choices: Stand up like a man and come back tomorrow, or they can give up and quit," Hoeppner said. "I don't think they'll do that, but that was an embarrassing performance"