Column: Hoosiers learn to weather storm after facing adversity in first quarter

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The Hoosiers walked onto Western Kentucky’s Feix Field (not to be confused with the Washington Redskins’ FedEx Field) as if they were a bunch of college freshmen walking the campus for the first time.

They looked confused, nervous and insecure.

After junior wideout Tandon Doss returned the opening kick-off 87 yards to the Western Kentucky 13, IU might as well have sat the rest of the first quarter out. The Hoosiers were toyed with by a team that had lost 22 (not a misprint) games in a row.

Sophomore running back Darius Willis dropped a handoff on the second play from scrimmage — a cardinal sin any time, but especially in the red zone.

The defensive line got pushed backward on every play of a 10-play, 91-yard TD drive — a drive that consisted of 62 rushing yards by Western Kentucky running back Bobby Rainey.

The Hoosiers trailed 7-0 at the end of the first quarter and then flipped the switch. They
finally looked comfortable on the field (or campus) and stopped making the Hilltoppers look like a Big Ten opponent.

But that quarter — a quarter the players probably hope they won’t have to see on film this week — will benefit the Hoosiers in the long run.

Because they played so poorly in that quarter, their starters got to stay on the field for the full 60 minutes — at least a quarter more than they would have played had they blown the game open early.

Because they played so poorly in that quarter — and this is the most important thing to take out of IU’s 38-21 win — they got a chance to handle the adversity that comes with a deficit in a road environment.

And they handled it in a way they thought they would — with ease.

“It’s football. We’ve got to be able to respond when stuff like that happens,” said senior quarterback Ben Chappell, who threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns. “When it doesn’t go your way, you’ve got to be able to respond positively. Stuff happens in football, but I was pretty happy with the way we responded.”

While the Hoosiers will undoubtedly face bigger challenges during the conference season, this one should not be underestimated.

What looked like an easy ‘W’ on the schedule became an incredibly dangerous situation when IU allowed Western Kentucky, a team starving for a victory, to capture the momentum in front of its enthusiastic home crowd.

This was a situation IU was on the opposite side of so many times last year. Leads against Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern and Penn State all turned into losses.

Good teams know how to weather the storm.

The Hoosiers, who effectively dominated both sides of the ball from the second quarter forward, learned how to weather the storm Saturday.

“It’s always dangerous coming into a situation like this,” senior safety Mitchell Evans said. “We knew they were going to be fired up and we were going to have to fight them off in the beginning.

“They made a push, but we came back big the rest of the game. It was just a matter of getting ready and bearing down.”

Even after the frightening first quarter for the Hoosiers, it’s hard to take anything but positives from this game.

This IU team learned how to respond to adversity — a lesson they are sure to be tested on time and time again as the season progresses.

E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu