Efficient passing game overwhelms Akron in victory

For a team that has made its living on an effective passing game this year with a senior quarterback and a heralded wide receiving battery, having Akron’s defense force IU to beat the team through the air came a bit unexpectedly to the Hoosiers.

Or, as quarterback Ben Chappell put it, surprisingly.

“They packed it in,” Chappell said. “They wanted us to throw it, so that’s what we did.”

The approach didn’t work out for the visiting team Saturday at Memorial Stadium as Akron (0-4) watched Chappell guide the Hoosiers (3-0) to a 35-20 win on an evening that left the fifth-year senior breaking school records and setting new career highs.

Posting his first career game with four passing touchdowns, Chappell threw to his second consecutive 300-yard game. It was a performance that came on the heels of Chappell being named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after the Hoosiers’ second win last week at Western Kentucky.

The Bloomington native now has five 300-yard passing games as a Hoosier, enough to put him in sole possession of that school record.

The rushing game suffered as a result of the passing game.

Sophomore Darius Willis led IU’s running backs with 87 yards. The group gained 113 yards but lost a combined 29 on plays that included a sack of Chappell, which produced a fumble recovered by Willis. The net result, with two quarterback kneels to end the game, was an 84-yard rushing output.

“I think the reason we only ran for 84 yards is because they were kind of daring us to pass it,” Chappell said.

It was a challenge that Chappell said initially caught him off guard.

“I was really kind of surprised, honestly, on the one possession we didn’t convert in the first half,” he said. “I was surprised, almost shocked, how much ‘Man Free’ they were playing us. I didn’t get us in to the right play.”

“Man Free” refers to a style of defense that assigns each of the defense’s secondary players to a specific receiver with just a single safety playing deep zone coverage. To overcome it, the receivers have to create space from their designated defender and move somewhere down field where the safety is not located.

The tight coverage also makes running the ball tougher due to more defensive personnel closer to the line of scrimmage.

“They were playing a lot of man, and we believe that if you’re going to man us up, you’re not going to stop us,” junior wideout Tandon Doss said.

According to Chappell, the drive in which he failed to get the Hoosier offensive in the right set was IU’s third possession in the first quarter. Holding a lead of 14-3, Chappell completed a pass on the first play of the drive to senior wideout Terrance Turner.

Three plays later, the drive stalled out and forced a fourth-down punt by junior Chris Hagerup.

The Akron defense didn’t derail the Hoosiers for the rest of the half. The next IU drive produced a touchdown as Chappell found junior tight end Max Dedmond in the end zone — one of three touchdowns scored by tight ends Saturday.

Chappell also found Turner in the end zone with 0:45 to play in the second quarter to give the Hoosiers a 28-13 lead.

“The defense gave us chances to make plays and move the ball,” Turner said.