IU has developed an unorthodox formula for winning football games.
Trail at half time. Keep opponents scoreless in the third quarter. Hang on in the fourth.
Through three games — three wins — the Hoosiers have followed this pattern, and though it isn’t anything IU Coach Kevin Wilson would draw up, there’s a simple message upon which the IU football team has founded three consecutive second half comebacks.
Forge ahead to the next play.
“Until it says double zeroes, and they blow the gun, you’ve got to get on to the next play,” Wilson said. “When it’s good or when it’s bad, you have to keep playing, and that’s all we’re preaching.”
Everything that went IU’s way in its 38-35 win against Western Kentucky on Saturday had an element of that ideology.
We saw it in the Jeckyll and Hyde performance of the IU defense, which gave up 28 points and 395 yards in the first half, and limited the Hilltoppers to seven points and 173 yards in the next.
We saw it personified in freshman safety Jonathan Crawford, who handed WKU quarterback Brandon Doughty his first and second interceptions of the season on back-to-back plays.
These interceptions allowed the IU offense to capitalize with 14 points.
But what did Wilson do when Crawford started celebrating after the second interception, and the Hoosiers’ fifth straight turnover resulting in a touchdown?
“He grabbed me and said, ‘Next play, next play,’” Crawford said.
The secondary was getting picked apart all day, at one point allowing Doughty to score on a two-play, 75-yard drive.
The Heisman hopeful threw 46 passes for 484 yards — but it didn’t matter.
The Hoosier front seven forced Western Kentucky’s offense to be “one-dimensional,” as Wilson put it, forcing the Hilltoppers to rely on Doughty’s arm while his backfield supplied just 84 yards of offense.
The performance was countered handily by IU’s balanced attack, passing for 355 yards and rushing for 284. 203 of those yards came from junior running back Jordan Howard, the leading rusher in the Big Ten.
“I guess the defense just gets tired of tackling me,” Howard said.
The Hoosiers pooled together their stamina, leadership and swanky Indiana script helmets in a united effort, including an impressive special teams performance that produced a punt-return touchdown and a blocked field goal.
If the Hoosiers need to keep fans on edge through four quarters, so be it.
Their mental fortitude in the face of adversity has served them well thus far, and secured IU its best start since 2010.
And after every win, senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld said, the postgame ritual will remain the same.
“We say good win, back to 0-0.”
vziege@indiana.edu
