IU football lost in double overtime to No. 14 Michigan. And I don’t feel a thing.
The numbness started in the third quarter, when everything was going IU’s way. The defense forced Michigan into a three-and-out on its opening drive. Blake O’Neil punted to Mitchell Paige, and the junior receiver took it 51 yards for a touchdown. The Wolverines crossed with ease into IU territory, but stalled and missed their field goal attempt. Hoosier kicker Griffin Oakes made his, giving IU the 26-24 lead, and the defense held on for its ninth shutout quarter of the season.
End third.
I wanted to feel. I wanted to hope. I wanted to believe.
But I couldn’t.
In the fourth quarter, each play took on an ethereal quality. The timeout call by IU Coach Kevin Wilson that wiped out a Wolverine touchdown, allowed the Hoosiers to get the third down stop on their own two and forced Michigan to kick a field goal — unreal. The clinic put on by junior running back Jordan Howard, who carried his team 61 of the 69 yards — including the touchdown and two-point conversion — it needed to go up seven with 2:52 in the fourth — unreal.
Howard ran roughshod over the nation’s No. 3 rush defense, amassing two touchdowns and 238 yards, more than any one team has achieved against the Wolverines all season, and credit should be given to him and his offensive line.
But, as has been the case all season, the highlights weren’t enough to shake the unshakable reality of IU football, not even on fourth down with six seconds remaining in regulation. Michigan scored three touchdowns in its last four plays, including one in overtime and one in double overtime — unreal.
The onus fell back on IU to respond in double overtime, and it fell two yards shy on an incomplete fourth down pass by senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld. On his senior night, his last home stand, Sudfeld had the power to reshape the season, the dogma and his legacy, and he couldn’t get there.
And I feel nothing.
It’s not an absence of feeling as much as an inaccessibility, dulled by the repetition of six Big Ten games, four of which decided by eight points or less, and all of which were winnable in the fourth quarter.
Wilson certainly stopped feeling it a long time ago — you need only to look at him after a loss to know that. The players, too, have adopted the same cavalier approach to defeat. It’s easier this way, easier to move on, easier to try again, but also easier to repeat.
The games get easier now for IU, who will finish its season on the road against opponents with a combined record of 4-16. But after all this time not feeling, not changing and not overcoming, will the Hoosiers be able to remember how?
This season has taught me better than to believe they will.
vziege@indiana.edu
