After running the ball for 18 consecutive plays. After rushing for 307 yards against the best run defense in the conference. After taking it to the 2-yard line on fourth down in double overtime trailing by seven points.
IU decided to pass it.
The pass from senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld to junior receiver Mitchell Paige went incomplete, and IU lost 48-41 to No. 14 Michigan — the Hoosiers’ sixth straight loss.
“We talked about it and made a choice,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said.
There were 14 minutes left in the game the last time the Hoosiers decided to throw the ball. Junior running back Jordan Howard and the rest of the running game kept IU alive. They kept the team moving the chains without fail. Yet Wilson and his staff opted to go through the air to earn the final two yards.
“Of course,” Howard said. “Everybody wants the ball on the last play of the game and make the play for the team. But I don’t want to question the coaches’ decision.”
Entering Saturday, the Wolverines were holding opponents to 80 rushing yards per game, the third-best mark in the nation. The most allowed was 144 yards on 35 carries at Minnesota.
Howard ran for 238 yards Saturday on the same amount of carries, while sophomore running back Devine Redding ran for 48 yards on 11 carries of his own.
During Wilson’s press conference Monday, he spoke of how strong Michigan’s run defense is.
“They play great team run defense,” he said. “We’re going to try to put the plan together to win, but they’re going to be hard to run on.”
Yet IU ran the ball consistently and effectively, as shown by the 14 points scored down the stretch across 14 straight run plays.
The fact that Redding ran efficiently as well behind Howard proves Wilson’s point that running the ball well takes good team play.
“The offensive line, they were making a great push on the defensive line and they were opening up holes greatly for me,” Howard said.
He and Wilson acknowledged good blocking from both receivers and tight ends as well as the offensive line.
Wilson said many of the consistent run calls had to do with Michigan pressuring receivers and respecting the passing game.
It’s not as if they planned on running the ball 18 straight times, he said.
Much of it also had to do with successful first and second down plays that put the Hoosiers in manageable third down situations.
Yet IU decided to break that streak on fourth down with one yard to go. Wilson said the defense was playing one-on-one man coverage and thought the opportunity was there.
Howard admitted he wishes he could go back and ask for the ball, but he was confident the play would work.
“It wasn’t my call by any means, but we all agreed on it,” Sudfeld said.
And as the Hoosiers fall to 0-6 in Big Ten play and put pressure on themselves to win consecutive road games at Maryland and Purdue, it will be easy for people to look back and focus on this play.
Wilson isn’t afraid to say maybe he should have ran it in hindsight. A lot of different plays might have worked in that situation.
“We don’t know, because no one will ever see it,” he said.
