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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

COLUMN: IU's loss felt inevitable

Junior defensive back Tony Fields and senior linebacker Dawson Fletcher tackle Penn State’s Irvin Charles, 11, during the second quarter of play on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

This is IU football.

Games against high profile opponents are close enough to get fans’ hopes up but rarely ever end on IU’s side, and they shatter hopes into a million pieces.

The script is so ingrained you could watch any IU games against ranked opponents the past two years and know exactly what is going to happen.

IU had a chance to reverse that trend against No. 10 Penn State but reached a final outcome that almost seemed preordained.

When IU went up by 10 with just more than 3 minutes left to play in the third quarter, a loss still seemed more likely than a win.

The loss to Penn State exasperated senior wide receiver Mitchell Paige.

“We’ve been here before,” Paige said. “That’s all I can say. We’ve been here before.”

The list of near misses is rapidly expanding. Last season, IU narrowly lost to Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa at home. This season, IU has kept the game reasonably close against Ohio State, Nebraska and Northwestern.

The talk all offseason was IU was going to learn from last year’s heartbreaking losses. Instead, those agonizing losses continue to mount, and as the season nears its conclusion, it appears nothing is going to change.

Yes, the defense is better, but in critical moments of the game it relented and let the Nittany Lions back in to the contest.

IU’s lack of a killer instinct is apparent — the Hoosiers just can’t finish off great teams when they have them on the ropes. They dominated most of the third quarter, looking like they deserved the No. 10 ranking more so than Penn State. Then the bottom dropped out.

These losses are extremely frustrating for fans and players alike.

“It’s very, I hate to use that so close line when we know it shouldn’t be, you know, so close,” junior running back Devine Redding said. “Just some mistakes that we have to fix and that mistakes we can’t have.”

Most of these close losses have been that way because the Hoosiers can’t get out of their own way. The five fumbles Saturday were just too much for IU to overcome.

“They made a few more plays,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “Unfortunately, our turnovers killed it. As hard as we play and as proud as you are and as much as you love them, we’ve got to finish better, and I’ve got to coach a little better as far as playcalling, get the offense going down the stretch.”

http://www.idsnews.com/article/2016/11/iu-loses-lead-game-against-no-10-penn-state-in-fourth-quarter-collapseThe Hoosiers weren’t outplayed all four quarters, just when the game was on the line.

With Michigan up next and the Wolverines dominating their opponents, it appears IU has missed its opportunity to notch the type of win that vaults the program forward and changes its perception. 

The breakthrough feels too distant, the tortuous losses too many to count.

At least for right now, IU seems resigned to this fate.

This isn’t new, it’s just IU football.

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