On paper, IU’s defense really hasn’t been that bad this season.
The Hoosiers are a more-than-respectable 39th in Bill Connelly’s S&P+ defensive rankings, 34th in opponents yards per game and 49th in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in opponents points allowed per game.
However, if you ask any of IU’s football coaches or players or dig a little deeper under the surface, what is found is a youthful defense that has struggled against anything more than cupcake competition.
In games against lowly Eastern Illinois University and the University of Connecticut, the Hoosier defense only allowed three total points. But in IU’s other three games against Ohio State, Michigan State and Ball State University, the defense has surrendered a whopping 38.3 points per game.
“We’re not where I want us to be as a defense,” head coach Tom Allen said earlier this week. “To me, it's a continuous work on run fits and just making those windows tighter and kind of just simplifying some things to help us execute.”
IU’s defense has struggled to control the line of scrimmage. Football Outsiders is a leading sports analytics site and has nine different stats to track how effective a defensive line is. Out of 130 FBS teams, the Hoosiers rank between 70th and 86th in six of the nine categories.
One of IU’s biggest struggles has been in a stat known as opportunity rate, which defines how often a defense keeps a running play at under four yards. Football Outsiders defines opportunity rate as “the percentage of carries in which the line does its job.” The Hoosiers rank 85th in the country in opportunity rate at just 48%.
Allen has talked a lot about “run fits” early in the season. While IU was actually better than it had been earlier in the season against the run in its most recent game against Michigan State, undisciplined play plagued the rush defense in the fourth quarter.
Spartan quarterback Brian Lewerke had a pair of chunk plays in the fourth quarter on basic read option keepers. With Lewerke being a fairly mobile quarterback, defenders needed to be prepared for the quarterback keeper.
Instead of playing gaps, the IU defense over-pursued running backs, and Lewerke took advantage with 44 yards on those two read options, the second being a 30 yard carry in the final minute that gave MSU first and goal on the one. Of MSU’s 142 yards on the ground in the game, 65 came in the final period.
The Hoosiers have also struggled putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. IU is 77th in the FBS with ten sacks, but eight of the sacks came in non Big Ten games. The Hoosiers also rank 70th with a sack rate of just 6.6% and 75th with a passing down sack rate of 7.8%.
The outcome has been a defense that hasn’t been able to create havoc in the backfield, which has led to a troubled secondary to have to cover receivers for extended periods of time. With exception to freshman Tiawan Mullen, the Hoosier defensive backs have underwhelmed through 2019’s first five games.
Per Pro Football Focus, Mullen has only allowed one catch on 12 targets this season, which has earned him a top 5 grade among all cornerbacks in college football. Against MSU, Mullen shut down star receiver Darrell Stewart, not allowing Stewart to catch a ball in six targets.
However, the rest of the secondary struggled mightily against a rather pedantic Spartan aerial attack, allowing Lewerke to throw for 300 yards on just 18 completions.
The good news for IU is that it is coming off a bye week rested and — mainly — healthy and will face a Rutgers team that is playing without a head coach, starting quarterback or starting running back.
Rutgers is ranked as the 106th best offense in S&P+ and has been outscored 130-7 in three Big Ten games. If the Hoosier defense can’t get it going against the Scarlet Knights, it may never.
